Christmas Carols, Two
Last week, in Favorite Christmas Songs #1, I posted Sarah McClachlan’s Winter Song. Sarah may not know it … and certainly doesn’t care … but very few modern Christmas songs make it to Older Eyes Favorite Christmas Song list. I was, after all, raised by a music-loving Mom on the classic Christmas songs. Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and I’ll be Home for Christmas. Dean Martin’s Let It Snow. Judy Garland’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Burl Ives’ Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. Songs that are so attached to the original performers that covers by other artists sound false, no matter how well they’re done. Then there’s this:
That’s a hard act to follow but every decade, a few new tunes have made their way onto my holiday playlist. There’s Bobby Helm’s Jingle Bell Rock, a song that is so attached to my adolescence that it belongs, whether it’s a great song or not. There’s Christmas Time is Here, written and performed by the great Vince Guaraldi for the Peanuts Christmas shows and beautifully reprised by Diana Krall.
The Beach Boys Little Saint Nick has made the list. How can an old Beach Boys fan resist lyrics like And a real famous cat all dressed up in red And he spends all year working out in his sled? John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (The War is Over) didn’t make my list until Sarah McClachlan’s version made it a real Christmas song. Yes, I think her Wintersong is the best Christmas album of the last 30 years, so I’ll finish with her version of Silent Night.
Stop by on Christmas day for my traditional video and the First of January for my favorite New Years Eve song.
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Older Eyes 
December 18, 2015 at 12:33 pm
Your total selection is outstanding. Isn’t amazing that the “old standards” get acceptance by all when Christmas is involved? OE visit me to get my Christmas Card for my blog friends.