You might say I have a Christmas music problem.
For years, I collected Christmas LPs. Then CDs.
I’ve since ripped all of the CDs and most of the LPs to the hard drive, where I can listen to them via iTunes.
And I currently have 4,225 Christmas songs in iTunes. Of those, 1.671 are unique songs — not covers.
Which makes sense, because there are a lot of musicians out there who will write a new song or three for their Christmas release hoping it becomes a classic — the next “White Christmas” or “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
Christmas being a holiday (a holy day for many of us) of great sentiment, hearkening back to childhoods with grandparents, uncles and aunts, even parents long gone, most of us come back to a few particular favorites.
Nor surprisingly, many of those favorites are also favorites of the musicians, too. I have 15 different versions of “Adeste Fidelis” alone, from Bing Crosby to organist Robert Rheims.
Below are what I consider to be the definitive versions of some of the most beloved Christmas songs, along with another version that makes its own mark. (I didn’t include any of the traditional carols, because the best versions of those tend to be the ones heard sung by a church choir):
“Blue Christmas” — Elvis Presley (1957)
Elvis took a slow tempo swing number that the great Billy Eckstine had recorded in 1950 and made it into a rock ’n’ roll tale of heartache. Elvis’ version is so iconic that even fellow rockers Brenda Lee and Bobby Vinson’s subsequent recordings were modeled after Eckstine’s arrangement.
“Blue Christmas” — Willie Nelson (1979)
Maybe only Willie Nelson’s version is able to escape the shadow of both Elvis and Eckstine. With a spare backing band behind him, Willie makes this country interpretation almost as uptempo as Elvis’ version — and not nearly as maudlin.
“Silver Bells” — Andy Williams (1965)
Originally written for the 1950 film “The Lemon Drop Kid” (in which it is sung by William Frawley, Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell!), it was recorded a few months later by Bing Crosby with a sparse, acoustic arrangement. Johnny Mathis included a stately version with strings on his 1958 Christmas LP. But it is the lushly orchestrated version by Andy Williams that feels the most like Christmas.
“Silver Bells” — Sonia Dada (1994)
With the same basic instrumentation as Bing Crosby’s 1950 recording, this acoustic take by the alt-rockers benefits from the rich vocal harmonies the band brings, as well as a quicker tempo than Crosby’s.
“It’s Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas” — Perry Como & The Fontane Sisters (1951)
The song that made Perry Como a Christmas perennial, with his rich baritone voice and stylish sweaters.
“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”— Johnny Mathis (1986)
A brighter, more uptempo — and, frankly, more kid-oriented — version, Mathis’ arrangement doesn’t stray far from Como’s 35 years earlier. But the performance is more akin to something one might see in a Broadway show — even a little over the top.
“Christmas Island” — Bob Atcher & The Dinning Sisters (1950)
Coming just four years after the Andrews Sisters recorded what is certainly the best-known Hawaiian-themed Christmas song, country singer Bob Atcher teamed up with The Dinning Sisters for an even more tropical version.
“Christmas Island” — Leon Redbone
With a slack-key tuning to his acoustic guitar, old-timey throwback Leon Redbone included a wonderful reading on his 1988 Christmas record. It was this version that was included in Will Ferrell’s Christmas film, “Elf.”
“The Christmas Song” — Nat “King” Cole (1961)
Mel Tormé and Robert Wells’ classic is one of the most recorded Christmas songs around; I have 99 different versions in my iTunes library — Lou Rawls alone recorded two different versions 12 years apart. Originally recorded by Nat “King” Cole in 1946, he kept fiddling with the arrangement — his fourth version, in 1961, with a full orchestra, is the one most of us hear in our memories. Everyone from Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald have tackled it — none have equaled Cole’s pull on our heartstrings.
“The Christmas Song” — Alex Chilton (1993)
A stripped-down acoustic version, with just Chilton’s voice and guitar. It’s as starkly beautiful as a northern woods covered in a blanket of snow.
“Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)” — Elvis Presley (1957)
Ending where we began, with Elvis, he made this one of the first rock ’n’ roll Christmas songs — and in the decades since, it’s become a staple of rock stations during the holidays. Elvis’ voice is in full tremolo, with that low-end quiver that drove a generation of teenage girls crazy.
“Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)” — Ranch Romance (1993)
Ranch Romance was an unfairly underknown all-women neo-cowboy outfit from Seattle active in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Vocalist Jo Miller sings the song about an octave above Elvis, while the combination of fiddle, banjo, and accordion set the scene of a singalong around a winter campfire.
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