Santa’s Top Ten
Since this is the last Friday before Christmas, I’ve unleashed Santa Claws on the week’s top ten, with mostly predictable results:
- 1. “Blue Christmas”, Elvis Presley
- Pop Christmas songs begin for me with Elvis Presley, and while there are a wealth of selections from which to choose (he released three Christmas albums in his lifetime), “Blue Christmas” seems the definitive track.
- 2. “Silent Night/7 O’Clock News”, Simon & Garfunkel
- I first realized Christmas music could make a political statement with Paul Simon’s juxtaposition of “Silent Night” against an announcer’s flat reading of the day’s headlines. It was a stark reminder of just how far away we were from the carol’s idyllic vision.
- 3. “Wonderful Christmas Time”, Paul McCartney
- Nowhere is the difference between Sir Paul McCartney’s and John Lennon’s approach to writing more evident than in the Christmas songs they recorded following the demise of the Beatles. For McCartney, the season is an opportunity to party, and he expresses it with a catchy, upbeat melody that sticks in your head and won’t go away.
- 4. “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)”, John Lennon
- “War Is Over If You Want It” read billboards and newspaper advertisements the year John Lennon released this appeal for activism; though the melody is less memorable than McCartney’s, perhaps his message is a little more in keeping with the season.
- 5. “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” Tom Waits
- No one combines humor and pathos in popular song better than Tom Waits, and this cut, from the album “Blue Valentine”, is both a classic example and a quiet reminder that not everyone’s Christmas comes out of a Hallmark greeting card.
- 6. “Fairy Tale of New York”, The Pogues
- Still my favorite contemporary Christmas song, made even more bittersweet by the alcohol-accelerated deterioration of Shane MacGowan and the tragic death of Kirsty MacColl.
- 7. “Rebel Jesus”, Jackson Browne
- The second (and final) repeat. Deservedly so.
- 8. “I Believe in Father Christmas”, Greg Lake
- Although this tune is featured on Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s “Works, Volume 2”, it is clearly Greg Lake’s show. Co-written with Pete Sinfield, who said in an interview, “I wanted it to be about the sadness of, as a child, discovering that everything isn’t quite what you think it to be.”
- 9. “Little Drummer Boy”, Bing Crosby and David Bowie
- At the time, pairing Bing Crosby with David Bowie was revolutionary, akin to coupling Tony Bennett and Marilyn Manson. Everyone was surprised when the network inspired duet not only worked, but worked brilliantly. Now a holiday classic.
- 10. “Same Old Lang Syne”, Dan Fogelberg
- A universal experience: “We tried to reach beyond the emptiness, but neither one knew how.” Like Jackson Browne, I had to brush away a tear or two the first time I heard this song.
- 11. “The Christians and the Pagans”, Dar Williams
- As a Christmas treat (and to stir the pot a little), Santa gets to crank it up to 11, just like Spinal Tap! This little tune from Dar Williams seems to have brought out those whose charity is best expressed in threats of hellfire and brimstone. I suppose that’s what they mean by tough love.
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