My Top 25 Christmas Songs

Christmas music drives me crazy. People who say they love Christmas music remind me of people who truly believe the Warren Commission on the Kennedy assassination. I remember growing up when we’d drive to my aunt & uncles house in Penfield on Christmas Eve all the radio stations played Christmas music. Then, a few years ago Warm 101.3 here in Rochester decided to start playing Christmas music 24/7 starting on Black Friday right through the season. I think that’s what did it to me. But like most music, I can handle it when it’s played on my terms.  I actually do own quite a few Christmas cds. So, through the 2010 Christmas season, I decided to compile a list of my Top 25 Christmas Songs. I’m sure there are a few on here you have never heard of. I encourage you to seek them out and give them a listen, and I’m sure you’ll find them quite enjoyable as well.

Here we go…

#25 – Joey + Rory – “It’s Christmas Time” (2009) – Although being a year old already, I first heard this song this December while I was compiling this list. It really caught on with me and I think it’s a very sweet pure country Christmas song.

#24 – The Beach Boys – “Santa’s Beard” (1964) – When I was young and my whole family participated in putting up the Christmas tree and decorating, one of the albums I always remember my parents playing was The Beach Boys Christmas Album. This song reminds me of those days many years ago. It showcases that Beach Boys harmonizing sound that made them so great.

#23 – Even In Blackouts – “Infinite Holiday Song” (2002) – This is a great band with a great sound. This song covers all the bases of the holiday season. It’s a quite simple and fun song and runs at just a minute long.

#22 – The Waitresses – “Christmas Wrapping” (1981) – Most examples of 80’s white rapping makes me cringe (see Blondie’s ‘Rapture’), but this is a fun song with a good story about how sometimes we get too caught up in our lives and forget about the important things.

#21 – Taylor Swift – “Santa Baby” (2007) – Let’s get one thing straight: I cannot stand the Madonna version of this song, very campy. This song fits Taylor Swift perfectly. Of course she’s been a good girl and is hoping for Santa to reward her, she’s Taylor Swift for Pete’s sake!

#20 – Elmo & Patsy – “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” (1979) – A true classic song from my younger days. I remember when I first heard it and how funny it was. Then 98 PXY decided to play it for what seemed like 24 hours straight. By high school this song had worn out its’ welcome. Thankfully I don’t listen to radio anymore, so now the song has been redeemed.

#19 – Melissa Etheridge – “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” (2008) – Probably my favourite ‘classic’ Christmas song. The line, ‘Through the years we all will be together, If the Fates allow…’ is one of my favourite lines of any song. Etheridge’s version is very bluesy and she sings it exactly how it should be sung.

#18 – A Fine Frenzy – “Winter White” (2009) – Don’t let the peppy music fool you, this is a pretty sad love song with a Christmas setting. How frustrated must one be to sing, ‘Merry Christmas, Happy Goddamn New Year?’ I saw A Fine Frenzy in Indianapolis right before I moved back to Rochester, she really was amazing. Check out her first cd, ‘One Cell In The Sea.’

#17 – Adam Sandler – “The Chanukah Song” (1994) – This is not just to show a sense of diversity or a nod to my Fraternity. This song was truly groundbreaking when it came out in ’94. I had never heard a Chanukah song on the radio before – no one had. So it’s good that the first one that was played was pretty funny, and it still is. This is Sandler at his best.

#16 – Jimmy Buffett – “Ho Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Rhum” (1996) – This is everything you’d expect from a Buffett Christmas song. How does Santa get through the busy holiday season? I think he feels a lot like most of us: Christmas is more work than fun. His escape plan? ‘Ho ho ho and a bottle of rhum, Santa’s run off to the Caribbean!’

#15 – Eagles/Jon Bon Jovi – “Please Come Home For Christmas” (1978/1995) – A wonderful sad and lonely Christmas song. It’s tough to choose between the two versions because they’re both so good.

