Musical Family Tree

The Indiana Music Archive and Online Community

I’m working on an article/mix for a local magazine I freelance for. I generally can’t get into Christmas music, but a few of my favorites:

Low – Little Drummer Boy
Juliana Hatfield – Make It Home
Bright Eyes – Blue Christmas
Jimmy Eat World - Christmas Card
Local H – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Radiohead - Winter Wonderland
Liz Phair – Winter Wonderland
Sufjan Stevens – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!
Dance Hall Crashers – I Did It For The Toys
Ryan Adams - Hey Parker, It's Christmas
Rilo Kiley - Xmas Cake

Add to my list?

I really don’t care how silly, unhip, or embarrassing they may be.

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I read your post and started thinking of Christmas music:. Johnny Mathis, and some clay-mation sing alongs come to mind. Bing Crosby is always good...Believe it or not,, Yanni on the Clarinet! (Crowd pleasers)

Reply to This

here's a great track from the MFT archive by The Winechuggers
Face Down At Christmas Again
Also, The Mysteries Of Life have some good winter tunes under the album Misc Recordings 1996
http://www.musicalfamilytree.org/band/mysteries_of_life
I'm sure there's more if I thought about it some more

Reply to This

How sentimental! Here are some from a CD I made:

The Flaming Lips - A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn't So)
Rufus Wainwright - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby, It's Cold Outside
Death Cab For Cutie - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Nat King Cole and The Starlighters - All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)
Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
Louis Armstrong with Benny Carter and His Orchestra - Christmas Night in Harlem
Ella Fitzgerald - Sleigh Ride
A Girl Called Eddy - The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot
Rufus Wainwright - Spotlight On Christmas
Bing Crosby - Let It Snow
Charles Brown - Please Come Home For Christmas
B.B. King - Christmas Celebration
Dean Martin - I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

Reply to This

You can't leave this one off your list. Best Christmas song ever!

The Kinks "Father Christmas"

Reply to This

Has immediately been added to my list!

Reply to This

The Beatles Christmas Fan Club Recordins
A Christmas Gift For You produced by Phil Spector
Merry Christmas, Baby (I Don't Want to Fight) The Ramones
Little Drummer Boy Bing Crosby
White Christmas Dean Martin (Irving Berlin said he did it better than Bing)
Santa Got Drunk the John Barge Society
Merry Christtmas, Baby Elvis Presley
Little Saint Nick the Beach Boys
Run, Rudolph, Run Keith Richards
Of the above, the best by far is the Phil Spector album.

Reply to This

Thanks for the suggestions so far, everyone!

That Kinks song is my new favorite jam.

Reply to This

Yeah, that Kinks tune is awesome, I'm totally ashamed to say I only remember it from childhood and don't even have the album, looks like it's time for me to buy the 80s and 90s Kinks albums!

Reply to This

Low: Just Like Christmas
Descendents: Christmas Vacation
Galaxie 500: Listen, the Snow is Falling
Death Cab: The New Year
Palace: Christmastime in the Mountains
Husker Du: Flexible Flyer
Neil Young: Winterlong
O Holy Night: traditional

Some of these are more seasonal than Christmasy.

Reply to This

Thanks, Sean. A lot of my picks are kind of just seasonal too. Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know that Neil Young song for some reason. Maybe I'm just strange, but even "Sugar Mountain" sort of reminds me of the winter. Even though he's singing about a fair. Haha.

Reply to This

If you're going seasonal, I will toss out "Happy Hardcore New Year" by the Walking Ruins.

Reply to This

Jimmy:

You can find Young's "Winterlong" on Decade, his epic compilation from 1977. I don't believe it's on any other record. Sugar Mountain, which is also on there, reminds me of autumn, like right now, for some reason. Though, I have a feeling it's a summer song. Weird how that works. Some summer songs make me think of winter. Like Husker Du's "Celebrated Summer," has the lyrics:

"Then the sun disintegrates between a wall of clouds
I summer where I winter at, and no one is allowed there

Do you remember when the first snowfall fell
When summer barely had a snowball's chance in Hell?"

Reply to This

Reply to This

RSS

Here doggy!

Latest Activity

This is Mars Needs Women's, first band name. We got our flyers torn down Kirkwood by some Jaycee guy I remember, wearing his little red vest.
7 hours ago
hahahaha Calvert. that's hilarious
7 hours ago
I'm all for MFT and the artists both making some money whether it's NP or not. I'm glad there is another way of getting us out there. If I would have sold an album in the 80s, I remember most little labels and artists would be happy to sell their t…
7 hours ago
Molly D'Eath updated their profile
8 hours ago
jay armstrong Quick said/jay armstrong/ crawpuppies show TOMORROW NIGHT :)
8 hours ago
Eloid added 2 photos
22 hours ago
PJ- I thought of that too! I could use a new Ping hat. We aren't too far down the road of the NP thing to turn back. But John is right, if we can find a way to funnel money to artists then I'm all about having MFT make some of that transaction. It…
23 hours ago
I tried to watch 100 Ways but I could feel my life force draining. Haven't the Japanese made some horror films about this video?
yesterday

© 2010   Musical Family Tree is brought to you by Small Box Web Design & SEO Indianapolis   Powered by .

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service