Christmas music

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"Holiday Song" redirects here. For the song by the Pixies, see Come on Pilgrim.
"Christmas song" redirects here. For the Mel Tormé composition, see The Christmas Song.
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Image:Music album record white christmas.jpg
CD cover for Bing Crosby's "White Christmas"

Christmas music or Christmas songs is a genre which is normally performed during the time period leading up to, and sometimes shortly past, Christmas. Christmas songs frequently are the focus of holiday themes directly taken from Christmas, but occasionally they have no content addressing the holiday, and instead focus on wintry themes. These songs recognizably fall into several different groupings, depending on both the time and melody of the songs.

Songs which are traditional, even some without a specific religious context, are often called Christmas carols. Some songs of more recent vintage, often introduced in films, are specifically about Christmas, but are typically not overtly religious and therefore do not qualify as Christmas carols. The archetypal example is 1942’s “White Christmas”, although many other holiday songs have become perennial favourites, such as Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

A significant subset of the secular songs are regarded as “Christmas” songs due to the time of year that they are most often sung, despite never mentioning anything about Christmas. These songs include traditional favorites such as “Winter Wonderland”, “Let it Snow”, and “Sleigh Ride” (whose standard lyrics mention not a holiday party but a birthday party). These songs fall into the generic “winter” classification, as they carry no Christmas connotation at all. However, it could be argued that it would be impossible to popularize a winter-themed song, especially in the United States, without its being regarded as a “Christmas” song. In fact, winter-themed songs are generally not played on the radio in the U.S. during the larger part of the winter after the Christmas season has ended, although they may receive limited radio airplay on some stations, particularly after a significant snow event.

In the United States, radio stations often play Christmas music as a regular radio format during the holiday season, a fad that began during the 2001 holiday season following the September 11 terrorist attacks. At first, the stations, primarily those who play adult contemporary music (although a handful of country music and adult standards stations have used their own variations of the format) began airing the all-Christmas music playlists during Thanksgiving Day and continued through Christmas, changing back to the original format on December 26. However, the format proved to be a hit, and now most stations across the country have moved up the format change to a week before Thanksgiving. Some stations now also continue with occasional holiday songs, usually not referring directly to Christmas, once an hour through New Year's Day. There are also a few stations, such as KOSY in Salt Lake City, who have aired the format even earlier, beginning as early as October 31; this was particularly popular in 2006, although several stations have backed off such an early start. In addition, Christmas music is a particularly popular format year-round among radio stations as a "stunt format," used as a buffer for the time period (usually a few days) between when the previous format is cancelled and the new format is launched.

In addition to Christmas and winter-themed songs, songs for New Year's Day and Hanukkah may also be heard during the Christmas season.

Another subset of the popular Christmas songs, apart from the more sincere ones, are the many parodies or twists on existing songs, which are usually classified as "Novelty songs". They range from the cuteness of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)", by Alvin and the Chipmunks, to the Cold War gallows humor of "Christmas at Ground Zero" and the morbid humor of "The Night Santa Went Crazy", both by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Some songs have little relationship to Christmas, but are hyped up over the period. Each year in the United Kingdom record companies compete for the Christmas number one single spot, usually, but not always, with a Christmas-related song. This is parodied in the film Love Actually, whereby an artist records a cover version of a song and adds a Christmas twist to it, all the time admitting that it is "rubbish". Cliff Richard is famed for his many attempts, with some success, to get the Christmas number-one single.

Contents

[edit] List of Christmas songs

[edit] Christmas hit singles

Main article: List of Christmas hit singles

[edit] Christmas carols and secular Christmas songs

Main article: List of Christmas carols

[edit] Not originally intended as Christmas songs

Som songs are frequently associated with Christmas because of the time they were released, or for other less obvious reasons, rather than explicit references to the holiday. They are sometimes given a Christmas feel by adding sleigh bells or by recording a Christmas video.

