Fav "modern" Christmas song?

Mini and I are putting together a gift cd of Christmas music for friends this year. We want non-traditional, but good music. Vote and suggest

Me, it would be tied between 1 2 and 3.

I have that on a tape a friend made for me over 20 years ago. It's one of my favorite songs on the whole thing!

So depressing when she died.

....in which they're yelling to '80s punk about Xmas shopping?

(Ha, got my "X" back in Xmas!! :P )

Still listen to it every Xmas eve..

Though in voting for that song I'm neglecting my local-pride duties (the Waitresses were from my neck of the woods), "Father Christmas" kicks high, hard ass.

Suck it, Dave-haters! It's gorgeous. :-)

She was his girl
He was her boyfriend
She be his wife, take him as her husband
A surprise on the way, any day, any day
One healthy little giggling, dribbling baby boy
The wise men came, three made their way
To shower him with love
While he lay in the hay
Shower him with love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love love is all around

I loved it when he sang it the other night. I saw him in concert on Wed night..he rocked.

It was one of the bands earlier, pre-label releases.

It's easily found in a record store or online!

I'm jealous that you saw the band Wednesday night, and it's great that they performed "Christmas Song," because that's a rare treat!

It's my favorite

. . . buuuuuuuuuuuut I voted for "Father Christmas" instead.

If you're into ironic hair metal.

Phantom Planet does a great version of "Winter Wonderland", I think that would be good.

and just want to point out that I forgot Santa Clause go Straight to the Ghetto, by the god father of soul. That will for sure be on the disc.

I think it's by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Doesn't get a huge amount of airplay, but I look forward to hearing it every year.

Then the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That no one in the bar
Had seen there before

And he asked did we know
That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Standing outside our door

Then the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze

Through the window and ice
To a corner streetlight

Where standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl the child said
Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The bartender turned
And said , not that I care
But how would you know this?
The child said I've noticed
If one could be home
They'd be all ready there

I love that song. Also love "Father Christmas." Another of my favorites is Springsteen doing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."

Having heard both versions about 29 times this week, I'd put my support behind the Coldplay version. Much more spare and simple, just Chris Martin and a piano.

There's a mild difference of phrase in the Pretenders version I like better, but overall I'm with Chris.

And my second choice: Judy Garland's 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'. awwwww

Have yourself a merry little christmas.
I just love that womans voice

Gibby Haynes and Christmas, wotta combo.

It's a different "Christmas Song" than the Nat "King" Cole one; a good commentary on the meaning of Christmas.

I never get sick of Elvis's "Blue Christmas" and I also like "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen but I may just have a soft spot for their whole Snoopy/Red Baron saga.

'Xmas in hollis?'

Always makes me happy.

so heartwarming

I'm in radio, right in the middle of our Christmas playlist season. And I categorically refuse to play that piece of shite. I've told the boss I'll relent and play it only if the requester donates $50 to the local senior center.

n/t

I Believe in Father Christmas.....

And I'm a little ashamed to know that. Oh, my poor punk cred, slipping away slowly, ever so slowly...

More religious:
Mary, Did You Know?
The Christmas Song (Dave Matthews, not "Chestnuts Roasting...")
The Gift
He Wasn't His Child

More secular:
Last Christmas (The WHAM version, not the Boy Band one)
Colorado Christmas
Baby, It's Cold Outside

If you're looking for something weird and funny, but not necessarily new:

Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

by Robert Earl Keene.

Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk
At our Christmas party
We were drinkin' champagne punch
And homemade eggnog
Little sister brought her new boyfriend
He was a Mexican
We didn't know what to think of him
Til he sang Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad

Brother Ken brought his kids with him
The three from his first wife Lynn
And the two identical twins
From his second wife Mary Nell
Of course he brought his new wife Kaye
Who talks all about AA
Chain smokin' while the stereo plays
Noel, Noel, The first Noel

Carve the turkey turn the ball game on
Mix Margaritas when the eggnog's gone
Send somebody to the Quik-Pak store
We need some ice and an extension cord
A can of bean dip and some Diet Rite
A box of pampers , some Marlboro Lights
Hallelujah everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the family

Fran and Rita drove from Harlingen
I can't remember how I'm kin to them
But when they tried to plug their motor home in
They blew our christmas lights
Cousin David knew just what went wrong
So we all waited on our front lawn
He threw the breaker and the lights came on
And we sang Silent Night
Oh Silent Night o' holy night

Carve the turkey turn the ballgame on
Mix Bloody Marys cause we all want one
Send somebody to the Stop 'n Go
We need some celery and a can of fake snow
A bag of lemons and some Diet Sprite
A box of midol, some Salem Lights
Hallelujah everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the family

By the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

It was #1 on last year's (British) VH1 poll!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4101207.stm

The true sentiment of the season....

