Sunday, December 11, 2011

NOW, ON A POSITIVE NOTE:

My FAVORITE Christmas songs

Again, this isn't in any particular order, and this includes both sacred AND secular Christmas songs, as well as parodies (I've always said, if you're going to thrash a Christmas song, it needs to be funny!).

ANYTHING from the Beach Boys Christmas Album.
Sleigh Ride (instrumental/orchestral version only), particularly the Boston Pops, and a really cool organ rendition by Cameron Carpenter. The only vocal versions I like would be parodies.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, by Ringo Starr (I also appreciate Gene Autry's classic version)
White Christmas, Drifters version only
Blue Christmas, Elvis version only
ANYTHING from the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas Album.
ANYTHING from Straight No Chaser.
Caroling, Caroling, Tennessee Ernie Ford version only
All I Want for Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey version only (and WITHOUT Justine Bieber!)
I'm definitely a sucker for a really good parody. I highly recommend Tom's Townie Tunes (WROR-FM, Boston) and Bob Rivers Twisted Tunes (KJR-FM, Seattle). Side note: Bob Rivers used to work with WAAF-FM (Worcester/Boston) in the 1980's (anyone remember the Bob and Zip Show?) It was Rivers that wrote the renowned classic Twelve Pains of Christmas and Grandma Got Dismembered by a Chainsaw.
Holy $&!+, It's Christmas, by Red Peters
ANYTHING done with a good choir/organ/brass. I love a good Willcocks or Vaughan Williams arrangement just as much as any other organist in his/her right mind. :)
'Twas the Night Before Christmas, written by Ken Darby, arranged by Harry Simeone (sang this in high school chorus, very haunting)
ANYTHING by the Chipmunks
The Twelve Days of Christmas, the following versions: The Chipmunks, The Muppets, the Ralph Hunter Choir (RCA Presents Music for the Twelve Days of Christmas), Tennessee Ernie Ford (Sing We Now of Christmas, a 1960's album on Capitol), and one of the "heaviest" versions you'll ever find, the entire cast of the 1963 album Firestone Presents Your Favorite Christmas Carols, Volume 2, consisting of mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, tenor Brian Sullivan, the Columbus Boychoir (now the American Boychoir, since moving to Princeton, NJ, in 1980), and the Firestone Orchestra and Chorus.
ANYTHING from the album The Glorious Sound of Christmas, by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, plus the Temple University Concert Choir, directed by Robert Page (my dad was Robert Page, but not THAT Robert Page).
Jingle Bombs, by Achmed the Dead Terrorist (via Jeff Dunham)
Finally, any parody my son Chris comes up with from out of the blue!

Entire album of RCA Presents Music for the Twelve Days of Christmas on one .mp3
Entire album of Firestone Presents Your Favorite Christmas Carols, Volume 2 on one .mp3
Source of both .mp3's - I grew up with those!

Peace,
BMP

2 comments:

senormedia said...

You might prefer to link to the actual blog post, instead of directly linking to the file. One, because it's kind of polite and affects my statistics, and two, because I'm moving my files to a different host and your links will not work at that point.

Stay tuned - more stuff to come in the 25 Days of Blogmas!

K

Brian Michael Page said...

Actually, I did. Look at the link that says "Source of both .mp3's". I think I might have linked your blog on my later post as well.
BMP

PS: If you ever get the Goodyear "Great Songs" albums 3 and 4, or "The Glorious Sound of Christmas" (Ormandy/Philly Orch.), let me know. :) Thanks for the great music.