40 Great Xmas Songs You've Never Heard(Relient K:Boxing Day;Lightnin' Hopkins:Happy New Year)

Just so you know, it really makes my day when you guys comment here. I do threads like this because I enjoy writing them regardless, but nothing really makes me enjoy it way more than responses! If you like these songs, or even if you hate some of them, please comment.

Original

Light of the Stable (1975) ? Emmylou Harris

This is the title track to Emmylou Harris? Light of the Stable album that we talked about a few days ago now. This song, though, was actually written, recorded and released as a single in 1975; it was four years later that Harris put together a whole Christmas album, choosing to include the single on it, and titled it after the single. Everything I said about Emmylou Harris the last time applies here too; it?s a beautiful little tune, short, simple and nearly perfect, at under two and a half minutes. The aching refrain of ?hallelujah? is evocative and poignant. And you remember I talked about all the guests on the album; well, you can hear a lot of them here on those backing vocals: that?s Neil Young, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt taking the alternate hallelujahs there. Best backup vocal group ever? Gotta be close. Lovely little song, unpretentious, but beautiful.

Version

Run, Rudolph, Run (1982) ? Dave Edmunds

You might not know Dave Edmunds. He blasted out of Wales in the late sixties with a churning guitar and a hell of an attitude. He dabbled in Britrock and New Wave, but his true soul has always for fifties style rock & roll, which he takes in a state best described as ?Loud, Fast & Outta Control.? He perfectly marries the attitudes and styles of rock?n?roll with punk to create some of the most exhilarating music I?ve ever heard. This cover of the Berry original was recorded the year of my birth, but it might have come from twenty years prior. This isn?t the only time Edmunds took on Berry and, astoundingly, actually bested him. Maybe my favorite Edmunds tune is his absolutely balls to the walls, manic I Knew the Bride, which is based on Berry?s classic You Never Can Tell (you know, from Pulp Fiction) and, of the two, great as You Never Can Tell is, it?s I Knew the Bride that kicks my party up to cruising speed faster than just about anything else. Bob Dylan, no less, once said of Edmunds? music, ?Funky, fusty, noisome, putrid, rank & reeking sound. Stenchful & stinking. Bad & foul. Nauseating & Decomposed. Fuggy & rotten. And I mean all that in a good way.? How can you pass up a review like that?

Tomorrow, a Christmas weeper from the king of country weepers; plus, the most downright lascivious version of Santa Claus is Back in Town you?ll ever hear! And it?s a Christian band!

 

I really like "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," though this is in fact the first year I've heard it. Ortega's version is great, but I first encountered it on Christmas is Happening a couple days before your post. (I swear I'm not trying to stump for this site. I'm just trying to be relevant! ) It's this sort of chilly, electronic kind of thing that I can't imagine working for a non-Christmas hymn. Something about it seems wintry to me.

A link would be in order, I guess.

 

That's an interesting version. Interesting that you pull out the same kind of adjectives that I did; chilly, wintry, cold, dark. It's a strange hymn, for sure; very haunting.

Originals

Lonely Christmas Call (1966) ? George Jones

I think it?s less an opinion and more a verifiable fact that nobody can sing a country tearjerker as good as George Jones can (yes, I said can; he?s in his eighties and still touring). When NPR featured him as one of their 50 Great Voices series a couple years back, it was asserted that ?he sings through clenched teeth because he?s holding back the tears.? Whatever the reasons, it?s clear that George Jones can bend the notes, slide the scale, phrase like a master and do whatever else he has to do to wring every single drop of emotion out of a lyric. He?s a master for all time, no matter what the modern hipsters say. On this track, not as good as The Grand Tour or A Good Year for the Roses, which together form the Platonic ideal of the country tearjerker, he sings of a relationship on the rocks (of course) at Christmas. ?You left a year ago this Christmas,? he sings, ?And we?re wond?ring if you miss us.? Yes, he said ?us.? That?s right, it?s George and the kids gathered around the Christmas tree: ?If you could see their little faces/as round the tree they take their places.? God. I mean, God. ?Won?t you show consideration/to the ones whose hearts are breakin?,? is one of those lines that only George could phrase right and he does it. They don?t come much better than this, folks. Class act, that George; a voice straight from the heart.

