we have a hate-a-thon. now, what holiday music do you *like*?
7The hate-a-thon is here.
https://meh.com/forum/topics/i-want-the-world-to-know
Many of the hates are prob idiosyncratic. Other hates mentioned are likely near universal.
But … There are other musics
/image snowy landscape
Ok: carols and religious music; non-religious holiday and seasonal; classical; pop, rock, classical, jazz, worldbeat, hip-hop/esp, spoken word, soul, everything else:
What musics are you kinda glad or very glad to hear each year?
/youtube nat king cole chestnuts roasting
/youtube hard candy Christmas best little whorehouse in texas
/youtube king’s college choir once in royal David’s city
(I’m in love with and obsessed with trad British chorister style singing this time of year)
I mostly know the older stuff.
Pls share some of yours!
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My favorite album is the Michael Buble album just seems to hit the holiday spot. But I listen to the various holiday music loft cafes on Youtube like this one:
Octavarium by Dream Theater
@Limewater Excellent choice. Obviously, I assume you don’t choose that just at holiday time, but year-round, as listening only part of the year would be definitely not enough.
@Doooood Sure, but as far as I know it’s their only Christmas song.
White Christmas has always been one of my favorite classics.
KuoH
/youtube theocracy wynter fever
It kicks off the season for me.
@RiotDemon That was Epic. Note the capital “E” on Epic.
I prefer the olde, olde solstice classics:
@rockblossom
I love them
Especially on long car rides
@Cerridwyn I find that singing these to myself while grocery shopping helps a lot with that whole “social distancing” thing.
@rockblossom
snicker
California Christmastime from the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend soundtrack!
We’re all finding ourselves!
The video is a super-cheesy throwback, but this may be our favorite non-traditional Christmas song:
Mariah Carey stole the title)
(hate that
/youtube Vince Vance Christmas 1993
@compunaut I went to college with Lisa Layne. We were both taking music classes. She dropped out to pursue her career. I really enjoyed her singing!
Of course, the season is not complete without The Wombles’ Wombling Merry Christmas, a #2 hit in Great Britain in '74, kept from #1 only by the power of Mud’s Lonely This Christmas.
The '50’s revival in the '70’s was weird.
This classic.
This funked up version of Charlie Brown’s “Merry Christmas, Baby” gets me in the season every time.
Give it a minute. Get the music on the stereo.
Eery year since I was a kid I have played the carillon at the christmas eve service at a church near my parent’s house. Except this year I am not going due to covid.
This is one of the songs I play (although not this arrangement of it - I play an easier one - but this particular carillonneur (Frank DellaPenna) is one of the really good ones in the USA). This particular carillon is only 3 octaves (instead of 4 - 4.5) and one of only two on wheels in the USA.
Here’s a carillon concert of christmas music (I play a lot of those). The carillonneur playing has played at least since the early 1970’s. Technically he (James Welch) is a physicist, and not in the department of music, at Stanford. When heard from the ground the bells sound richer and some of the harsh overtones aren’t heard.
@Kidsandliz Cool - how did you learn to play that?
@Kyeh As a kid. There was one that was a half a block a way and with about a 1/2 “lesson” I was on my own. I then got a lot better in college when someone professional came for a week. I then went to the Netherlands and took lessons (working in return for them). Oh and also was an illegal student at U of Michigan for the purpose of taking lessons.
@Kidsandliz What an arcane talent - it must be fun! It sounds like you’re pretty dedicated to it to study in Holland and at the U of Michigan. Do you play the piano too?
@Kyeh Piano and a handful of other instruments. I used to have a carillon practice instrument. It looks like the keyboards you see in the videos but not pretty like them and uses metal tone bars for sound. I guess it is a good thing I had to sell it to pay medical bills as this place won’t even let me have my piano in my apt. They would have had had a real cow if I had that here (but Mr. Nazi, it isn’t on the 20 page list of things we can’t have in our apts. What’s the problem? LOL). Unfortunately I don’t live even remotely close to a carillon so I have lost a lot of my repertoire. Makes me sad.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh
They are awesome
UCR had one and I remember hearing it being played on special occasions and at the holidays
PANS! GLANDS! CRAYONS! AWESOME!
@Cerridwyn @Kyeh UCR is U of CA at Riverside? I played that one years ago (carillon conference was there). Nice carillon. That carillon has had some really good players employed to be university carillonneur on occasion. Students also play that pretty frequently. I am pretty sure there are youtube clips of that carillon (I think, if I recall correctly, with students playing - some of whom are good, some not so much so).
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh
Probably. Yeah. It was 40+ years ago i was a student there
I also like the classical pieces. There are plenty of outstanding renditionings of Handel’s’ Hallelujah Chorus out there.
This one is a flash mob version (starts at about 30 seconds) which would have been a pretty cool way to hear it if you had been in that store at the time.
@Kidsandliz
LOVE that - lucky people!
(Doesn’t it seem strange though to see an enormous crowd of people jammed together?)
I was also planning to post “Carol of the Bells” - this one by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:
And this jazzy piece: Richard Stoltzman -“Ding Dong”
And this might be my favorite of all:
Jessie Norman, “This Christmastide”
I LOVE Christmas music…most ALL of it.
But one fun song that I HAVE to hear is the Osmonds singing ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas/ Pine Cones and Holly Berries’.
The melding of both songs together is toe-tapping joy!
My favorites are the happy, upbeat Christmas songs from any genre: standards, rap, pop, classical, country etc. Preferably in a mixed song list.
One of my favorites is this live version of Dean Martin & Frank Sinatra - “A Marshmallow World” We need more live TV!
I often complain about the glut of somber Christmas songs and dearth of cheery ones, but I have to admit I’m happy when this one pops up on the radio or department store loudspeaker at Christmas time:
@DrWorm David Bowie, wow!
This is one we always have on the Christmas playlist:
And it’s just not Christmas without The Pogues
This one’s really fun to sing if you get the Latin parts down.
Also, Elvis Costello and Burgess Meredith on the same record, who knew.
/youtube I wish it was Christmas today
One of my favorite versions of a favorite.
As one of those who are not followers of the ‘white christ’
Or more lighthearted
It’s not Christmas without Emmet Otter.
the season is upon us
Jonathan Coulton had a couple good ones: Podsafe Christmas Song and Chiron Beta Prime.
.
.
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It’s just not Christmas without Mr. Grinch.
Thanks to grandma, I grew up with Gene Autry Christmas songs.
That’s the original, he wrote it.
@blaineg He also made hits out of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” as well as “Frosty the Snowman”, and “Up on the House Top”.
@blaineg That was a fun rabbit hole! It led to this 1972 interview with writer Johnny Marks.
He mentions his surprise that the Rudolph TV special has run every single year for 8 years.
He also wrote “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.
@blaineg Wow, kind of going from the ridiculous to the sublime with those two songs!
I just heard this and thought it was beautiful:
@f00l I watched this and thought you’d like it.
Ex Cathedra’s “Christmas Music by Candlelight” on The Shows Must Go On – available through Dec 31
Personally I’m more into this album (listened to it last night even)
Todd Agnew Do You See What I See?