Monday, December 18, 2006

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

I like Christmas songs, don't you? I like it that wherever you go you hear them. Some of course I can do without, but others I can't. I remember a work Christmas party many years ago where they played Christmas songs and we all danced. That's very unlikely to happen now, as they're consigned to that drawer marked 'cheese", which means songs people enjoy but are too embarrassed to admit it. What are we, 17? There's no shame in it, you know.

Anyway, today I was in Selfridges finding everything I was looking for (you can't beat it, except for the crowds), and in their Christmas department it was non-stop Christmas revelry. As I was exhaling loudly over the prices, the familiar cash-register kerching of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday burst into life, and I thought how apt that was.

So, here are my Top 10 fave Xmas songs:

1. Stop The Cavalry/Jona Lewie
2. I Believe In Father Christmas/Greg Lake
3. Christmas Wrapping/The Waitresses (though the Spice Girls do a good version of this)
4. Wonderful Christmastime/Paul McCartney and Wings
5. Ring Out Solstice Bells/Jethro Tull
6. December Will Be Magic Again/Kate Bush
7. Silver Bells/Jim Reeves
8. Wombling Merry Christmas/The Wombles
9. Gaudete/Steeleye Span
10. Winter Wonderland/Macy Gray (or is it Marge Simpson)

Why did BA Robertson never do a Christmas song? He'd be made for life.

Just bubbling under are Happy Xmas (War Is Over), Another Rock n Roll Christmas, The Christmas Song, Little Drummer Boy (in any version), Merry Xmas Everyone and Do They Know It's Christmas, but they're not in my Top 10. Oh no.

There are other songs that are not Christmas songs, but that remind me of Christmas, like Satellite by the Hooters, Don't You Want Me by the Human League, I Wanna Be A Winner by Brown Sauce, Love Of The Common People by Paul Young and Special Brew by Bad Manners, so they also give a nice warm feeling. And that's what Christmas is all about.

4 comments:

Jon Peake said...

I agree Kitten, I cannot bear Last Christmas. The ploddy beat, the awful vidoe. Overrated, IMHO. I've never liked Wham.

I must also give a mention to In Dulce Jubilo, another favourite. Probably my number 11 in fact.

Clair said...

How about Hey Mr Christmas by Showaddywadddy (don't laugh, it's an underrated classic), Christmas All Over Again by Tom Petty, Step Into Christmas by Elton John and Little Saint Nick by The Beach Boys, a song I find so full of happiness and good cheer that it almost makes me like the festive season. But I can't listen to Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, especially when it gets to the bit that goes 'Through the years we'll always be together/If the fates allow'. I'm tearing up just writing this.

Bright Ambassador said...

Having a prog rock bone in my body that itches every now and again, I'd say my faves are Greg Lake, Mike Oldfield and Steeleye Span (okay, they're not prog but you get the idea).

Steve said...

Amazed that there's no sign of The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - surely the most curmudgeonly of Chrimbo songs (in the delivery) with some rather lovely poetic lyrics.

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