Version

Santa Claus is Back in Town (1999) ? The Deluxtone Rockets

The Rockets have pretty well been all over the map; they started punk, went swing revival, switched over to ska, before going rockabilly for their last album, back in 2001. I dunno really; hard to keep up with them. Word has it they reformed in 2008, so I look forward to an album of awesome electric polka music any time now. On to the song at hand, there?s a lot to like about Elvis? original version. It?s raucous, for starters, when most of the time Elvis wearily crooned his Christmas tunes like lullabies. It has the most drunken, half-assed piano solo this side of ELP Tribute Night at the Free Shots Bar, so that?s pretty great too. But this is a fantastic version of the song. The Rockets were at least nominally Christian, produced by the late, great Gene Eugene, but on this song, they channel their most lascivious edge. The growling guitars are guttural and violent; the lead singer?s vocals are rusty and lustful; there is no doubt what is intended by the line about Santa ?coming down your chimney tonight.? Even Elvis, sex symbol that he was, didn?t find half the bump and grind in this song that the Rockets find there. Even at Christmas, you can find some mean mojo a-workin?.

Tomorrow, it?s the single classical section on our list, plus a Christmas hymn cover so controversial it actually got the record it was on banned!

 

I think I discovered Relient K about the same time as I did MxPx, so they're forever associated in my mind. I prefer Relient K's covers of Christmas songs to their originals (the exception being "I celebrate the Day." I own their earlier Christmas album Deck the Halls, Bruise your Hand, which is also a delightfully awful pun.

I have vague memories of hearing "Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silent" from Catholic services when I was a little kid, but this is the first time I've heard it in a while. You pretty much nailed it when you described it as cold. I'd also call it chilling, in both senses of the word.

 

Got another chilling one in this post.

Original

Magnificat (1989) ? Arvo Part

Part is far and away my favorite modern composer. His devout Christianity, his Estonian heritage, his bleak, modernist approach, all combine to form a body of work of absolutely overwhelming beauty. In this piece, he sets to music the Magnificat, Mary?s song of praise from Luke 2, so called because it begins with the Latin word ?magnificat,? rendered in the King James as ?My soul doth magnify the Lord.? Part creates works of haunting beauty and this is no exception; there is no way I can listen to this track without a deep peace sinking down into my very soul; the gorgeous blend of the voices, unaccompanied by instruments, creates an aching, melancholic feeling. Like Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, this selection seems unbearably dark, unutterably cold and gripping. The high keen of the highest female voices gives me absolute chills and when I close my eyes, I see a stark scene of winter snow falling on a barren, white landscape. This is music to take you to a stillness often lost in the rush of Christmas celebrations. For more, I recommend especially Part?s Berlin Mass, a work of astonishing beauty, and Silouan?s Song, an instrumental work in which quietly somber strings and dead silence are given the task of evoking the Scriptural lament ?My soul longs for the Lord.? Longing and yearning have never been so powerful. Part?s a modern master; sadly no one ever seems to talk about him.

Version

Silent Night (1962) ? Huey ?Piano? Smith & the Clowns

But enough reverence and aching beauty; let?s have a party! Huey Smith was one of the defining figures of midcentury New Orleans music; his piano work and flamboyant personality suggest a cross between Fats Domino and Little Richard, both of whom Smith worked with at various times. His bizarre long play album, Twas the Night Before Christmas, featured a lot of dodgy stuff, but mostly he just took Christmas tunes and did them like they were Mardi Gras tunes. He did it to Jingle Bells; brilliant. He did it to White Christmas and credited himself as the author of the song and didn?t mention Irving Berlin in the credits at all; fantastic. He did it to Silent Night, kicking the reverent tune up into a hoppin? party tune; everyone went ballistic: petitions were signed, radio stations were threatened, Smith was accused of straight up ?blasphemy,? and the label caved, pulling the record from stores. Nearly fifty years on, the music remains and, after all the fuss has died down, what we?ve got is a frigging amazing version of the classic carol. Yet another reminder, as if we needed another one, that art endures in spite of the best efforts of morons and idiots to quash it. And this tune, ladies & gents, is definitely art; and any attempt to stop anyone from hearing this joyous, glorious romp of a tune is foolishness indeed. Wise men? Listen to this song.

