“Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home),” Darlene Love, 1963
This classic often accompanies Christmas scenes in movies, and why shouldn’t it? It’s a wonderful song.
TRIVIA: Darlene Love appeared on David Letterman’s late night show nearly every year from 1986-2014 to perform this song.
“Snoopy’s Christmas,” The Royal Guardsmen, 1967
The Royal Guardsmen recorded a few songs featuring the coolest cartoon dog to ever grace a comic strip, including this Christmas tune. The song is often erroneously referred to as ‘Snoopy and the Red Baron,’ which was actually the Guardsmen’s first Snoopy song.
TRIVIA: The song may have been inspired by the real-life World War I “Christmas truce” that took place in 1914 on the Western front.
That’s the list for this year! Thanks for reading, and a Merry Christmas to you and yours!
“Welcome Christmas,” M-G-M Studio Orchestra & Chorus, 1966
Even though it’s filled with Seussian nonsense words (Fa-who-doe-rea, etc) the song at the climax of the animated version of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas!” is still quite moving.
Soundtrack: “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Various, 1993
While not quite ‘traditional’ Christmas music, the movie and soundtrack provide a fun take on the holiday, as evidenced by Jack’s attempt to explain Christmas to the residents of Halloweentown below.
TRIVIA: Jack’s songs are sung by Danny Elfman, but he does not voice the character in the movie. The soundtrack album features an unused opening/closing recording of the narration by Sir Patrick Stewart.
“Merry Christmas From Cell Block 2,” Matthew Ebel, 2009
The second song on this year’s list about spending Christmas imprisoned. Ebel adds a dash of sci-fi goodness to the holiday.
All I Want for Christmas is You, Mariah Carey, 1994
Sugary pop and Christmas just seem to go together!
Merry Christmas Exclamation Point, Jon Lajoie, 2013
This moving tribute to very special texts says something about modern life…I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with what it says, but there we are.
“Believe,” John Groban, 2004
I’ve not seen “The Polar Express” movie (Uncanny Valley and all that), but the wonderful title song got enough airplay to get stuck in my head.
“Chiron Beta Prime,” Johnathan Coulton, 2006
In the future, there will be robots, and they will be jerks.
“Where Are You, Christmas?” Taylor Momsen, 2000
While the cartoon will always be the best adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”, I view the 2000 Jim Carrey movie as a product of its time and enjoy it as well. There’s something meta about the movie being the same kind of overcommericalzed hullabaloo that angered The Grinch in the first place. Here is the song as it is performed in the movie, because hearing it performed by a child lends it a little more gravitas, in my opinion.
Eduardo Soliz 