If I Was: The Best of Midge Ure<\/a>.<\/p>\nPeace On Earth\/Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie & Bing Crosby<\/strong>
\nThis was on Bing Crosby’s last Christmas special in 1977, the year he died. I remember watching it on TV and thinking “What is David Bowie doing on a Bing Crosby special?” Of course, when you hear it, you realize that Bowie really is a crooner. Born 20 years earlier, he might have been Bing. Anyway, the medley is nice.<\/p>\nSomeday At Christmas – Stevie Wonder<\/strong>
\nThis has the descending chord pattern that always gets me (in just about any<\/em> song). And the anti-war message is good, too. This song was on our wedding music mix tape (Jason and I were married on December 27, 1996).<\/p>\nChristmas – The Posies<\/strong>
\nThis song gives me chills. I’m not sure it’s really a “Christmas song.” It mentions Christmas, it takes place at Christmas, but it’s not about Christmas. It’s not a Posies original, but a cover. It doesn’t matter. It’s amazing. <\/p>\nI [Love] Xmas – Screaming Santas<\/strong>
\nThe Screaming Santas are a variety of Seattle power pop luminaries, including members of the Posies, Tubetop, and Superdeluxe. The EP they released is a nifty selection of hooky, jangly should-be-classics. <\/p>\nLinus And Lucy – Vince Guaraldi Trio<\/strong>
\nLike The Grinch<\/cite>, A Charlie Brown Christmas<\/cite> is inseparable from Christmas for gen-xers. Hence the inclusion of its fabulous theme on this cd.<\/p>\nRiver – Travis<\/strong>
\nThis is the newest one on the cd, downloaded just this week from the iTunes Music Store. The file says that Joni Mitchell composed this. I have had a lifelong dislike for Joni, for some reason (yes, yes, I know, I can’t explain it, sorry), but I do like this, with its simplicity and the mournful piano accompaniment.<\/p>\nHappy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon<\/strong>
\nWell. If you’ve been reading for a while you already know how I feel about this one. Damn Mark Chapman, and damn him more for shooting John in December, making it impossible to hear this Christmas song without instantly flashing back to 1980. “War is over, if you want it.” May it be so.<\/p>\nChristmas Time Is Here (Vocal) – Vince Guaraldi Trio<\/strong>
\nAnother Charlie Brown Christmas<\/cite> tune. <\/p>\nChristmastime – Aimee Mann And Michael Penn<\/strong>
\nI’d love to hear Aimee and Michael do a whole Christmas album, actually. I love the sound of this.<\/p>\nChristmas In Suburbia – Martin Newell<\/strong>
\nAnother jangly power-pop song. Notice that he pronounces the “t” in Christmas. Is that normal in England? <\/p>\nChristmas Is The Time To Say I Love You – Billy Squier<\/strong>
\nRemember the early MTV days when they played this all the time at Christmas? <\/p>\nThe Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)\tThe Chipmunks<\/strong>
\nThis one is<\/em> 100% cheddar cheese, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the Chipmunks. Hey, I used to own Chipmunk Punk<\/cite>!<\/p>\nA Christmas Carol – Tom Lehrer<\/strong>
\nNow to balance out the cheese with some cynicism… Tom Lehrer is great for this, as always. “Angels we have heard on high\/tell us to go out and BUY<\/em>…”<\/p>\nChristmas Day – Squeeze<\/strong>
\nThe piano intro goes well with the previous song. Difford and Tilbrook have certainly written better songs in their career, but this one isn’t bad, and hearing Glenn Tilbrook’s voice always makes me happy.<\/p>\nThanks For Christmas – XTC<\/strong>
\nI wouldn’t like this song if not for the great middle eight, which saves it from “Wonderful Christmastime” purgatory.<\/p>\nAve Maria – Stevie Wonder<\/strong>
\nStevie Wonder. In Latin<\/em>. Seriously. He pulls it off, too. I’m sure an opera purist would find a lot to criticize, but it sounds pretty damned good to my uncultured popster ears.<\/p>\nFairytale Of New York – No Use For A Name<\/strong>
\nYeah, it’s the same song as the Pogues. But punk. You gotta love it. (Still, no one can sing this like Shane.)<\/p>\nYou’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch – Thurl Ravenscroft<\/strong>
\nThe credit says Boris Karloff, but he only did the spoken narration. Thurl, most famous as Tony the Tiger, sang this.\t<\/p>\n(LGH) For Christmas – Screaming Santas<\/strong>
\nThe LGH stands for “Let’s Get High.” Whether you indulge or not, it’s got a great hook.<\/p>\nSo there we go. I left off “2000 Miles” by the Pretenders, “Gloria” by Elastica, and some others. This should barely fit on a cd. Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking of Christmas music, I’ve just put together a new mix CD of some of my favorite holiday tunes. Some of them traditional, some of them… less so. Does Christmas music make you ill? You’ve been warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3l1DW-aY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slumberland.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}