Tomorrow, it?s a more modern take on Silent Night, but one very much in the spirit of Huey Smith; plus, the only Christmas song to feature someone being arrested for committing panty raids!

 

Original

Santa Claus (1966) ? Sonny Boy Williamson

There were two blues artists, both harmonica stylists, who went by Sonny Boy Williamson. This is Sonny Boy Williamson II, as he?s called, and you can hear his mad harmonica skills all through this fabulous number. Sonny Boy I is generally considered the greatest blues harmonica player of all time, but Sonny Boy II was no slouch. In this tune, things start out looking pretty good for our hero; his baby goes out shoppin?, tells him she bought him somethin? for Santa Claus. He decides to start looking around to find his present and goes for her dresser drawers. It?s around the third verse, at which point the girlfriend?s landlady calls the police, that you start to remember that this is a blues song, if Williamson?s whiskey soaked vocal style hadn?t reminded you already. Soon the police arrive and want to know ?what I?se doin? with my hand in that lady?s dresser drawer.? Pleas to the effect that ?I just tryin? to find out what she got me for Santa Claus? are met with polite skepticism and, when last seen, our fearless narrator is desperately trying to explain it to an equally skeptical judge. A strong streak of gallows humor runs through the blues; no one jokes like a man on the way to the gas chamber. So, it?s small wonder that this little tune is about the funniest song we?ll get in this thread; I mean, how can you not love every minute of a song this brilliant? Merry Christmas from the blues side of town, where an innocent remark about a Christmas present can get a guy thrown into prison for obscene behavior. And Elvis thought he had a blue Christmas.

Version

Silent Night (1978) ? The Dickies

So, The Dickies in a nutshell (which is definitely where they belong)? This song is as good as any other. This frenetic, frenzied punk desecration of the classic Christmas hymn is a perfect example of their general MO. They?d take a popular song, like Nights in White Satin or The Sounds of Silence (which was the flip side to this Silent Night single), back up, take a good run and then blow through the song in a minute or so. Sometimes hilarious pranks, sometimes strange improvements, these songs were the band?s stock in trade in the late seventies; they were essentially Me First & the Gimme Gimmes before Me First & the Gimme Gimmes. They also did originals, generally just as insane as their covers, like You Drive Me Ape, You Big Gorilla, which features the most absurd guitar solo of the seventies. My favorite Dickies song is their cover of Barry McGuire?s awesome protest tune, Eve of Destruction; there?s a section in the second verse where, even though I know the lyrics I still can?t make the maniacally fast sounds the singer is making line up with them. But this Christmas tune is a great one too; it?s a tight, fast, energetic little head banger and at nearly two and a half minutes, it?s almost languid, by Dickies standards. When the electric guitar starts outlining those descending chord patterns, it?s a moment of absolute genius. Some people say that covers like these ruin the song; I say they prove the genius of the song and the endless versatility of it. Silent Night is a lovely hymn; who knew it was also a great punk song? No one but the Dickies; and now us.

Tomorrow, it?s an original tune from one of the greatest female singer-songwriters of my lifetime. Plus, a version of Jingle Bells that?s even crazier (and better) than the Duke Ellington version I posted a while back.

 

I have a CD entitled "Punk Rock Christmas" that has The Dickie's version of Silent Night on it, but for some reason my iTunes mislabels it as being by The Ravers. I dunno, I'm usually a huge fan of punk covers for Christmas songs, but for some reason I really have to be in the right mood to listen to a punk version of Silent Night or Holy Night.

