Christmas Songs

[ad hoc]

Yesterday I found myself stuck in the middle of an argument between mother and daughter. Mrs hoc and I were visiting a friend who lives in Vienna but was back here to visit her aging mother. At one point my wife was out of the room, and suddenly as if from nowhere the two of them started up with this huge row, which was obviously one of those simmering ones that had been ongoing for days. The upshot of the row was that for the mother the time between Christmas and Twelfth Night was actually a time of rest (like a Sunday, only a very long Sunday), and nobody should do any work during that time, and for the daughter this short visit was an opportunity to help her mother out, cleaning and so on. So, that day the daughter had started vacuuming and cleaning rugs and so on, and her mother was appalled and actually offended. They had just startd to try to enlist me on their side of the argument when my wife came back in and i was able to remain neutral

[danielmak]

Bright Eyes, featuring John Prine was released today. Unless this is a re-release of some kind and I missed it in the past. I don't know if the Prine part is pulled from one of his other recordings or if this was recorded before he died.

[Furtho]

New Christmas song from John Shuttleworth

https://twitter.com/johnshuttlewrth/status/1736127843501756668

[Hot Pepsi]

Cover of…

[Discordant Resonance]

Well, the liturgical Christmas season begins on December 25 and ends on the feast of the Epiphany (or strictly speaking, in the RCC at least, with the Baptism of the Lord a week later). So it makes sense that Christmas decorations would be taken down only after the feast of the Epiphany.

Indeed, and as said Epiphany is also marked as "Women's Christmas" here, that meant it was the 7th that decorations would traditionally come down (though of course, with families tending to put them up earlier in recent decades, they often get removed by New Year's Eve in many houses). Also, the youngest child would traditionally light the Christmas candle, with said duty needing to be fulfilled on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Stephen's Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and finally on the Epiphany.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Current runners and ryders (wahey) in the race for Christmas No,1, based on midweeks:

1 - Wham!
2 - Sam Ryder
3 - Mariah
4 - Elton & Ed
5 - Pogues
6 - Noah Kahan
7 - Jorja Smith
8 - Brenda Lee
....
11 - Creator Universe

The curveballs this year:

Sam Ryder's song You're Christmas To Me is from the elsewhere-mentioned godawful Your Christmas Or Mine 2, which being an Amazon Prime movie means the song is exclusively on Amazon Music, so it is being portrayed as an underdog, even though I suspect Amazon are pulling that same trick that they did with that Ellie Goulding song, namely it is prioritised when you ask your device to play Christmas music.

Noah Kahan is a big name in America (and particularly New England) who is breaking through here, and his song Stick Season, while not a Christmas song, can at least count as "seasonal" as it is said to be about the time between Halloween and the first snow of winter.

Jorja Smith's entry is a cover of Stay Another Day and is massively outperforming the original, as she is quite big with the youth of today.

Creator Universe are some Tickety-Tockety folk who have stepped into the gap left by LadBaby to do a song in aid of the Trussell Trust, in this case being a cover of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. I haven't heard it, so dont' know whether they are working sausage rolls into the lyrics.

[Patrick Thistle]

I ordered a double CD Xmas compilation off eBay last night. It has a couple of classic tracks that I don't have in my Xmas CD collection yet (like Step into Christmas that doesn't get on many compilations) I think once it arrives I will have all the bingo card songs available.

This compilation was released in about 2000 so has a couple of covers by bands that were big at the time - including two by the Spice Girls. I will report back on how amazing / terrible / forgettable they are.

[longeared]

Noah Kahan is a big name in America (and particularly New England) who is breaking through here, and his song Stick Season, while not a Christmas song, can at least count as "seasonal" as it is said to be about the time between Halloween and the first snow of winter.

Paul Gambaccini played it on Radio 2 last night, and it mentions Christmas in the lyrics a couple of times so will probably become a festive song in future years. Although that has to be squared with Wiki saying it was originally released in July 2022 - got big eventually through TikTok obvs. It's a folky rock kind of number which had me wondering "this is what young people listen to now?"

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I guess it's not a million miles from yer Ed Sheerans of this world, so I can see how it plays into his demographic. I'd do the "my daughter" litmus test at this point but she hasn't got up yet.

[San Bernardhinault]

I ordered a double CD Xmas compilation off eBay last night. It has a couple of classic tracks that I don't have in my Xmas CD collection yet (like Step into Christmas that doesn't get on many compilations) I think once it arrives I will have all the bingo card songs available.

This compilation was released in about 2000 so has a couple of covers by bands that were big at the time - including two by the Spice Girls. I will report back on how amazing / terrible / forgettable they are.

Surely any you play for yourself can't be counted on the bingo card. You have to encounter the songs in the wild, don't you?

[Patrick Thistle]

Surely any you play for yourself can't be counted on the bingo card. You have to encounter the songs in the wild, don't you?

Yes absolutely. But also I can unleash them on passers-by

[elguapo4]

Thought I'd avoid Shakey this year, but he caught me today

[Hot Pepsi]

I haven’t been Stevie Wondered this year in the wild.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've discovered Andrea Boccelli singing Jingle Bells with The Muppets and I don't think Christmas music will ever be the same.

[Jah Womble]

I haven’t been Stevie Wondered this year in the wild.

Which song is Stevie's Christmas perennial?

[Hot Pepsi]

Which song is Stevie's Christmas perennial?

What Christmas Means to Me

It was in a few commercials not long ago, which helped to revive it, I think.

[Hot Pepsi]

Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis" used to pop up a lot.

I recently figured out that they sampled Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa." Needless to say, that is not usually included in the mix played in supermarkets and department stores.

[Jah Womble]

What Christmas Means to Me

It was in a few commercials not long ago, which helped to revive it, I think.

Fair enough. Obviously I know it well enough, but it’s not that widely played over this side.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Caught a George Harrison festive one on Johnny Walker Sounds of the 70s when driving on Sunday. Something like 'Ring out the old/Ring in the new' with quite a gravelly vocal and a Wizzardesque sax. Had literally never heard it before and quite shocked when he told us who it was

[Hot Pepsi]

Fair enough. Obviously I know it well enough, but it’s not that widely played over this side.

I don’t recall hearing it until a few years ago, but he recorded it in 1967. It’s been covered a lot too, but his version seems to be the one I’ve heard in ads.

Maybe he or the owner of the publishing decided they needed the money.

[Jon]

Jorja Smith's entry is a cover of Stay Another Day and is massively outperforming the original, as she is quite big with the youth of today.

Ooh, I'd love this to get to number 1, this Christmas. Walsall would get its second Christmas number one 50 years after Slade got the first. (Although, having just heard it, I doubt it will - it's not a patch on the E17 original).

[Hot Pepsi]

What is the history behind the long-running obsession with the Christmas #1?

[ursus arctos]

That is an excellent question.

I had always taken it as another British eccentricity.

[Hot Pepsi]

It seems to have persisted.

[ad hoc]

It's a weird tradition thing. Obviously there used to be a time when the #1 single was a big deal whenever it was and the Christmas one was just doubly important (if I recall correctly the Christmas number 1 lasted there for 2 weeks because there wasn't a chart the week after). Why people still care now that nobody buys records and nobody knows what number 1 is in any other week, is a bit baffling. It's a Christmas tradition I guess (see also Sports personality of the year, which is another bafflingly persistent tradition - I mean look at the length of the thread on here)