The 12 Songs of Christmas

[wow]

The wife and I are kind of Christmas aficionados. We have over 6,000 Christmas songs on our iTunes Server, collected throughout our lives.

Every year we pick up a new song or album or two to add to our collection, and are always looking for 'fresh' new talent and arrangements along with off-beat classics. Not offbeat as in 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer", but offbeat as in 'little known, rare, musically significant', etc.

I figured that just for fun I'd post 12 of our favorites, in the hope that you will enjoy them as much as we do - and perhaps find a new Christmas favorite! Most of these you won't hear on the radio, in the elevator, or at the mall.

I'll post a new link here everyday until we reach number one, so check back. And

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Number 12 HAS to be Straight No Chaser's Classic "12 Days of Christmas" from 1998:



Number 11 is "My Favourite Time of Year" by The Florin Street Band



Ready for a taste of Country? Number 10 is "Santa's On His Way" by George Strait



Number 9 has a breathy-throated singer and a 1950's Big Band arrangement. Here is Meaghan Smith with "It Snowed"



Number 8 has been heard a bit more widely this year. It's from then 11 year old Billy Gilman singing "Warm & Fuzzy". And look at those braces!



Number 7 is a blast from the past - 1964, to be exact. The song is "Sing Hosanna, Hallelujah" by The New Christy Minstrels:



This post is getting too large for the forum, so Numbers 6-1 will be in a new post further down.

 

[gdjenkins10]

Nice start! I just gave up my Straight No Chaser ticket for next week's show so I could drive to Lebanon Ind to attend class. Priorities! Merry Christmas "wow family"!!  Btw, will be buying number 11 when I get to a computer.

 

[wow]

Bumping this up, in case you didn't know that I am adding songs to my original post rather than creating a new post every day.

Enjoy!

 

[Tinker]

You get no complaint from here.  Great choices.

Way back many moons ago, while living at my uncle's farm, the family was all musical.  My cousin (actually my father's cousin) and her sisters were all fine singers.  The youngest (like a mother to me, i called her "Me Udder Mudder") played violin and piano while her husband (my boyhood hero and mentor) was a piano player and played at several niteclubs during the summer months.  He was a big and very powerful man (more about him later in this tale).  His father was a country style fiddler. My sibling cousins both sang (and still today sing in church choirs, and the sister also plays the organ at her church) The aunt and uncle sang.  On Christmas, the whole family would gather around the piano (our daughter now has that ancient piano, but does not play) and played Christmas carols and managed to squeeze in other popular tunes as well, along with church music.  My cousins (I'll call them Aunt and Uncle from here on to clear up any confusion) were the kind of people who were sort of magnets for bringing in kids whose parents had any sort of problems from family problems, vacations, sickness and any other imaginable reason.  One couple were friends of the oldest sister of the family and were studying at the Juliard School of Music in New York City.  They left their child with us for two or three years and came up every weekend.  They were always a part of the crowd around the old piano, the father being a classical artist with a much wider repertoire than the rest of the crowd.  When it was his turn to play the keyboard, he would get into some very hi tech music.  My cousin, the farmer with huge hands was more of a country banger type who learned to play by ear.  He did not read music, but could pick up a tune with hearing it only once.  He could play almost any thing, but the little Juliard guy, with his experience and wide education could add an expertise beyond the rest of the crowd. 

No matter what the occasion, and especially at Christmas, the very final piece to be played was Hubert (the very small Juliard student) and my cousin would sit down together on the wide stool and play Bumble Boogie.  Hubert was a very small man, barely five feet tall and a very tiny slim frame.  He probably weighed 90 pounds wringing wet and with mud on his shoes.  My Uncle was a very large 6+ footer weighing well over 200 pounds with huge shoulders and the largest and most powerful hands i had ever known.  Fred would play the base, sitting very tall and straight.  His hands would be banging out those base chords slamming down from sometimes a foot above the keyboard.  His fingers were so strong and wide that often, the ivories would fly off as they lifted off the keys.  Where he played at niteclubs, they always, at the end of a season, had to replace many ivories.  But he was a very entertaining pianist.  Hubert was, as mentioned, a very tiny man.  He was very near sighted and wore the thickest glasses i have ever seen.  His style of playing was to scrunch down with his nose nearly touching the keyboard.  I don't think his nose never got further away from the keys than six inches, but he could really tickle out a tune.

The two, any time we got together for song and play, would by mutual insistence from all, end the session with Bumble Boogie, no matter what the occasion.  Christmas was always a must for them... and all of the rest of us crowded around.  Even neighbors, as word spread, would drop in late in the evening to hear those two play Bumble Boogie. That tune probably has no significance in anybody's list of Christmas music at any level, but for me and several other 39 year olds, it is a part of our history and is always remembered whenever we get together.
Tinker

 

[wow]

Wonderful story, Tinker! Thanks for sharing.