 

Original

Sing Mary Sing (2001) ? Jennifer Knapp

When tobymac discovered Jennifer Knapp, she was girl with a guitar from Kansas. Then came three astonishing albums: Kansas (1998), Lay It Down (2000) and The Way I Am (2001), which introduced us to a woman with a voice of incredible strength and evocative power, a songwriting voice of brokenness and reflection, a sound of gritty, funky folky roots rock. Then she retired, citing extreme burnout and it wasn?t until 2010, no longer signed to a Christian record label and out as a lesbian, that she would return. Well, her old stuff still holds up and I think her new stuff probably will too. Her voice is one of the most evocative I?ve ever heard and her talent for songwriting is pretty well unparalleled in the modern sphere. This Christmas tune, released on the final album in her original trilogy, is a great, hopping tune about what Mary must have done when things got overwhelming and what we do too: we throw our heads back and sing for all we?re worth. It?s a got a great groove, a great vibe to it and her voice is as great as it always is. Near the end, she slips entirely out of the groove and finally indulges in some brief scat singing. I don?t know why Knapp?s voice touches me so deeply or why her music has soaked into my soul the way it has. I only know that I think she?s one of the most astounding female artists I?ve ever encountered. Welcome back, Jen. You?ve been missed and maybe never so needed.

Version

Twistin? Bells (1962) ? Santo & Johnny

Santo & Johnny had one of the biggest instrumental hits of all time with Sleep Walk. Less well known is this fantastically fun instrumental that, as you can probably tell from the title, mashes up Jingle Bells and The Twist. It?s got a thrashing drum beat, a stinging electric guitar sound and a groove to die for. Like I talked about before, I?m no fan of Jingle Bells, but like Bob Dylan said about the Byrds? cover of Mr. Tambourine Man, ?You can even dance to it!?

Tomorrow, one legendary group creates a strange recording dedicated to another legendary artist. Plus, the best Elvis impression you?ll ever frigging hear.

 

Original

There?s Trouble Brewin? (1963) ? Jack Scott

This is a rarity in all kinds of ways. It?s a Christmas rockabilly tune, which you don?t hear very often. It?s a Christmas tune that doesn?t reference the fact in the title at all. And, as that title might indicate, it?s a Christmas song about a guy preparing to ambush Santa Claus and mess him up a little bit. Jack Scott is an artist entirely forgotten at this point in time, but on a blind listen, I think you could convince some people that this is early Elvis, so perfectly calibrated is his raucous performance here. It?s a hopped up, manic song, full of balls to the walls energy. ?The snow is white/so crisp and white/but there?s trouble brewin?/trouble brewin? tonight.? How can you beat that for holiday sentiment? Well, for one thing with a chorus of cascading ?oh yeahs.? This. Awesome.

Version

White Christmas (Demo for Tom Waits) (2003) ? The Flaming Lips

As a native Oklahoman, I?m decidedly proud of Wayne Coyne and his group, The Flaming Lips. From an Oklahoma City based punk group in the eighties, they?ve matured into the closest thing to Pink Floyd we?ll probably ever see again, a group with a strange, symphonic tone, capable of strikingly weird soundscapes and hauntingly beautiful tunes. The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots are surely the two best albums released by Oklahomans and The Flaming Lips are artists for the age at this point. Wayne Coyne generally introduces this song in concert by claiming that it?s ?the most beautiful song ever written.? He?s probably not far wrong and in this sparse version, the tune regains some of the beauty it?s lost over the years from being overplayed. The treatment is strange, minimalist and droning, but Coyne?s fragile voice (still the best thing about the Lips, after all these years) is perfectly suited, even though it?s being heavily distorted. I have no idea if they actually recorded this as a demo for Tom Waits or if they?re just being bizarre with their titling; the two options seem equally likely. Either way though, it?s a great piece of purposely strange Christmas music that reclaims a little weird magic for the holiday.

Tomorrow, it?s the only Christmas song I know of that concludes with its narrator being executed for murder! Plus, the best version of Winter Wonderland.

