Merry Christmas, Vixens!!!
Thank you for letting me share my favorite holiday music with you!!!
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May we all receive the gift of peace today and in the new year.
Peace in our lives, peace in our hearts, peace in our world.
Gladys Knight: Let There Be Peace On Earth.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
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Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
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Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or whatever celebration you choose.
There is only one choice for today’s song. All I had to do was pick which version from all the many wonderful ones to choose from.
I finally settled on this one. The musical arrangement is stunning. And the singer performs it beautifully.
Faith Hill: O Holy Night.
Here’s another cover of the song that I cannot get enough of. Yes, it may be totally irreverent, but that does not make it any less funny.
Courtesy: Comedy Central.
From South Park: Eric Cartman’s version.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening & Merry Christmas!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
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Today’s song is for the adults traveling to their childhood home for Christmas;
For the college kids going home for the semester break;
For the soldier who’s tour just ended & is en route home;
For the person who has been sick but is now well enough to go home;
For the estranged member of a family who is forgetting the grudge that took them away;
For the friends getting their guest rooms ready for their visitors to arrive for the holidays;
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For the grandparents waiting for their grandchildren to come home;
For anyone who found a home this year;
For anyone who rescued a dog this year;
For those still so far away from home but will see their families through Face Time;
For the wounded hero finding comfort in a new home;
For those who look forward to finding home and hearth in the new year;
For those just happy to be around for another Christmas.
This song is for you.
Kenny Loggins: Celebrate Me Home.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
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Today’s pick was an easy choice. My Christmas season is not complete until I hear this song by Elvis Presley himself. Let’s be real-there was not a piece of music the King sang that I did not like. His delivery was always impeccable with just the right amount of emotion in his velvety smooth voice. Combine that with the heavy bass line and the fantastic back-up singers and you have one heck of a song.
But as much as I love Elvis’ Blue Christmas, I remembered another version of this song that I love, too. It is by an artist who died on his 79th birthday in April. Another country music star who had that heavy-drinking-fast-living-outlaw persona but that started from his past as a convict while he was in his late teens and early 20’s. While in jail he realized that all he would get for a life of petty crimes and robberies were those steel bars, so he began to turn his life around, especially after seeing Johnny Cash’s San Quentin concert in 1959.
Courtesy of: Elvis.com
This artist’s version of Blue Christmas is acoustic and his voice is much edgier than the King’s, bit it still works. Maybe because I’m a fan, maybe because I am sorry he is gone, maybe a little of both. The last time I saw him perform was on the 2014 Grammy Awards. where he sang with his buddies Kris (sa-woon) Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. Some of his hits include “If We Make It Through December“, “Silver Wings“, “That’s The Way Love Goes” and “Bar Room Buddies“, a duet with Clint Eastwood from the movie “Bronco Billy”. However, he will probably best be remembered as an “Okie from Muskogee“.
Merle Haggard: Blue Christmas.
Merle Haggard Courtesy of: ABC News (original source unknown)
P.S. I found this on YouTube the other day, and I still have not stopped laughing. I am not a big fan of Porky Pig’s, but his performance.of this song is just too funny!!! Enjoy!!!
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
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Courtesy: Country Living Magazine
Today’s pick was one of my mother’s favorite Christmas carols. If I close my eyes tight enough I can practically see myself as a young girl standing next to her in church singing this song with her.
The version I chose is by a singer who has one of the most beautiful-and most powerful-voices I have ever heard. She is tied with Reba McEntire for the most nominations (17) in any vocalist category from the Country Music Association . While she has a lengthy repertoire of original music (including my favorite “A Broken Wing“), she has also covered such classics as Van Morrison’s “Wild Night“, Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night“.
Kris Kristofferson (Original source unknown)
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST FOR A MOMENT TO SWOON OVER KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!!! .
(Thank you. I needed that).
I like that despite the strength of her voice, she does not over-sing every single note of every song she sings. She adds the punch when needed but sings softly as well. Her performance of this song is a perfect example of her impeccable balance.
Martina McBride: O Come All Ye Faithful.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy: Country Living Magazine
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Durango, Colorado Courtesy: TopValueReviews.net (original source unknown)
The singer with today’s song is another phenomenal soul and R&B singer. Like the others in the countdown, he got his start singing in church. That early training laid the foundation for the passionate delivery on almost every song he sang.
He recorded some music at Stax records and worked with the house band-also known as Booker T. and the MG’s-and Isaac Hayes, who would go on to win an Oscar for “Shaft”. This singer also wrote his own music, putting him on the same level as contemporaries Sam Cooke and Otis Redding; but, he is also known for a fantastic cover of the Beatles song, “Hey Jude“, which features a pre-Allman Brothers Band guitarist named Duane Allman.
Wilson Pickett and Duane Allman circa 1968 (original source unknown)
This singer recorded several Christmas songs, but this one is my favorite.
Wilson Pickett: Jingle Bells
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy: Cape Night Photography
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Fifty two years ago this holiday classic had its first broadcast. I do not think there are too many people who were born after that who did not grow up singing this song.
Vintage Christmas postcard (original source unknown)
One of my most vivid memories of watching the TV special is not from childhood, however. It is from my freshman year away at college. My friends and I were teased incessantly from the guys on our floor when we told them we we were not going to hang out with them so we could watch this Christmas show. But two minutes after it started, all the boys joined us in the common room where the TV was. Of course it was to make inappropriate comments about what Clarice really wanted from Rudolph, but hey, at least the guys were there!!!
