11/25/2005

SWEETLY SINGING O’ER THE PLAIN

Since last year I made note of the Christmas carols I’d like to see go away forever, I figured I’d start off this holiday season on a gentler, more positive note. Hence, here are ten Christmas songs I never seem to get tired of. No particular order, although the first one is my favorite. This list both augments and supplants last year’s shorter list.

  • Angels We Have Heard On High: Not only is it great fun to listen to, it’s a blast to sing. Even the most tone-deaf throat-shredders can usually nail the “Gloria in excelsis Deo” part.
  • I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day: See last year’s post for my thoughts.
  • Still, Still Still: Ditto.
  • Christmas Time is Here: Yes, there are secular Christmas songs I like. This one, from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” endures. Like “Still, Still, Still,” it’s a highly evocative song that makes me think of snowy nights and the incredible excitement of knowing that something really good is coming.
  • Silent Night: Though please, not the Mannheim Steamroller version.
  • Mary’s Boy Child: Like “Angels We Have Heard On High,” this song is so much fun to sing you have to take it in measured doses.
  • Coventry Carol: Just the right song for capturing a different side of Christmas
  • Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella: There’s a much better set of lyrics out there for this low-content carol, but, you know, copyright and all that. The music is dazzling, and that’s enough.
  • It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: But who tells ghost stories at Christmas?
  • The First Noel: Or, if you insist, The First Nowell. The lyrics may feel a bit antiquated now, but the song still works beautifully.

Oh, and just to keep it real, I’m totally sick of Natalie Merchant’s version of “Children Go Where I Send Thee.”

Posted by Mark @ 8:46 pm | | Permalink
This post is filed under: Music

5 Comments »

  1. Ha, I’ve covered the “scary ghost stories” angle at my site, too: http://www.shereda.com/weblog/2004/12/inappropriate-lyric.html

    I’ve got an excellent rendition of “Go Where I Send Thee” by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club if you’re inclined to get Ms. Merchant’s version out of your head.

    I liked your list of “Christmas carols” that ought to die a slow death, and would submit “Rudolph” to your list. What a bizarre creation, and how bizarre that it endures. The birth of Christ and a flying reindeer with a bioluminescent nose make sense … how?

    I told the fiancee that I’d prefer a Santa-less and Easter-bunnyless existence for our children, much for the reasons you’ve provided in your hacking apart of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” She doesn’t dig the idea. Hopefully she will, eventually.

    Comment by Rob — 11/27/2005 @ 12:47 am

  2. I just bought the CD “Christmas with The Rat Pack” at Target.

    On Dean Martin’s rendition of “Rudolph … ,” he once refers to the title character as “Rudy.” As I noted to another listener, Dino may have had a couple drinks in him by that time of the day.

    I happened to buy the CD because of his “Baby It’s Cold Outside” recording. Other highlights: “The Christmas Song,” Sammy; “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Frank.

    Comment by Paul — 11/27/2005 @ 5:21 pm

  3. Rob, hang in there. I once totally flummoxed a virulent fundamentalist anti-Halloween activist by asking her if they had Santa at her house. She said yes and I started in my standard anti-SC spiel, about the pagan origins of “St. Nick” in the German ghost stories (!) about “Old Nick” who came down the chimney to steal children’s souls while they slept, then how that got conflated with the stories of the real St. Nicholas, who went around tossing coins into the homes of young girls so they wouldn’t have to become prostitutes, and I asked her why, if Halloween is so harmful, it’s OK to permit The Red Guy. She said, “Because it’s cute!” to which I said, “So’s my kid in a cow costume.”

    Comment by Mark Hasty — 11/27/2005 @ 7:38 pm

  4. “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is great. Especially the darker, less-schmaltzy versions. It’s actually a scary Christmas carol.

    And nothing beats that big brassy hit straight down the scale of “Joy to the World! The Lord is come!” at the end of the midnight Xmas Eve service.

    Comment by Vidiot — 11/29/2005 @ 10:11 am

  5. And “Adeste Fideles” for the same reasons…especially that swelling crescendo into the “Sing, choirs of angels” verse.

    Comment by Vidiot — 11/29/2005 @ 10:12 am

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