 

Original

Who Say There Ain?t No Santa Claus? (1960) ? Ron Holden & the Thunderbirds

This song, which can be found, along with Lonely Christmas Call, on Rhino?s great comp, Bummed Out Christmas, is a perfectly strange little recording. In the verses to this song, the narrator finds things going pretty badly for him, but there?s always a reversal that leaves him asking, in the chorus, ?Who say there ain?t no Santa Claus?? In one verse, the reversal is that, though his woman gets on his nerves, he?s able to murder her and then collect a big insurance payoff. He?s eventually caught, but this optimistic soul discovers that he likes prison just fine; ?board for free,? he exults, ?who say there ain?t no Santa Claus?? He finally gets a present that he isn?t too thrilled about: ?They dressed me up and cut my hair/and now they?re gonna give me . . . THE CHAIR?!? The band plays the death march and the voice that has been repeatedly saying that Santa Claus doesn?t exist throughout the song somberly intones, ?I told you so.? The song?s an absolute stomper, up tempo, raving with energy and crazy fun. Words really cannot express what a ridiculous, absurd, bizarre masterpiece this song is. I really can?t fathom the songwriting session that produced this song; I?ll bet it involved alcohol though. More power to ?em; even at Christmas, you can?t get away with murder (though you can have fun with it for a while). Santa Claus does not provide stays of execution.

Version

Winter Wonderland (1953) ? Louis Armstrong & the All-Stars

Even if you don?t know much about Christmas music or jazz, you probably know about Armstrong?s Zat You, Santa Claus? If you?re into Christmas music as a genre in even a small way, you probably know about Armstrong?s Cool Yule. If you?re into Christmas music in a detailed way or into jazz in a big way, you probably know Armstrong?s Christmas in Harlem (less popular than the others because of its racial content, I?d bet). Those are three great songs, but for this thread, I wanted to go a level deeper to find something even more obscure than those songs, even than the fairly obscure Christmas in Harlem. And so here?s Louis Armstrong?s version of Winter Wonderland, which I never hear on the radio and never hear anyone talk about. His delivery, as always, is spectacular; his trumpet tone is flawless and the piano part on this record is absolutely great. Towards the end, he kicks into his scat singing and you?ll be forgiven for wondering if Christmas has ever been this cool before. All of the other songs Armstrong did for Christmas are worth tracking down too. Even the popular ones, like Zat You, Santa Claus? haven?t lost their spark for being replayed every year. But if you?re looking for an obscure treatment of a classic song, one that revitalizes the tired tune with new verve and energy, then look no farther than this miraculous resurrection of all the old clichés in Winter Wonderland. With Satchmo around, the wonder is very real.

Tomorrow, the last two songs on our lists! It?s been fun and I?ll close, quite coincidentally, with a revved up cover of a melancholy original and a melancholy cover of a joyous original. And that was accidental, folks! Join me tomorrow!

 

Original

You Gotta Get Up (1998) ? Five Iron Frenzy

You Gotta Get Up is a tune written by Rich Mullins, one of the best folk singer songwriters since Dylan if you ask me. After an all too brief career, filled with songs of surpassing beauty and power, and a period spent living a vow of poverty on an Indian Reservation in Arizona, Mullins died in a car accident. He had released his recording of You Gotta Get Up on his best album, A Liturgy, a Legacy & a Ragamuffin Band, which wrestles with issues of faith and nostalgia in America; the album is split into two halves, the first an attempt to write a specifically American liturgy, the second an attempt to deal with the baggage left from growing up in the American Midwest. It?s an astonishingly great album, and, in keeping with its somber tone, his version of the song is a piano based, quiet rumination on Christmas mornings as a child. The year that he died, 1998, however, Five Iron Frenzy, solojones? favorite ska band, got ahold of the song and decided to crank the volume, take it at half-time and let all the excitement and joy of Christmas morning explode through the cracks. It?s the only time (repeat, the only time) anyone has ever covered a Mullins song and actually outstripped the man. This is now the definitive version of this tune; this has never happened before with a Rich Mullins song. But the sheer joyous explosion of this song can?t be denied. I like to think Mullins heard it and smiled; I know I did.

