YOUR Christmas Playlist

Merry Christmas Eve, friends!! In honor of another year of Holiday celebrations, I’ve called in a dear friend to do the honors of creating a Christmas Playlist that will get even the Scroogiest of Scrooges in the spirit. I’ve NEVER had a guest blogger here in my space… so Nate is the perfect one to break the seal! I asked Nate to give me a bio of his street cred and he sent me this: Nate Morrissey, left Nebraska once, then came back. {The real truth is that he is a brilliant music teacher who has pretty much the best taste in music and has degrees from UNL, Boston University, and has even studied at Juilliard. He is also a Star Wars nerd, married one of my besties, and is a rockin’, hip, cool dad to 4 kids under age 7. So, yah. He’s your guy for music and more.} Without further ado…

YOUR CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST.

BY: Nate Morrissey

{Go to iTunes now and queue up your Pod, Pad, or your 8 track.}

In the movie High Fidelity, John Cusack’s character says, “The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You gotta kick it off with a killer, to grab attention, then you gotta take it up a notch…there are a lot of rules.” Pacing rules a playlist.

I still buy CD’s or download entire albums. I still make playlists all the time. I even burn the occasional CD. I think the pacing and delivery of an entire album is important. If you disagree, go listen to Pet Sounds, or Abbey Road. Listen to an album from beginning to end, let it tell it’s story. Not like these crazy Millennials listening to songs on the YouTubes and the Spotify’s.

I started to make 1 playlist, but it got too big, so I made 2! My rough dividing line is anything from the 1900’s goes on the Classic Playlist and anything after Y2K goes on the Modern Playlist. Yeah, I left some off. But that means I get to make another one next year!!

At the end, in the spirit of High Fidelity, I added my Top 5 Christmas Albums. Enjoy!

Classic Christmas

These are the standards, the originals, the tentpole songs. The Classics.

Most Wonderful Time of Year – Johnny Mathis

From his 1958 Christmas Album, Johnny Mathis starts our playlist out right and helps to set the scene. A solid opener.

White Christmas – Otis Redding

I say this with no caveat, Otis Redding is one of the greatest singers of all time. This version of White Christmas is raw emotion. May your days be merry and bright, Lord have mercy, I wish all of ‘em honey.

Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby & David Bowie

Like Sauerkraut on pizza or chocolate covered chips, this should not work…but it so does. It starts with a 2 minute skit…ridiculous, but awesome!

Frosty the Snowman – The Ronettes

“A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector” was an album that features Spector’s signature “wall of sound” from beginning to end. A fantastic take on a classic song. The studio musicians on this album were called “The Wrecking Crew”, (take some time and watch the documentary of the same name on Netflix, you will be amazed at what these guys and gals did!)

O Tannenbaum – Vince Guaraldi

I mean, come on. Come. On. A Charlie Brown Christmas is as good as it gets. That tree! Linus’ speech! And I know you’ve done a Charlie Brown dance, we all have. This is my favorite song from that album. A perfect mix of traditional and jazz.

O Little Town of Bethlehem – Nat King Cole

My ultimate classic Christmas song. This is the song that instantly takes me Christmas Eve growing up. If I had to sum up Christmas music in the performance of one song, it would be this one.

Someday at Christmas – Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder. He released a Christmas album in 1967 featuring this amazing song. Still relevant even today, maybe even more so. “Someday at Christmas there’ll be no tears. When all men are equal and no man has fear.” You know, a lot of these Christmas songs seem to have the word Peace in them…hmm, interesting.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love

Another from the amazing album “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector”, Darlene Love’s signature Christmas song was featured on “The Late Show with David Letterman” every Christmas. Do yourself a favor and watch another documentary called “Twenty Feet from Stardom” about backup singers. Love tells a story of a time during the middle of her career when she had to make money cleaning houses. She was on her hands and knees cleaning a bathroom and from the other room, she heard this song on the radio while her employer was singing along.

NON-CHRISTMAS SIDEBAR:

Get “Twenty Feet from Stardom”, start at 32:50, (or find it on YouTube) and listen to Mary Clayton’s isolated vocal track from “Gimme Shelter”. You will be in awe. I just relistened to it, goosebumps every single time.

Santa Claus – Harry Connick Jr.

Harry Connick is just cool. This song changes key about a billion times driven by that awesome Bo Diddley beat. A super fun addition to the Classic Playlist.

The Chipmunk Song – Alvin, Simon, Theodore

Alright you Chipmunks, how can we not have this song on the list. Now my kids are watching the Chipmunks again ( or Chickmunks as one of them call it ). I hope you get everything you asked Santa for. Me? I want a hula hoop.

