Tag Archives: Christmas Music

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 19

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 19 2022

A sweet vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

Today’s track is from the 1964 beloved timeless TV special, “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”. While the title character is the star of the show and completely adorable, the one narrating the story is who I adore most. He is wise, eloquent, kind & musical. All the traits I admire in someone-or in this case, something. His performances are the highlight of the show for me every year.

“Rudolph” was one of several holiday specials from the production team of Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment which formed in 1960 and operated until 1987. They also gave us “The Little Drummer Boy” in 1968, “Frosty The Snowman” in 1969 and “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” in 1970. Arthur Rankin Jr.  died in 2014 at the age of 89 and Jules Bass died this past October at age 87.

Both men are ingrained in Christmas & pop culture history. They are beloved by anyone who watched or continues to watch their specials each and every year. Those yearly broadcasts continue to “make the season bright” for anyone who calls December “the most wonderful time of the year”.

Thank you, Mr. Rankin Jr. and Mr. Bass.

“Have a holly jolly Christmas
It’s the best time of the year
Now I don’t know if there’ll be snow
But have a cup of cheer“.

Sam Snowman

Top: Arthur Rankin Jr. (L) and Jules Bass (R) circa 1969. Bottom: The dapper & loveable Sam The Snowman from 1964’s “Rudolph” special. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Burl Ives: ““Holly Jolly Christmas” (1964, written by Johnny Marks).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 18

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 18 2022

A sweet vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

The cover of today’s song was only recorded about five years ago but it has become one of my all time favorite versions of this classic holiday track. Sometimes a unique & innovative approach can turn a tune you have heard a thousand times into a whole new experience. This beautiful delicate interpretation definitely falls into that category.

“The First Noel the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep“.

Day 18 Ryan Oneal

Ryan O’Neal, the man & talent behind Sleeping At Last. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Sleeping At Last: “The First Noel” (2017, traditional).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 17

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 17 2022

A sweet vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

Crooner extraordinaire Dino Paul Crocetti, better known as Dean Martin, recorded many Christmas songs and performed them throughout his career, most notably during the nine seasons of his self-titled television show & then his holiday specials.

I know & love so many of his seasonal tracks but today’s is in my top five. It is a relatively short song, but all 115 seconds are sheer and utter bliss, especially to girls like me who grew up watching their grandmother swoon to every move and sound this man made.

“The fire is slowly dying
And my dear we’re still goodbying
But as long as you’d love me so
Let it snow! Let it snow and snow!“.

Dean

Dean Martin circa 1964. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Dean Martin: “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (1959, written by Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 16

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Day 16A 2022

A sweet vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

That moment when one of my all time favorite Christmas songs popped up in a new & incredibly charming (not to mention completely hilarious) holiday movie: 2003’s “Elf”. As James Caan was walking down a street in NYC, he saw Will Ferrell’s Buddy The Elf character asleep in a department store window. Too funny. All underscored by The First Lady Of Song, 43 years after she recorded the tune for her 1960 album, “Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas“. That is what we call timeless.

“We’re gliding along with a song
Of a wintery fairyland
Our cheeks are nice and rosy
And comfy-cozy are we“.

Lady Ella herself circa 1950. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Ella Fitzgerald: “Sleigh Ride” (1960, written by Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 15

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 15 2022

The sweet jolly man of the season on a vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

I listen to both of today’s songs all year long because that is what you do when you are a true Springsteen fan. I love this man & everything he has recorded, including the two Christmas tracks I am sharing with you here. He and I have a date next March and I am counting down the days. Merry Christmas, Bossman. See you in 2023.

Someone took Eric Meola’s iconic image used as the cover photo for Springsteen’s 1975 masterpiece, “Born to Run”, and gave it some Christmas cheer. (Image found online. Original source: Eric Meola.)

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: “Santa Claus  Is Comin’ To Town” (1975, written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie).

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: “Merry Christmas Baby” (1986, written by Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 14

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 14 2022

A beautiful Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

When I was obsessed with the show, “Sons Of Anarchy”, it was not just because of the outstanding acting and writing. I was also completely taken with the music. One of the singers I discovered from the show’s eclectic and intense soundtrack was Jake Smith, better known by his stage moniker, The White Buffalo. Many of his own songs, covers and collaborations with The Forest Rangers were featured throughout the show’s seven seasons. Smith even had the distintion of performing the final song of the series, “Come Join The Murder“.

He is part rock, part roots, part storyteller and part poet, all delivered in a rich raspy baritone voice. The simple elegance of that voice with Smith’s acoustic guitar, usually his only accompaniment, gives you a chance to really appreciate the unique sound & talent of this underrated singer/songwriter. And his introspective tale of holiday memories in today’s song is one nearly every one of us grown-ups can relate to.

“Well I’m so excited I can hardly breathe
But there’s no telling what ol’ Santa got up his sleeve
With him coming I’ll never sleep
Ooh there’s nothing quite like Christmas Eve”.

White Buffalo

The White Buffalo circa 2015. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

The White Buffalo (Jake Smith): “Christmas Eve” (2017, written by Jake Smith).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 13

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 13 2022

A sweet vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Original source unknown.)