  • "Baby, It's Cold Outside" – a pop standard composed by Frank Loesser, describing an intended winter-night seduction and usually performed as a male-female duet. Recorded by many artists including Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, etc. This standard was widely heard all year around on Adult Standards radio stations until the 1990's when such stations began playing more baby boomer pop and softer rock songs in the format. This song began being heard regularly at Christmas time after Rod Stewart recorded it with Dolly Parton and also radio stations began playing Christmas Music wall to wall for the entire Advent season. After Rod Stewart recorded the song, half a dozen other adult contemporary artists recorded it for their Christmas albums.
  • "The Bells of St. Mary's" – first published in 1917, this Douglas Furber tune was popularly revived in the 1945 film of the same name. Both the film and song have come to be commonly associated with the Christmas season, and the latter has been covered on many artists' Christmas albums.
  • "Dear Mr. Jesus" – PowerSource from their Shelter From The Storm album. It is sung by a 9 year old girl named Sharon Batts. Richard Klender wrote it in 1985. The song is about child abuse awareness and it has nothing to do with Christmas. Connie Bradley, Director, ASCAP, on April 11, 1988 said that this song was one of the, "most requested songs in the history of radio", (it is still highly requested every holiday season).
  • "Feed the Birds" sung by Julie Andrews from Mary Poppins is often associated with the holiday making many references to "saints and apostles" and "St. Paul's Cathedral". The song is popular with Christmas carolers as well, but it is not related to the holiday.
  • "From a Distance", the Grammy winner for Best Song (1990) was also a number one adult contemporary hit for Bette Midler. The song was a hit around the Christmas season of 1990. A few stations began including the song during wall to wall Christmas programming in 2003 Christmas Season after the Gulf War had begun 9 months earlier. As a result, she later recorded a Christmas version in 2005, which includes lyric changes and sections from several popular carols.
  • The "Hallelujah Chorus", from Handel's Messiah oratorio, is often performed at Christmas (as is, occasionally, the larger work), although it was originally conceived and performed as an Easter piece.
  • "If We Make It Through December", recorded by Merle Haggard in 1973. The song is a lament of a father who loses his job at the factory just as the holidays are approaching. Depressed over his predicament during what normally should be a "happy time of year", he observes that his little girl "don't understand why Daddy can't afford no Christmas here." The song reached No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart on December 22 1973 ... just in time for Christmas. (It should be noted, however, that the song did first appear on Haggard's Christmas-themed album entitled "A Christmas Present.")
  • "It's a Small World Holiday" from the it's a small world attraction at Disneyland in California Recorded By:Disneyland Childrens Choir from the Orange County Elementary Schools. First introduced in 1997. Every year, the attraction is decorated between Thanksgiving and New Years. The attraction is dressed in 300,000 twinkleing lights, a Santa Claws hat on the clock, and many more. The dolls sing "Jingle Bells" an "Deck the Halls" along with its famous theme song.
  • "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" – a 20th century pop standard written by Irving Berlin that mentions winter themes such as snow, icicles, and December. Often performed as a duet, notably by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, which appeared on the album Ella and Louis Again in 1957. Like "Baby Its Cold Outside", it was often heard year round on MOR stations until the late 1960's and Adult Standards stations throughout the 1980's. Dean Martin's version was widely played over the decades. Beginning in the early 2000's, Dean's version became widely played on wall to wall Christmas music programming on Adult Contemporary radio stations.
  • "Jingle Bells", often called the 'most-popular' "Christmas" song, and certainly one of the most omnipresent every year, has no lyrics referring to Christmas at all. As holidays go, its first known performance was for a church Thanksgiving program in 1857, and was originally sung more around that holiday by Americans heading by sleigh to nearby family gatherings.
  • "Mr. Sandman" sung by The Chordettes and written by Pat Ballard is often mistook for a Christmas song, due to the bells heard throughout the song and its references to another character that comes during the night to bring mysterious things (dreams instead of gifts). Pat Ballard actually wrote a version called "Mr. Santa". This song was sung by Sandler & Young initially. Recently the song was recorded by several artists but it's still seldom heard.
  • "My Favorite Things" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. US radio stations that play Christmas music typically air various versions of this show tune, relating "favorite things" to Christmas gifts and also mentioning "silver white winters." It has recently become a 'signature' Christmas song for Tony Bennett. Tony's version had been widely played all year around on adult standards and easy listening radio stations for many years. The adult contemporary, top 40, and oldies stations only played the song at Christmas time but usually by The Supremes rather than Tony Bennett. Kenny Rogers' version also has been heard during the Christmas season on contemporary radio stations, as has Lorrie Morgan's version. Today, the song is usually only heard at Christmas Time.
  • "Same Old Lang Syne" – Dan Fogelberg (1980-1981). The mention of Christmas Eve in this song is largely coincidental as the song as in fact about a chance meeting Fogelberg had with an old friend of his. The song focused slightly on New Years. Still, long after the Christmas season, this song was widely heard on contemporary music radio stations in 1981 and even beyond. Its still occasionally played year round, but stations have also picked up the song for more extensive airplay during Advent as part of their Christmas music rotation.
  • "Second Star To The Right"- from the 1953 Walt Disney animated feature Peter Pan Radio Stations that play Christmas music occasionally play this song often referring to the Star of Bethlehem (some denominations will sometimes replace 'Neverland' with 'Bethlehem')
  • "Song for a Winter's Night" – written and originally recorded by Gordon Lightfoot, this seasonal tune was covered by Sarah McLachlan on the Rarities, B-Sides And Other Stuff album, and included on her 2006 holiday album Wintersong.
  • "Stay Another Day" – East 17 (1994) (added sleigh bells)
  • "St. Patrick's Day" from John Mayer's Room for Squares (2001); Despite the title, this song is set during the winter-Christmas season, with its three-beat rhythm giving a Christmas feel.
  • "Stop The Cavalry" – Jona Lewie (1980) (released in late November when the record company spotted the line "Wish I was at home for Christmas")
  • "Thank God For Kids" – The Oak Ridge Boys (1982) This song does mention Santa Claus at the beginning of the song, but according to Eddy Raven, its writer, it is not intended to be a Christmas song. However, the Oak Ridge Boys did release it on their first Christmas album in 1982.
  • "What a Wonderful World" – long associated with Louis Armstrong, this 1967 ballad has no holiday or seasonal content in its lyrics, but has been featured on a number of artists' Christmas albums in recent years.
  • "Winter Wonderland" – written in 1934 by Felix Bernard (composer) and Richard B. Smith (lyricist), due to its seasonal theme, "Winter Wonderland" is often regarded as a Christmas song on the Northern Hemisphere, although the holiday itself is never mentioned in the lyrics.

[edit] Christmas Songs Introduced in Theatre, Television and Film

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "What Pop Music Can Teach Us About The Spirit Of Christmas". Retrieved on 2007-11-1. 
  2. ^ "PRWeb Royalty Free Music Library". Retrieved on 2006-10-17. 
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