Courtesy of Bass/Rankin Productions
For anyone who has ever felt like a misfit, this one is for you.
Gene Autry: Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.
Courtesy of Bass/Rankin Productions
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Vintage Christmas Scene (original source unknown)
If a line was drawn in history as to three biggest voices to put soul music on the map, it would read like this: Sam Cooke, Otis Redding (featured in yesterday’s post) & the singer with today’s song.
Side note: It is not James Brown. While he was without question “The Godfather of Soul”, he was also credited with being one of the inventors of funk music. Hence, he was on a completely different path than the other three singers. In his own league, as the saying goes.
But, as usual, I digress.
Vintage Christmas Card (original source unknown)
Today’s singer carried the torch after Redding’s death, and never put it down. While Motown & Philly Soul were more than respectable outlets for great music, today’s singer cruised past both with the same achingly impassioned vocal delivery that made Redding a legend, but giving it a more polished sound, much like Cooke. The combination was electric. That is how his sound rose above everything else in the 1970’s.
When I saw him in concert, he ran into the audience and I was lucky enough to get a great big bear hug from him. Unfortunately, it took place at a time when cameras were still banned from concerts, so I do not have a picture of the momentous occasion. But I relived it every time I saw him take the roof off of the Ed Sullivan Theater when he made his yearly visit to “The Late Show With David Letterman” (another reason why I miss that brilliant show!!!)
Al Green: Winter Wonderland.
I chose Green’s song specifically for today because on this date in 1964, Sam Cooke died at the age of 33. Through the time machine that is YouTube, I came across this holiday greeting he made in 1963. I am not sure why he recorded it. Perhaps it was done as a radio station promotion or for his record label. All I know is it is a gift, so Christmas came early for me. Listen to it here.
Sam Cooke (original source unknown)
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the countdown!!!
Today’s song is a no-brainer. It honors the man who died 36 years ago. He taught us to peacefully question what we thought was wrong with the world, to imagine it as one, that all we need is love and that being a stay at home dad is a valid life choice, even when he became one in 1975, Of course he did so much more, but that is what we remember the most.
Oh, and he was one of the Beatles 🙂
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Side note: Did you know there is a park dedicated to John Lennon in Havana, Cuba? It features a bronze statute of him sitting on a bench. I cannot decide if it is creepy or cool.
Thoughts?
Oh, and the glasses are removable.
And we have a winner: creepy it is.
Read more about the park and the glasses here.
Courtesy: CNN
His Christmas song has become a holiday classic, and there are so many great versions of it by so many diverse artists I really could not decide which one you would like to hear.
So, today you have a choice.
Which version of “Happy Xmas War Is Over” would you like to listen to?
John Lennon’s original version;
Or Celine Dion’s;
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Or Darius Rucker’s;
Or The Three Tenors‘;
Courtesy of kinoarena
Courtesy: sarahmclachlan.com
Or Neil Diamond’s.
Also today, we lost another famous John. A true hero to our country & in many respects the entire world: John Herschel Glenn Jr. Our first man to orbit the earth, he was a pioneer who made the dream of outer space a reality that inspired children everywhere to believe that they, too, could one day follow in his footsteps.
He quit college after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of that attack) to join the military and stayed for over two decades. He served in World War II and Korea, then became a US Senator from Ohio. He died at the age of 95, a good long life for a man who had so much to give and inspire us with.
Thank you for being one of America’s greatest men.
Rest in peace, Colonel Glenn.
This one is for you.
Elton John’s Rocket Man.
Courtesy: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Hello, Vixens!!! Welcome back to the Christmas Song Countdown!!!
Look at this darling tree!!! Those are berry baskets holding ornaments on the branches. How creative & adorable!!! (And those baskets are in the Target Dollar Spot, if you are wondering).
The old adage is the more things change, the more they stay the same. Music is a perfect example. While popular music today seems to revolve around urban, pop and rap, there are still people who take ballroom dancing lessons. For all the people buying tickets to concerts to see rock heroes like Bruce Springsteen (read: me & the gazillion other people who saw him on tour this year) or Neil Young, a singer/songwriter like Ed Sheeran is winning Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards. And for those country fans who are thrilled that Garth Brooks finally made his comeback record, there are just as many fans of swing, jazz and big band music (hence the popularity of Michael Buble, for example).
My point is there is room for everyone, and as soon as you think you have seen the last of a certain style of music or singing, up pops someone to take us back to that sound. Of course, there are those singers who transcend the ages with the timelessness of their voices. Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett and Billie Holiday, just to name a few. The singer with the #7 song is, without a doubt, a part of that group.
Courtesy of Sarah Catherine Design
Known as “The First Lady of Song” because she could sing them all-ballads, upbeats, blues, jazz, swing and sentimental. She had a pitch perfect sound and a powerful range and delivery. And she could scat.
Starting next April, which would have marked her 100th birthday, venues around the world will celebrate her music with “Ella at 100: A Centennial Celebration“. Her physical presence was lost 20 years ago, but her voice is eternal. And her take on Christmas music is just one example of that.
Ella Fitzgerald: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
I do not own the rights to anything. I am just sharing some things that I love with you 🙂
What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?
Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy listening!!!
Courtesy of Architecture Art Designs
Lilacs & Rust 