#14 – The Beach Boys – “Little Saint Nick” (1963) – Again, the roots of my affection for this song goes back to my childhood and my family putting up the decorations together. But this song follows in a long line of great Beach Boys songs about cars. The song even sounds just like “Little Deuce Coupe.” But they are right, for Santa to make all those deliveries, his sleigh has got to be pretty fast and would probably out race anyone.

#13 – Jimmy Buffett – “Merry Christmas, Alabama (Never Far From Home)” (1996) – To most casual Buffett listeners, they may think all of his songs are about drinking and beaches. There are a lot of those, but there’s a whole other side which is probably even better: his sentimental side. At this time of year, it’s good to look back and remember all those who have helped us along our journeys to where we are now.

#12 – Melissa Etheridge – “Christmas In America” (2008) – This song is as contemporary and modern as you can get. It’s a Christmas song about 21^st Century America. Missing the one you love as they’re overseas at war, and the only present you want is for them to be there with you.

#11 – Mariah Carey – “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (1994) – Think what you may about Mariah Carey, but did you know she wrote this song (as she has written almost all of her songs throughout her career)? This is such a fun song that makes you just want to get up and dance and sing along.

#10 – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (live)” (1985) – This is a classic E Street Band Christmas song! It might be a kids song, but Bruce sings it perfectly and you can hear every part of the band in there. And as usual, Clarence’s presence on the song is invaluable.

#9 – A Fine Frenzy – “Wish You Well” (2009) – A sweet and sad song about missing a family member at Christmas time.  I find it to be quite an honest song about how things can get so far out of whack that we don’t even know the ones we should know the most. To me it says that we need to do what we can to reach out those people at this time of year no matter what. Again, check out A Fine Frenzy’s debut album!

#8 – Wham! – “Last Christmas” (1984) – Ok, maybe it has all the trappings of pure 80’s cheese, but it’s a great song. Taylor Swift recorded this on her Christmas album and it could definitely fit right into her songbook.

#7 – U2 – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (1987) – Once again, a familiar theme of being without someone at Christmas time. Not sure why that theme resonates with me. But this song has that awesome classic U2 sound – that one that dominated the late 80’s with ‘The Joshua Tree’ and ‘Rattle & Hum.’ I miss that sound on their recent albums.

#6 – Taylor Swift – “Christmases When You Were Mine” (2007) – This is a perfect Taylor Swift song no matter the season. This is one of her originals and plays out in the same manner of most of her excellent songs. It’s a sweet song about a girl missing a boy at this time of year. And as like most of her songs, there are little details that make the song sound so real.

#5 – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Christmas All Over Again” (1992) – This is fun and rocking Christmas time. Definitely an underappreciated song for such a big artist. This is truly the Heartbreakers at their best.

#4 – Melissa Etheridge – “Glorious” (2008) – This song is truly a modern classic. Etheridge pulls lines from a variety of other songs and weaves them together with her own lines to make a beautiful song.

#3 – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – “Merry Christmas Baby” (1987) – Again, the E Street Band lends it’s magic to a classic seasonal tune. The opening of the song has all the trimmings of a classic E Street jaunt. Bruce adds his well tested 50’s Rock and R&B impressions into the song.

#2 – Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (1984) – This song just has that feeling of having a higher purpose than just holiday cheer. It is probably THE 80’s Christmas song of all 80’s Christmas songs. You can make all the comparisons you want to “We Are The World,” but this one came first. A few years ago, I think it was on one of those stupid VH1 shows where hacks mock every thing, there was mention of this song and the person said something like “of course they don’t know it’s Christmas time because it’s not their culture.” Well, I’d like you to know that Ethiopia is actually a major Christian nation and it always has been. 

#1 – John Lennon & Yoko Ono and The Plastic Ono Band – “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (1971) – A perfect John Lennon song. I have always been drawn to the simplicity of the song. The song has many similarities to “Imagine” as John calls out all the different labels that differentiate us and tells us that we’re all in this together. It took me a while to truly understand the ‘War Is Over’ part of the song. I think the opening lines, ‘And so this is Christmas, And what have you done, Another year over, And a new one just begun,’ will forever haunt me. Such amazing lines. I can listen to this song all year round, as it’s truly one of John’s greatest songs.

