Every December, there’s a distressingly limited list of holiday-themed songs that are played on radio stations and in-store music channels. That’s a shame, because there are a lot of good songs out there, many of which are at least as good as “Jingle Bell Rock” and “White Christmas”.
Some of these songs aren’t very cheery, and I think that’s a good thing. Not everyone is having a happy holiday — this time of year is infamous for its high suicide rate. So the occasional song of perseverance in the face of difficulty like the original version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which was written for a wartime Christmas, or an actual blues song like “Winter” is good to have on hand.
Listen to them below, play them at parties, and ask the management at your local store to add them to the rotation:
Monsters’s Holiday by Bobby Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers
Christmas by the Who
Winter by the Rolling Stones
Christmas in California by America
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by the Ronettes
My Christmas Tree by the Supremes
Christmas Tears by Freddy King
Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus, read by Jose Ferrer
Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto by Snoop Doggy Dogg
My Mom and Santa Claus by George Jones
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is hardly a rarity, but it’s hard to find with its grim original lyrics, and sometimes those are exactly the ones you want to hear.
By John M. Burt
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