BTW, you have some amazing tales for a man of only 39!

[wink]

 

[Tinker]

Fast Living and Slow Aging

 

[wow]

Only 370 views? I thought this would be more popular...

Anybody else listening to these or discovered a new favorite?

 

[wow]

Continuing on...

Number 6 is from Canadian singer Roger Whittaker. Amongst others, we thoroughly enjoy his version of "Ding! Dong! Merrily on high"



Number 5 is "Who Comes This Night" by James Taylor



Number 4 is a medley of two traditional Christmas songs cleverly interwoven - "Pine Cones & Holly Berries" and "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" by The Osmonds:



Number 3 is new this year, and features 5-part acapella harmony and rhythm. The song is called "That's Christmas To Me" and the group is Pentatonix:



I can't believe that Number 2 was recorded SIXTY SIX YEARS AGO. It's as timeless today as when it was introduced in 1948! The song is "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson:



My Number 1 choice won't please everyone, but it has been a Christmas tradition in the WOW house since my daughter was old enough to giggle. It's fun (even though some of the humor is wasted on kids), it's irreverent, and it's My and Mrs. WOW's wish to you:

 

[Tinker]

wow, I really like your choices.  Thanks for compiling.

My wife & I especially enjoy Roger Whitaker.  We used to drive from Connecticut to Arlington, VA to visit our daughter about 4 or 5 times a year.  We had, among others, a couple of Roger's tapes.  I drove and THE BOSS was in charge of the tapes.  I think we about wore roger's tape out.  Sometimes, my wife would just keep paying those two tapes over and over.  There was another artist we especially enjoyed as well, Tony Bennet.  his tapes got a lot of miles as well.
Tinker

 

[teocaf]

Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts    oh yeah

 

[wow]

Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts    oh yeah

Not certain if we own that one or not - I'll have to check.

 

[wow]

Well, there they are. Let me know if you found any 'nuggets' that you enjoyed?

 

[wow]

BTW, Mrs. WOW just ordered 38 new (to us) Christmas CD's tonight, so there will be plenty of fodder for next years list if anyone wants an encore?

 

[Tinker]

wow,
Thank you for that great list. "Sleigh Ride" (I knew it as "Sleigh Ride in St. Petersburg") was known to me year round with very fond memories attached.  In an earlier post, i had mentioned being dropped off at my great uncle's farm for a couple of weeks and staying for 6 years.  Those six years were the most important years of my life. 

Sleigh Ride was part of my everyday experience year round.  We lived on a small farm at the lower end of the Massachusetts Berkshires.  The almost only radio station we could get in those days was WTIC in Hartford.  I still listen to the station today, every day.  Back in the 1940's, we listened to a great personality from 5am until 10am (?) During weekends and any time we were off from school, I was usually helping out with the milking and other chores around and in the barn.  Perhaps a FOGger two from New England area can remember Bob Steele.  He had many stories about some of his relatives: Case Hardened Steel, Cold Rolled Steele, Stainless Steele, Rusty Steele and etc. I could go on and on about his humor as well has his observations of life in general.  We all loved to listen.  He stayed on the air for something like 60 years right up until his passing.  I think everybody within the WTIC broadcast area mourned his death.  For me, a longest lasting memory, and the memory you just brought back to me, was always Bob's sign off and sometimes sign on, playing of Leroy Anderson and Sleigh Ride in St. Petersburg.  He almost always played the part from about 2:25 (of your entry above) to the end.  Every now and then, he treated us to the entire piece. 

We had a radio in the "cow barn" and I think the first chore of the day must have been for my cousin to turn it on.  You know, that was a direct request from the cows.  they simply would not cooperate unless "Uncle Bob" was talking to them  :.  I had two or three cows that were my responsibility to milk as well as feeding young stock, dragging a couple of blocks of ice out of the "ice house" to be taken to the milk cooler and another to be taken into the "ice box" in the house. (and i still often refer to a refrigerator as "the ice box".  How many of you guys go back that far.  we used to cut our own ice from a pond about half a mile back in the pasture lot).  There was another entry that Bob played as his sign on piece.  It was a quiet piece with gently but arousing music with birds singing.  Not quite so memorable and exciting as Sleigh Ride, but appropriate to the hour.

thanks, wow, for the recollection.
Tinker

 

 

[papasmurff]

Thank you WOW I am listening now as we wrap presents, very enjoyable I must say.