25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 10: “Christmas Time Is Here”

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Vince Guaraldi will forever be associated with the 1965 TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. His song “Linus and Lucy” (often referred to a The Peanuts Theme song) has become a de facto Christmas song and his 1966 album, A Charlie Brown Christmas, a Christmas staple. Generations have thrilled to watching the Peanuts Christmas Special on TV as a kid and even as adults the hardest people have a hard time holding back a tear when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas.

The song “Christmas Time Is Here” is found in two versions, an instrumental one by Vince Guaraldi, Colin Bailey and Monty Budwig (the Trio) and a vocal version as sung by the cast of the television special backed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. This song works on so many levels for me, its lilting beauty and touch of melancholia subtly underpins the wonder of Christmas from a child’s eyes. It is gentle, warm and fuzzy, just hearing it makes memories of Christmases past come flooding back while helping to create new memories to be relived for years to come.

 

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 9: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

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Date line November 1934, the place Eddie Cantor’s radio show, the event “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” debuts. John
Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie had no idea this night and this song would change their lives. By Christmas of that year they had sold 400,000 copies of the sheet music for the song (100,000 ordered the night after it aired), making it an instant Christmas classic.

The earliest recorded version was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band with Tom Stacks on vocal in 1934 and followed the next year by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra. In 1963 The Four Seasons charted with it and it has been recorded in Spanish by Luis Miguel. It is also another tune that Rankin – Bass made into a TV special, this time with Fred Astaire doing the singing and narrating the hour long special.

It is this special that introduced me, and probably many from my generation to the song, but it was the rock and roll version by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band that made it cool when I was a teenager. Recorded live in 1978 and released in 1985 as the b-side of “My Hometown,” it is one I look forward to breaking out each year.

 

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 8: “A Holly Jolly Christmas”

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When Rankin and Bass decided to make a half-hour stop-motion animated version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, they enlisted the song’s composer, Johnny Marks, to write the other songs for the show. The two he came up with, “Silver Bells” and “Holly Jolly Christmas” became instant classics and were recorded, along with the show’s namesake, the next year by the show’s star and narrator Burl Ives. They were released as singles and on the album Have a Holly Jolly Christmas on Decca/MCA Records in October 1965.

Originally envisioned as a song for the character of Yukon Cornelius to sing, when Ives was recruited they rewrote the script to have Sam the Snowman sing the song. The version that is known and loved is actually a re-recording of the original that is a little more ‘pop’, enhancing the happy, almost goofy, lyric that is delivered with such conviction and warmth by Mr. Ives. When I hear this it brings the memories of a simpler time when I waited each year for the chance to see all the classic Rankin – Bass shows in the days before Christmas.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 7: “What Christmas Means to Me”

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An often covered R and B Christmas song by Anna Gaye, Anna Gordy, Allen Story and George Gordy, “What Christmas Means to Me” was first recorded by a 17 year old Stevie Wonder in 1967 on Someday at Christmas under the Tamla imprint.  Backed by the The Funk Brothers, this cut has that signature Motown Sound. The lyrics touch on all the things that make Christmas special to the singer while at the same time expressing his love for an unnamed person who he wants to spend a few minutes with under the mistletoe. Of all the versions this still stands as the best and provides a little toe tapping soul to the often over produced R and B Christmas lexicon.

Other notable versions:

  • Paul Young (1992) on A Very Special Christmas 2 
  • Hanson (1997) on Snowed In 
  • Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen with Sean Holt (1999) on Cool Yule: A Christmas Party With Friends 
  • En Vogue (2002) on The Gift of Christmas 
  • Holiday Express (2002) on Live 
  • Jessica Simpson (2004) on ReJoyce: The Christmas Album 

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 6: “Here Comes Santa In A Red Canoe”

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“Here Comes Santa In A Red Canoe” is another song focusing
on Santa’s mode of transportation, this time from Hawaii
courtesy of The Surfers from thier classic 1959 release
Christmas From Hawaii. It has an almost doo-wop feel and adds
a unique perspective to the Christmas lexicon. The LP is a mix
of traditional fare rotating between the religious (“Mary’s Boy
Child,” “Oh, Holy Night.”) and the secular ( “White Christmas,”
“Deck The Halls”) and songs focusing on Christmas where it
never snows (“Hawaiian Santa,” “Mele Kalikimaka”). The
Surfers were a pop vocal group, clean-cut with tight harmonies,
who were often backed by legendary steel guitarist Jules Ah See
and percussionist Harold Chang.

 

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 5: “We Three Kings”

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“We Three Kings” is a religious themed Christmas song written
in 1857 by Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr., and was first
published in 1863 in his Carols, Hymns and Songs. It recounts
the journey of the magi to see the newborn King. It has been
recorded by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to The Beach Boys
to The Reverend Horton Heat. My favorite version is by the
Portland, Oregon group Pink Martini. Lead by Thomas
Lauderdale’s beautiful piano figure, lead vocalist China Forbes
creates an almost etheral feeling on this modern take on a
Christmas Classic. You can find it on their fantastic 2010 album
Joy To The World.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 4: Zat You Santa Claus

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Louis Armstrong recorded 6 Christmas songs for Decca in three sessions between 1952 and 1955. The first two sides, a couple of standards, “White Christmas” backed with “Winter Wonderland”, were recorded in 1952 with Gordon Jenkins’ and His Orchestra. The next year, Satchmo took to recording less traditional songs and we were introduced to “Zat You, Santa Clause?” backed with Steve Allen’s “Cool Yule” on a release by Louis Armstrong With The Commanders. Then in 1955 it was “Christmas In New Orleans” backed with “Christmas Night In Harlem” as Louis Armstrong With Benny Carter’s Orchestra. All are available on the compilation album What a Wonderful Christmas and the second two sessions produced some of my favorite Christmas songs.  I chose “Zat You, Santa Clause?” because of the menacing groove The Commanders lay down coupled with Jack Fox’s fantastic lyric that has the singer going back and forth between anticipation of a visit from everyone’s favorite fat man and a sense of paranoia that someone is creeping around outside his house

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 3: The Merriest

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23: “The Merriest” — June Christy

When vocalist record a Christmas album, you often get an album of covers and standards, but hipster June Christy bucked that trend in 1961 with her ‘This Time Of Year’ album. She chose instead to record a whole album of new compositions by the team that wrote her hit “Night Time Was My Mother,” Arnold Miller and Connie Pearce Miller.  She also engaged her fellow Stan Kenton alumni Pete Rugulo to conduct. “The Merriest” is my favorite from this often overlooked singers contribution to the Christmas genre, combining a swinging track and June’s cool Christmas wishes for the hipsters, beats and other bohemian types.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 2: Santa’s Got An Airplane

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24: “Santa’s Got An Airplane” — The Beach Boys

‘Little Saint Nick’ is probably the Beach Boys most famous Christmas song, but the 1977 outtake, “Santa’s Got An Airplane,” is my favorite holiday song by the boys of summer. Writen by Alan Jardine/Brian Wilson/Mike Love, it features Mike Love and Al Jardine on lead vocals and was released in 2004 on Christmas With the Beach Boys. It is one of the most whimsical takes on the Santa / Christmas genre, recounting how Santa has embraced new technology to get all those toys delivered.