The REAL essential Christmas album, of course, is the Phil Spector release
on Philles Records, A Christmas Gift to You, featuring the
incomparable Darlene Love and Ronnie Spector along with their groups and
The Crystals. And a big ''yes'' to the young'ns (or at least the ignorant
ones, since I'm sorta a young'n myself), that's Darlene Love on
''Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).'' from Gremlins.
But these are the 14 tracks--British standard :-) --that you NEED to have.
All rolled up inna one.
SIDE ONE:
- "White Christmas," Darlene Love (it opens ACGTY)
- "Blue Christmas," Elvis Presley
- "Please Come Home For Christmas," The Eagles
- "Sleigh Ride," The Ronnettes
- "The Chipmunk Song," The Chipmunks (with David Seville)
- "Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me," Elvis Presley
- "Happy Christmas (War is Over)," John Lennon and the Plastic Ono
Band
SIDE TWO:
- "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," Darlene Love
- "Snoopy's Christmas," The Royal Guardsmen
- "Santa Claus Is Back in Town," Elvis Presley
- "Bye Bye Thou Little Tiny Child," Kingston Trio
- "Merry Christmas Baby," Otis Redding
- "White Christmas," The Drifters
- "Feliz Navidad," Jose Feliciano (Remember
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street? Great stuff.)
*--Okay, maybe it isn't precisely a Christmas song. But it's on their Christmas album, and the events it represents happened right after the good ol' Nativity in the Bible.
Available on vinyl, 8-track and cassette...though the damn record
companies will probably insist on CD, too.
All right, it's imperfect (a little too secular, but who does a good
recording of O Holy Night?) (a little too comical, but that's the fun).
Just missing the cut: "Christmas at Ground Zero" (Weird Al Yankovic); "Dominick the Donkey" (Lou Monte);
"The Christmas Song" (Nat King Cole); "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," by Little Miss Dynamite, Brenda Lee; Ray Stevens's "Santa Claus is Watching You"; "Holly Jolly Christmas" (Burl Ives--can you say Rudolph?). And we're getting a little soft spot for No Doubt's "Oi to the World" from A Very Special Christmas 3 (it has to be the best song ever written about a Christmas-Day rumble).
So anyway, have a Merry Christmas. And be on the non-lookout for the eventual release of the Fornabaio Non-Essential Christmas Album, featuring Connie Francis's "Baby's First Christmas," The Carpenters' "Merry Christmas, Darling," that "Chrissy the Christmas Mouse" song, and any non-Elvis versions of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" we can find.
Michael Fornabaio -- mef17@oocities.com
Click here to return to the homepage
This'll take you to GeoCities, them what host this here page...