This is The Schultheis Review...

Music. What does it mean to you? How does it make you feel? To me, the answer to both of those questions is 'everything.' A song is the ultimate time machine. Put it on, close your eyes and you can be magically transported to another place and time. 

'Let's Hang On' by The Four Seasons (but according to new findings, it might have been the Barry Manilow version) makes me think of driving to my grandparents house in the station wagon down in Wellsville with my mother when I was like six.

'The Stranger' by Billy Joel reminds me of running errands on a Saturday afternoon with my mother - going to some shop over near East Main Street and North Winton Road. 

'Greatest Hits Volume I & II' by Billy Joel remind me of cleaning the house on weekends.

I remember the first time I heard 'Father & Son' by Cat Stevens.  In 1988, Maxi Priest released a cover of 'Wild World.' I fell in love with that song almost instantly. When I heard it was a cover, and that my dad actually had the record for the original, I had to listen to it. I found 'Tea For The Tillerman' in my parents record collection (they have a great collection) and was amazed at the lyrics printed right on the back of the cover.  I noticed the one song that was shown as a duet, but there was no other artist listed as singing it.  I read the words and was quickly affected by them.  I brought the album up to my room to listen to it in private. It's still one of my favourite songs of all time.

I remember my brother Chris and I being transfixed by Traveling Wilbury's 'Volume One.' We brought that one up to our room as well.

I don't know how I ever lived before I owned an MP3 player. I do remember one Thanksgiving I brought about twenty cassette tapes with me to my grandparents house because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to listen to during the four days we would be there.

I think it was in fifth grade that I started listening to music when I went to sleep. I remember the one and only time my brother and I had a volume fight on our respective radios as to what was going to play that night as we slept. I remember when my friend Ryan had moved into our house, and on one of the first nights there, he came over to my radio and turned it off after I had fallen asleep. No sooner had he turned it off had I jumped up and asked him what he was doing. From then on he understood the rule of my room: music played at night.

A lot of people say music speaks to them. That they love listening to the stories in the lyrics. I understand that. But when I listen it's not only the words that speaks to me, but also the music, the instrumentation, the background sounds, the 'do do do' of the background singers keeping the beat. I love Springsteen songs where you can hear the entire band playing. I'd do anything to see Bruce playing 'Thunder Road' on piano solo, but to see the E Street Band come alive with 'Sherry Darling' or 'Rosalita' is something else entirely.

My parents raised me in a classic rock and roll tradition: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Boston. There were some pop trappings in there: ABBA, Billy Joel, Elton John. The introduction of MTV was a defining moment in my life. I was swept away with the New Wave that came in the 80s - The Cars, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Nena, Soft Cell. My 6th grade teacher believed that an education without the classics was a waste. He gave us Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. In high school I was drawn to musical theatre - Andrew Lloyd Webber, 'The Man Of LaMancha,' 'Miss Saigon.' An argument can be said that it was the girls I dated that brought me towards country music, three of them were bonafide country music fans. But I think it was a natural evolution of my musical tastes. Sooner or later it was bound to happen.

My first MP3 player was a 30GB Creative Labs Nomad. I got it in December 2006. By December 2008 I had upgraded to a refurbished Creative Labs Nomad with a 120GB card in it. Multiple problems with that forced me to turn to the best of the best - a 160GB iPod Classic. It took me nearly two months to transfer my music. I verified the song information on each song, catalogued it on a spreadsheet and then added it to the iPod. Right now, I have 95GB free. I bring it with me everywhere I go. I get cold sweats if I leave it home or at work. I've even gone back to work at 1am (it was after a movie) to rescue the iPod (it was also a Friday, so I wasn't going to leave it there for the whole weekend!).

So, here's my blog. It's about music and movies mainly. Random ideas that I come up with.