Version

Wonderful Christmastime (2004) ? Tom McRae

Wonderful Christmastime is one of those songs that . . . well, just be honest: I frigging despise it. It?s got an annoying and dated synthesized sound; it?s got really stupid lyrics; the tune is somehow both really annoying and really catchy, so I hate the song when I hear it and then for the rest of the day because I can?t get it out of my head. It is, shall we say, not Paul?s finest hour; it smacks, frankly, of a cheap song, written quickly and sloppily, in order to have a holiday cash in. And it?s worked, earning about 50 million dollars to date, since it gets played ad nauseum every Christmas. So, what does English singer-songwriter Tom McRae do? Well, he lays it down with his piano and drags it way down until it becomes about the most sour, somber, devastated dirge imaginable. And the song is totally awesome this way. It acquires a strange dissonance, the celebratory lyrics being weakly sung in the fashion of a heartbreak tune; it?s as though the singer is desperately trying to convince himself that things are good, but there?s no escaping the reality that they aren?t. On the last go round, the singer pauses between ?we?re here tonight? and ?that?s enough? for so long you think he may have slit his wrists. Don?t listen to this one when you?re in a bad mood. But that?s still better than the original, which shouldn?t be listened to at all!

Okay, so tomorrow . . . that?s right! Tomorrow: two bonus songs; one is the only song I know of specifically written for Boxing Day and the other is a New Years song with some good advice for this thread.

 

Good pick there. I didn't know that Rich Mullins wrote the song; this version is the only one that I'm familiar with. I'm pretty sure that I got a tribute cd of covers that was put shortly after his death. He was a great songwriter for sure.

Five Iron Frenzy are pretty awesome, too.

 

Wow, great find on that version of Wonderful Xmastime. The original is one of my most hated Christmas songs, but this melancholic version really works.

For your Boxing Day song, I'm guessing it's gonna be Relient K's, as that's the only Boxing Day song I've ever heard.

 

You're correct. It's the only one I know of too; there are surely a couple of others, but I have never heard another one.

Bonus Song 1

Boxing Day (2007) ? Relient K

Boxing Day is a traditional holiday celebrated the day after Christmas; it?s not so big in the States, but places like Canada and Great Britain have commemorated it for a long time. It?s the Great Britain connection that clued me in to the holiday; I?m an aficionado of British mysteries of the Agatha Christie/Ngaio Marsh style and you bump up against references to Boxing Day all the time in those kinds of books. This isn?t a great song or anything, but it?s the only song I know of (though I?m sure there actually are others) to specifically be about Boxing Day, opening with the line, ?Take it all down/Christmas is over.? It?s a nice melancholy acoustic tune; and for those of us who love the Christmas season, a good reminder that good things come year round: ?Christmas makes way for spring.?

Bonus Song 2

Happy New Year (1953) ? Lightnin? Hopkins

There aren?t a lot of great New Years songs, though there are certainly a few (like U2?s New Years Day, of course). This fantastic little tune is one of my favorites though, an uptempo tune from one of the all time great bluesmen of all time. Hopkins? guitar work is fantastic and his drawling delivery is equal to it. It?s a song that lifts the spirits with hope for the New Year ahead and it also has some fine advice for this thread in the opening stanza, which is awesome: ?It?s a happy New Year/it ain?t gonna worry me to death/Don?t talk ?bout Christmas/Christmas just now left.? Well said, Lightnin?; well said. This thread? Is now over.

 

I like Relient K's Boxing Day. It's a pretty good song. They can do acoustic/stripped down music very well.

 

I didn't see these on the list. Therefore, the list is WRONG.

Original
Christmas for Everyone by Halford
Best known for his work with Judas Priest, Halford has an excellent metal Christmas album. This is a nice, radio friendly, Christmas rock song. There's significantly more metal tracks on the album, but I'm quite fond of this as it's easy to throw into most Christmas holiday mixes - his Oh Come O Come Emanuel is a good metal track, but not exactly mix friendly.

Version
Oh Come All Ye Faithful by Twisted Sister
To me, this has become the definitive version of the tune. The arrangement sounds familiar though, very familiar. . . bonus points if you figure it out within the first five notes.

 

I knew I wouldn't get the ones you wanted. Those were both pretty good.