#showertune: xmas songs
gleatings earthrings
as some of you will know, the next ten or fifteen days or so will herald the start of the celebration of the British winter festival known as Christmas.
something of which you might not be so aware, however, is that there exists a whole canon of Christmas songs, written, performed and recorded so that British shops have something to play while people buy things.
here at #showertune HQ we’re giving you the chance to select which of such xmas songs or #xmasongs if you will* that you would like us to feature over the festive period.
(*please note: this is the name we have decided on, so in reality your will is irrelevant)
if you’re uncertain about what Christmas songs are, the best place to find out is in a record shop – just ask the person at the counter about which songs they know that are Christmas songs, then write down what they say. also, the internet and the back cover of The Best Christmas Album In The World Ever! are useful.
please send in your votes as comments to this post, and we will try to feature as many as we can over the coming days.
For me it HAS to be Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland. Gives me goosebumps. Coming in a close second is Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt for festive fun :-)
If we’re talking modern songs, then New Year by the Sugababes (seriously…) x
Alongside the obvious like Phil Spector’s Christmas album, Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Sufjan Stevens…
Camera Obscura: The Blizzard
We Three Kings: The Roches
Nobody Gets What they Want: Fakesensations
Just Like Christmas: Low
Christmas at the Zoo: Flaming Lips
Christmas is going to the Dogs :Eels
And the Waitresses, naturally.
the darkness, christmas time (don’t let the bells end).
not least because we have matching hair.
As you are well aware, I cannot believe that any Christmas compilation is complete if it doesn’t feature The Waitresses.
Love also for Peter Auty (not Aled Jones) and the shrillest of all carols, the Carol of the Bells.
Also, Coventry Carol.
Also, all Christmas songs ever.
ALSO…
A Spaceman Came Travelling.
Alien for Christmas.
Not as thematically linked as one might imagine…
I would like you to have the Sussex Carol, but only if you can find a version with children doing the ridiculously high descant on the last verse.
Or, if that isn’t COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL enough for you, how about Wombling Merry Christmas? It takes me right back to the old cassette I used to have with it on, along with all the other classics like Hall of the Mountain Womble, and Invitation To A Ping-Pong Ball (At The Chinese Wombling Ping-Pong Ball Hall).
Finis.
Waaaaahhhh, why aren’t there any songs about me?
Bollocks to Santa, snow, Christmas trees, tinsel, bells, spacemen, New York, the zoo and sodding Wombles – it’s my fucking birthday. Me. ME.
What about:
Happy Birthday (to ME)
When A Child (ME) Is Born
Joy To The World (ME is come)
Gaudete (ME est natus ex Maria)
Ps. don’t do lies, they make me cry.
It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Andy Williams
Let It Snow – Ella Fitzgerald
Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade
Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues (NOT Ronan Keating)
my favourite Xmas song is “O Tannenbaum” performed by Vince Guaraldi Trio on A Charlie Brown Christmas.