Monday, October 26, 2009

Essential Christmas Albums

Okay, I know you guys are looking at that title like, "Whaaaaaat? It's not even Halloween yet! Why is this crazy lady talking about Christmas already?"
Well, my friends, it's about 50 degrees here right now and late last week, while studying for miderms, the hot chocolate was busted out. Along with the Christmas tunes.

Here are some Christmas albums that I've been listening to already:


James Taylor's voice on just his regular ol' albums makes me happy and calm.
Him singing Christmas songs? Pure bliss.


Amy Grant has several Christmas albums which makes it hard to choose just one. So I'm going to say that this one is a must-have since it's a compilation and has all the good ones. "Breath of Heaven" is beautiful.


Ray freakin' Charles. The particuarly amazing song on this one is "That Spirit of Christmas," from Christmas Vacation (the funniest movie ever, in case you didn't know).


Michael Buble needs to make a full Christmas album right now. This EP is only five songs, but it's so good. He's got a great voice for Christmas music -- he's kinda like the Bing of my generation (well, you know what I mean).


Speaking of Bing, Christmas can't be complete without him. This is some top notch Christmas music.

Here's one last one for ya:


I distinctly remember my mom having this CD and I'd always love singing along to Madonna's "Santa Baby" upstairs in our game room.

I always have more room for Christmas albums, so spill.
What are your December essentials?

7 comments:

Rockin' Jeff said...

I'll save the standards for when i visit with my mother. She loves christmas music. Me- as long as i have a little Elvis, and James Brown's 'Funky Christmas' album i'm all set.

In recent years i have made a Rock and roll Christmas CD that i distribute to friends. A cheap way to give a lot of folks a gift, and it's something that some of them will actually use every year.
Let me know if you want the play list, and you can make your own. It's got the Boss, Stones, Hendrix, Tom Petty, etc... Good stuff like that.

drewzepmeister said...

Trying to get my hands on the Christmas albums from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Heart..

Whizkid said...

Totally agree on the James Taylor and Amy Grant selections, especially Amy (oh wow how I love "Tennessee Christmas")!! Andy Williams has some great Christmas tunes, and Faith Hill's Christmas album from last year is pretty good, too. Another I like is Vanessa Williams' Christmas Collection album...it's got a little smooth jazzy flavor (her version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" is excellent).

Jillybean said...

Andy Williams - all the way! He sings them as they were meant to be sung and they take me back to being 4 years old when Christmas was still so magical...(though it still is a little bit!)

classicrockforthesoul said...

R&R History - Yes, please! Will you email it to me? classicrockforthesoul@yahoo.com thanks!

Drew - I had no idea Lynyrd Skynyrd had a Christmas album... I'm gonna get on that ASAP!

Whizkid - I suppose Mr. Williams is a must, too! After all these years, he's still got it.

Jillybean - Thanks for stopping by! :)

carolina said...

In the '90s, I saw Andy Williams perform his 2 hour Christmas show with no intermission. Very impressive (especially for someone his age). His voice was still strong.
Classic, that Ray Charles song "Spirit of Christmas" is wonderful -- I get choked up every time I hear it.
The Heart and LS Christmas CDs are available on Amazon.

Sean Coleman said...

"A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector" is one of the finest of the modern era. His personal life has certainly been fairly twisted, but his work was quite brilliant.

Christmas with the Rat Pack is pretty groovy, too.

As much as I like Dylan, the Christmas CD that he's recently released is bizarre. Well, actually it's just bad. The local rock station played excerpts from it and it sounds like all eight reindeer stomped on his throat before he went in to cut the vocals.

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