Country Queen Loretta Lynn recorded today’s song twice. The first time was in 1966 for the album, “Country Christmas” & then again in 2016 for “White Christmas Blue“. The latter record was prodiced by Lynn’s daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash (son of Johnny & June Carter Cash).

Lynn re-recorded six of the tracks from the first album for the second one, including today’s song. Each is wonderful and done in Lynn’s signature style. Both are included here for your enjoyment. I am partial to the 1966 version but am adding both to my playlist because why not? It’s Loretta Lynn.

“And when those blue
Snowflakes start falling
That’s when those blue
Memories start calling“.

Loretts

Loretta Lynn circa 2021. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Loretta Lynn: “Blue Christmas” (2016, written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson).

Loretta Lynn: “Blue Christmas” (1966, written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 12

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 12 2022

A picture of an adorable vintage Christmas figurine found on Pinterest. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Today we honor the legendary entertainer who put New Jersey on the world’s musical map nearly 60 years before Bruce Springsteen’s “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” reaffirmed the state’s place of honor. Francis Albert Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. His career as a vocalist began when he was a teenager but his first album was not released until 1946. Five years earlier he made his film debut as a big band singer in 1941’s Las Vegas Nights. He went from being the heart’s desire of bobby soxers across the country to becoming a member of The Rat Pack, “The Chairman Of The Board” and “Ol’ Blue Eyes” in a career that spanned over five decades before his death in 1998.

For my maternal grandmother Sinatra was all those things and the definition of Christmas. Every December of my young childhood, his Christmas music began the festive season. It was as comforting to me as the smell of the real tree she had in her apartment every year. She listened to other Italian singers each holiday season as well (most notably fellow Rat Packer Dean Martin), but Frank was the one who started all the fun. My grandmother’s collection incliuded his first holiday album, “Christmas Songs by Sinatra” from 1946, his second one, “A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra” from 1957 and the one he made with his three children, “The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas” from 1968.

Today’s song is from his second holiday record and has been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember. Sinatra helped write this track as well and it is one of the few songs that is not played to death each December. On the contrary, it is not played nearly enough.

“Then comes that big night
Giving the tree the trim
You’ll hear voices by starlight
Singing a yuletide hymn“.

Sinatra album

Sinatra studio

Top: Sinatra’s 1957 Christmas album. Bottom: The Chairman Of The Board in the recording studio circa 1960. (Images found online. Original sources unknown.)

Frank Sinatra: “Mistletoe and Holly” (1957, written by Hank Sanicola, Frank Sinatra and Dok Stanford).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 11

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

Day 11 2022

A sweet vintage Christmas card image found on Pinterest. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

One of my favorite singers of all time is the incredibly soulful Marvin Gaye. One of his major influences was Sam Cooke, an extraordinary talent we lost 58 years ago today. While I do not like to focus on the date we lose our musical heroes, I do like to remember their legacy and how they inspired others, especially the artists that mean so much to me.

For years after Gaye died in 1983, several unreleased recordings came to light, including one from a performance at the legendary Apollo Theatre in New York City in 1963. Nat King Cole’s version is the paramount rendition of today’s song and rightfully so. But Gaye’s is such a fabulous jazz infused track with his own wishes to his audience to have a Merry Christmas, it is like the best gift of the season for fans still missing this man as much as I do. And while I will never know this for sure, I like to think that Gaye channeled Cooke on this track because he always had a way of making any song he covered his own, too.

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos“.

Cooke

Gaye

Two of my favorite artists of all time: Sam Cooke (top) and Marvin Gaye (bottom). (Image found online. Original source unknown.)

Marvin Gaye: “The Christmas Song” (Live performance at The Apollo Theatre in 1963. Written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!

25 Days Of Christmas Music 2022: Day 9

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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the countdown.

day 9A

Charlie Brown and his faithful pup, Snoopy, and that tree in a scene from the iconic “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. (United Feature Syndicate. Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

When Charles M. Schulz’s young group of Peanuts made their debut on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers across the country, one of the most beautiful chapters in American culture and history began. The nation embraced Charlie Brown, his loyal and occassionally mischievous pup, Snoopy, their friend, Linus and the other characters from the gang.

Fifteen years later “A Charlie Brown Christmas” debuted on December 9, 1965. The sweet friends “Sparky” created became some of the best friends many of us have ever known while an international movement celebrating all things Peanuts came to be. And it continues today in the year we celebrated the 100th birth anniversary of Schulz on November 26, 2022.

As if all that were not enough, the Christmas special featured songs that are still warming our hearts and adding to our holiday cheer. They became as important to the Peanurs world as if the music was a character all its own, providing the soundtrack to skating, dancing and celebrating the tree that just needed a little love. The world created by Sculz and his friends, Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi, is one I never want to leave. Thanks to their legacy, I never have to. And neither does anyone else.

Three iconic images from 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. (United Feature Syndicate.  Images found online. Original sources unknown.)

The Vince Guaraldi Trio: “Christmas Time Is Here” (1965, music by Vince Guaraldi, lyrics by Lee Mendelson).

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?

Until next time, happy listening!!!