I don't think they wrote it, but I like their cover.

On edit: appalling grammar error. I'm not awake yet.

A great one too - originally done by Darlene Love on Spector's Christmas album. :hi:

Band Aid "Do they Really Know it's Christmas"
John Lennon's "So this is Christmas"
Sex Pistols "Punk Rock Christmas"

I remembered this one while I was doing my U2 post.

I actually like this one even better.

Although it was recorded using the pseudonym "The Three Wise Men".

Anything from the "Just Say Noel" CD is pretty good.

Do you also have "Countdown to Christmas Party Time"? by the aforementioned Three Wise Men?

:cry:

go here

http://www.steveheitzeg.com/recordings.html

go down to "little tree" and click "december stillness"

from there you listen

But I urge you to buy that CD. The Dale Warland Singers are among the best choruses performing today. This is a sublime performance.

by KaTe Bush

Lyrics (not the same without music):

December will be magic again.
Take a husky to the ice
While Bing Crosby sings White Christmas.
He makes you feel nice.
December will be magic again.
Old Saint Nicholas up the chimney,
Just a-popping up in my memory.

Ooh, dropping down in my parachute,
The white city, she is so beautiful
Upon the black-soot icicled roofs,
Ooh, and see how I fall.
See how I fall
("Fall!")
Like the snow.

Come to cover the lovers.
(Cover the lovers,
But don't you wake them up.)
Come to sparkle the dark up.
(Sparkle the dark up,
With just a touch of make-up.)
Come to cover the muck up.
(Cover the muck up,
Ooh, with a little luck.)

December will be magic again.
Light the candle-lights
To conjure Mr. Wilde
Into the Silent Night.
Ooh, it's quiet inside,
Here in Oscar's mind.

December will be magic again.
Don't miss the brightest star.
Kiss under mistletoe.
I want to hear you laugh.
Don't let the mystery go now.

Ooh, dropping down in my parachute,
The white city, she is so beautiful
Upon the black-soot icicled roofs,
Ooh, and see how I fall.
See how I fall
("Fall!")
Like the snow.

Come to cover the lovers.
(Cover the lovers,
But don't you wake them up.)
Come to sparkle the dark up.
(Sparkle the dark up,
With just a touch of make-up.)
Come to cover the muck up
(Cover the muck up,
Ooh, with a little luck.)

Oh, I'm coming to cover the lovers.
Ooh, and I'm coming to sparkle the dark up.



Fairytale of New York - Kirsty MacColl w/ The Pogues

Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses

Khash.

Great song - it starts out - On the first day after Christmas my true love and I had a fight and so I chopped that pear tree down and burned it just for spite; and with a single cartridge, I shot that blasted partridge.

I sang it in college and have the sheet music but have never been able to locate a recording of it - which I would dearly love to have.

Not sure how old this song is, but it qualifies as modern, I'm sure. I've always loved it because it sounds ever so slightly wistful. To me, it conveys a shadow of the melancholy that is sometimes associated with "big city" Christmases, you know? That sense that sometimes, when you live in a city, you're lucky if you have even one person you can spend that time with, sheltering temporarily against the difficulties that beset us the rest of the year.

Perhaps not "modern" necessarily, but certainly so compared to many other traditional songs.

I love it too, but it always makes me feel a little wistful and melancholy.

"Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" by the Ramones is one of my favorite. But I also have to admit, with great embarrassment, that it just doesn't feel like Christmas until I hear "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid. I know, it's cheesy and possibly even offensive, but I love it anyway.

It is an awesome and meaningful song, especially with the current state of the world.

Someday at christmas men won't be boys
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys
One warm december our hearts will see
A world where men are free

Someday at christmas there'll be no war
When we have learned what christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at christmas

Someday at christmas we'll see a land
With no hungry children
No emtpy hand
One happy morning people will share
A world where people care

Someday at christmas
There'll be no tears
When all men are equal
No man has fears
One shining moment
One prayer away
From our world today

Someday at christmas
Men will not fail
Hate will be gone
And love will prevail
Someday a new world
That we can start
With hope in every heart

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at christmas time

Also: Cry of a Tiny Babe-Bruce Cockburn, and The Rebel Jesus-Jackson Browne.

"Barenaked for the Holidays."

Awesome Christmas/Holiday Album, something for everyone. My all-time favorite.