White Christmas – Mahalia Jackson

Yes, another White Christmas. But if any song deserves to be on here twice, it’s this one. And this is Mahalia Jackson, The Queen of Gospel. Her voice is enough to make this Lutheran stand up and shout from the back pew.

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town – Bruce Springsteen

You know who’s cooler than Harry Connick? Bruce Springsteen, that’s who. This song is from 1985 and was featured on last week’s Saturday Night Live. Take a simple Christmas song, add a little Boss, drive it down E Street and you have yourself some Christmas Rock ‘N Roll. I wonder if Clarence ever got that new saxophone?

Modern Christmas

The Modern Playlist was harder to narrow down than the Classic Playlist. There are some real nice tracks here. I tried to stay away from the typical stuff, like the Buble of it all. You already know about that stuff, which is also great! You will be surprised by the amount of originals on this list.

Darlin’ (Christmas is Coming) – Over the Rhine

Husband and wife duo Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist have created what I consider to be the greatest modern Christmas album, “Snow Angels”. There, I said it. What an awesome track to kick off the Modern Playlist. If I put Christmas music on, I always start with this one.

Red Ribbon Foxes – A Fine Frenzy

Alison Sudol is A Fine Frenzy. Her voice is ethereal. This is snowday, sitting by the fireplace, wool socks, drinking some Tom and Jerry’s type of song.

Winter Song – Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

I really regret not seeing Sara Bareilles when she came to Lincoln last year. Check out her live performance of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay on YouTube. She is amazing. Add Ingrid with some harmonies and you have a killer song.

Always in the Season – Pomplamoose

The musical duo of Jack Conte and Natalie Dawn are the creative minds behind the band Pomplamoose. Known for their quirky videos, they reached out on twitter to find instrumentalists to help them perform their song. I love to show this video to my kids at school and ask them, “Why not you?”

Maybe This Christmas – Ron Sexsmith

This time of year is about joy and hope for the future. I include this on every Christmas playlist I make to help remind me, maybe this Christmas.

Carol of the Bells – The Bird and The Bee

Almost spooky, this is a great take on the Ukrainian Bell Carol. I also love bands with The in their name.

The Christmas Song – She & Him

Zooey Deschanel, the New Girl, is also a great singer (she was in Elf!). In 2008, she formed She & Him along with guitar player M. Ward. This is a stripped down version of the classic song. Just her voice, and his guitar dripping with reverb. Gorgeous.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Punch Brothers

Is it bluegrass? Is it classical? It’s the Punch Brothers. Founded by mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, The Punch Brothers play all genres of music of music on classic folk instruments. This is my favorite band, so I had to include them!

Hurry Home – Good Lovelies

Yes, yet another bluegrass trio from Canada. These girls play some bouncy bluegrass with sweet harmonies. They do an awesome version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah you must check out on YouTube.

All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue – Over the Rhine

This Ohio based band is back on the list for this amazing original. Sad, hopeful, powerful.

Silent Night – Priscilla Ahn

A hauntingly beautiful a cappella arrangement of Silent Night. Just so awesome.

The Friendly Beasts – Sufjan Stevens

An earnest take on a classic Hymn by indie folk musician Sufjan Stevens, was featured on his 4 disc Christmas compilation album “Songs for Christmas”. This is my favorite Christmas Hymn in a very playful arrangement.

Angel’s We Have Heard on High – Maeve

Maeve is a Folk Americana Trio from Boston. A nice modern take on this classic hymn. Fantastic harmonies with a laid back groove. Their entire Christmas album is great!

What are You Doing New Year’s Eve – The Head and The Heart

We’re moving away from Christmas into the New Year. I’ve always loved this song. This is a great version by The Head and The Heart. For the cutest version of this song ever performed, check YouTube for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel singing and playing ukulele. It’s like hipster catnip.

Snow Days – Trip Shakespeare

As a teacher, this song has special meaning to me. I always play it at school when it starts to snow. Members of Minneapolis based Trip Shakespeare went on to form Semisonic (Don’t cha know, Closing Time!).

What a Year for a New Year – Dan Wilson

I end every Christmas playlist with either, Maybe This Christmas, or this song. Dan Wilson of Semisonic (Don’t cha know, Closing Time!) wrote this song for a Christmas album in the UK. What a way to end a playlist.

Well, those are my Christmas music recommendations. I hope you found a few that were new to you or maybe some you forgot about. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

Top 5 Christmas Albums