By D J McAdam
I am not the best when it comes to Christmas decorations. I've never
gone and cut my own Christmas tree, even when I lived in Vermont. I've
never put Christmas lights on the outside of my house. Given the chance,
I'd probably leave all the boxes marked "Christmas Decorations" down in the
basement. The only "decorations" I've ever personally bought have been
Christmas tins, and only because they were an excuse to purchase the candy or
cookies they contained.
But there are two Christmas traditions I enjoy faithfully every year; watching Christmas movies, no matter how bad, and listening to Christmas music.
To put it bluntly, I am a sucker for Christmas music CD's. My collection of Christmas music contains everything from Renaissance Christmas music to Motown Christmas to the Choir at St John the Evangelist Christmas to the Alligator Records Christmas Blues Collection. I have CD's made from tapes of old radio broadcasts with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Given the breadth and scope of this collection, I can offer (and am about to) a list of my favorite Christmas music. This is not a "Top 10 Christmas Tunes of All Time" list, so don't worry if your favorite isn't here. But, naturally, you can always e-mail me with suggestions.
As it turns out, I'm pretty traditional with my selections; but you can only imagine some of the arrangements I've listened to for these songs, and others. Am I the only one who still remembers little Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five doing Frosty, the Snowman? (Hopefully, yes.)
There are tons of decent Christmas songs not on the list. I'm
not all that big on Silver Bells, or Jingle Bells. If you are, I
wish you well. I do like Holly, Jolly Christmas, and pretty much all the
songs from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer; but they're good songs, not great
songs, in my humble opinion.
(Speaking of Jingle Bells, James Taylor does an interesting rendition of the
song that people either love or hate. I like it, but the reason may
be simply that I was never that attached to the original version.)
There are also very memorable variations on the songs listed. I won't go into all of them here, except to mention that, as a young person, I was deeply impressed by Simon & Garfunkel's 7 O'clock News / Silent Night.
Christmas Music We're Currently Considering:
A Good Question About Christmas Music
A reader recently wrote in with this question, which I thought to be a very good question, and one not easily or readily answered. Here's what she had to say:
"I too am a complete fool for Christmas music. I appreciate your web site and would ask if you could lead me to the single CD you would consider a definitive collection of traditionally performed seasonal/Christmas songs. I have a Bing Crosby and Season’s Greetings from Perry Como, but find I would really prefer a compilation of spiritual songs and seasonal songs with a variety in performers. Does anything pop into mind?"
I've yet to find a Christmas compilation that I've really loved, even in a 2-CD or 3-CD set. If any of our other readers have suggestions, we'd like to hear them. Our e-mail address is djmcadam@gmail.com
As
a side note, Season’s Greetings from Perry Como is, as our correspondent
infers, an excellent Christmas album. I'd almost forgotten how much I
enjoyed Perry Como's voice until a business engagement caused me to spend most
of 1997 in the Philippines, where his recordings were regularly broadcast on the
radio. That experience, in turn, brought to mind Perry Como's annual
televised Christmas shows, which were uniformly enjoyable.
D J McAdam ©. Please note: all applicable material on this website is protected by law and may not be copied without express written permission.
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