BARENAKED XMAS ROCKIN'

Barenaked ROCKIN’

To begin, I’m layin’ down my favorite holiday tracks for this year.  As with last time, however, I have a soundtrack for today’s blog:  Chris Isaak’s Christmas on TV.  It’s just a cool, twangy christmas honky-tonk tune. Toodle-yoo-off you go!

Well Howdy-Ho!  Nice to have you back!  So I just had to refresh my long-playing Xmas playlist, populated with the hits of my childhood-- Andy Williams, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, on and on and ohhh I do love them and always will, but this is a lovely, zippy holiday season and I need some sparkle!  This year has been notable in that I’ve actually bought whole albums, both as they were priced reasonably compared to several singles, and because there were really rich offerings.

While I did have a few Michael Bublè added a couple of years ago from the Let It Snow EP, this year I added his Christmas album (2011), featuring standards and a couple cool originals.

I will shoehorn in a perennial favorite just while it’s playing here-- A SouthPark Christmas.  It’s vile, rude, original and completely awesome.

Barenaked For the Holidays (2004) is possibly one of the best christmas albums of the modern age.  The Barenaked Ladies turn out lots of originals, three Hanukkah songs that are  well done (face it, some of the stuff you hear on the radio sounds like someone said “well, we have to have something.”), crowned by the absolutely killer I Saw Three Ships and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.  Oh! and Elf’s Lament, with Michael Bublè!

Now to Josh Groban, I lovelovelovelove him.  His music, like James Blunt’s isn’t always on my top 10, but his work is beautiful and soulful and rich and this is a crowning glory.  Also like James Blunt, he is a total cutie, completely charming and lovely and referring to the above single, his original work is heartbreaking genius.   Buy the whole album.

I have loved Rod Stewart since I was a kid, and we recently saw him on Graham Norton while eating Saturday Breakfast (Saturday is Graham; Sunday, Modern Family) and I dug into iTunes to see if he had a single or two.  Try a whole kickin’ album-- Merry Christmas, Baby.  More great standards, some neato duets and fun originals.  

Now for some favorite singles, my Top 13:

1) Mele Kalikimaka- Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters

2) Merry Xmas Everyone-Slade

3) The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

4) Fairytale of New York- Pogues and 

5) Santa Baby- Kylie Minogue
6) All I Want for Christmas is You- Mariah Carey
7) Christmas Blues- Dean Martin
8) Christmas Night in Harlem- Louis Armstrong
9) Christmas Wrapping- Waitresses
10) Baby It’s Cold Outside- Tom Jones and Cerys
11) Swiss Colony Beef Log- A South Park Christmas
12) Christmas Time in Hell- A South Park Christmas
13) The Christmas Song- Mel Tormè

Back to hoppin’ round the house like a snowbunny on crack!  Back with more in a couple days!

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