THE BEST CHRISTMAS SONGS EVER! (So says I.) Part One.

That's the Berthoud High School Show Choir from Berthoud, CO.  Ain't they cute?
The picture, BTW, belongs to the Berthoud Recorder.  I own nothing.

In the spirit of the season, and as a counter-balance to recent awfulness (which I'm not even going to link to because who needs to subject themselves to that anymore?).  I have instead to offer my 25 favorite Christmas songs, in order of my personal preference.  First five will be today, with follow up posts every day until the big reveal on Christmas Eve.

So come along and we'll sing a chorus or two (ouch, sorry).  You might learn a thing or two.  Or not.  Either way, it'll be more fun than eleven ladies dancin'... or lads a-leapin', if that's your bag.

By the way, The Twelve Days do not appear anywhere on this list.  If you think you can still handle that, click on...

25. Jingle Bells: Getting the obvious out of the way first.  For a lot of us, it's the first Christmas song we learned all the words to.  Written in 1857, it was, believe it or not, originally intended to be a Thanksgiving song (because that genre so commonly tears up the charts).  It holds the distinction of being the very first song broadcast from space, when the astronauts of Gemini 6 contacted mission control and claimed they'd sighted a UFO, on a "polar orbit" and a red-clad pilot.  They then played Jingle Bells on a harmonica and set of said bells.

It's not a bad tune, but suffers from over-exposure in a big way, serving as it does as shorthand for everything Christmas, and Santa Claus, even though he isn't even mentioned.  See below:


As for recorded versions, my favorite, going back a long way, is this one from 1967:

Don't you judge me.


24. Silent Night: Everybody know the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914? Good, I won't re-tell it here. (If you're not familiar, check it out here.) What I will mention is that it's highly likely that Silent Night was the second Christmas song you learned, and the first Carol.  Whats the difference? Carols are more often religious.  Moving on.

You probably also know that it was written in 1818 by an Austrian minister for his church, and went the Romantic-era equivalent of viral, thanks to massive German immigration to the U.S. in the 1840s.  It might also be the first song you learned in a language other than your own, unless it was another German song involving trees.  Those things are all true of me, at least, your mileage may vary.

Truth be told, I'm not crazy about his song, mostly because the range of it is just insane and I sound like an idiot when I try to sing it.  Enjoy this instrumental version:




23. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: What's this? A Christmas list without consumerism?  This is America gol-durnit!  I want some damn advertising with my ... Oh, there you are Rudolph.  Ah, much better.

Yup.  It's a crummy commercial.  Rudolph was created for a coloring book given away by the Montgomery Ward department stores in 1939, and the thing kind of snowballed from there.  The best known version of the song was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949, and was the second-best selling album of all time up until the 1980s.  The classically kitschy stop-motion TV movie followed in 1964.  There are also two full length animated films, and a bunch of references in other movies, and on and on and on ...

Oh, and the parodies! Did I mention the parodies?


Possibly the worst lip-synch in music video history.

22. O Tannenbaum: You can call it "O Christmas Tree" if you want to, you ignorant troglodyte, but then you have to sing the English lyrics.  They're an almost literal translation of the German lyrics, but somehow they lack the ... what's the word ... gravitas, of the original.  Check it out:

German                                                                             English
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum                                        Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!                                                How are thy leaves so verdant!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Somerzeit,                                      Not only green in summertime,
Nein, auch im Winter, wenn ist schneit.                              But even in winter is thy prime.

I think it's the umlauts.

By the way, I nearly squealed like a little girl when I found out that They Might Be Giants had recorded this song.  (Love They Might Be Giants).


Cute tree too.

21. Feliz Navidad: Rounding out our multi-lingual first five, we have this, (Spoiler alert!) the newest song on my top-25 list.  Released in 1970 by Puerto Rican Jose Feliciano, it was a huuuuuuuuuuge hit, despite having only two lines.  It's fun, bouncy, catchy, and easy to remember, and really what more could you want in a Christmas song?

It spawned a whole bunch of covers, including this ... um, island version, which is apparently the most popular version in Europe and the UK.


...okay then.

Anyway, that's our first five for day one.  Come back tomorrow for Gregorian chant, Bing Crosby's first appearance on this list, and crazy Welshmen!  See you there!