Christmas Songs That Don't Suck
We're sliding into the light blogging period all across the Net-- hardly anyone is posting much, and comment traffic is light-- so it's really not a good time to bust out Deep Thoughts about the nature of science or any of that. I've got a bunch of other things to do that will tie up a lot of the time I would otherwise use for substantive blogging.
So here's some fluff. As I noted last year, I don't much care for Christmas music. I have picked up a few holiday tunes here and there, though, and after a conversation during last weekend's drive home, I pulled them together into a whopping ten-song playlist:
- "I Won't Be Home for Christmas," Blink-182.
- "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch," Boris Karloff
- "Merry Christmas Emily," Cracker.
- "Christmas Song," Dave Matthews Band
- "I Want An Alien For Christmas," Fountains Of Wayne
- "The Man In The Santa Suit," Fountains Of Wayne
- "Valley Winter Song," Fountains Of Wayne
- "Father Christmas," The Kinks
- "Fairytale Of New York," The Pogues
- "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis," Tom Waits
Obviously, I had to stretch the definition a little bit to find even those ten-- "Valley Winter Song" is a lovely, sweet tune, but it's really a winter song, not a Christmas song. But then, if "Jingle Bells" is a Christmas song, I can count that.
Still, this seems a little light. There must be more tolerable Christmas music out there, so what would people suggest? Subject to the basic constraints mentioned in last year's post, of course: no oversung Three Tenors crap, no Little goddamn Drummer Boy (I heard yet another horrific cover of that piece of crap last weekend, by some sub-Rusted-Root world-music kind of act), no treacly crooner stuff.
What Christmas songs would you recommend that can hold their own against "Fairytale of New York"? (Bonus points for songs available via iTunes...)
Posted at 6:35 PM | link | follow-ups |