Modern Day Christmas Classics

[Si Hunt]

You'd think that modern day musicians simply don't make Christmas songs any more - each year the same old "big guns", a small selection of deliberately Christmas-themed songs released in the seventies and eighties, are wheeled out until we are thoroughly sick of them. You know the drill - Slade, Wizzard, The Pogues & Kirsty, Mariah, Shaky...

But in fact, people DO still write and release Christmas Songs, they just seem to slip under the radar a bit. I like to mix up my Christmas Listening with some newer offerings when I get sick of the oldies, so I thought I'd share with you a list of my favourite Christmas Songs of more recent times.

1. The Feeling - Is It Christmas?

Lovely cosy number released last year but no-one noticed - well worth downloading. Download!

2. Bananarama - Baby It's Christmas

Just released this year, it's very "them" - slightly wonky vocals, electro-fare like their camp old "Viva" album. But it has bells aplenty, and is a rollicking enough tune to make the dumplings to. Download!

3. Aqua - Spin Me A Christmas!

Yes, Aqua came back and went away again, but took the time to give us a Christmas single while they were here. You can't get it anywhere officially, but scour Google Blogs and you might find it!

4. Pet Shop Boys - It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas

Last year the PSB's re-worked this track from a previous fanclub-only single into a full-on bells-aplenty Christmas single. Catchy as hell! Download!

5. S-Club 7 - Perfect Christmas

It was back in the nineties that people stopped releasing Christmas anthems as main singles and just tucked them away as b-sides instead. This crops up on compilations every year, and you know, it's a grower! A nice slow tune in the vain of other 'serious' Christmas songs like The Carpenters "Merry Xmas Darling". Very worthy if you are getting sick of Slade! Download!

6. Let It Snow - Kylie

This is another brand new one, and the second wintry, Christmassy song sneaked out by Kylie at Christmas Time. Maybe the Dean Martin original is getting on your nerves? Very jolly and not too schmaltzy! She's also released a "Kylie Christmas EP" so you can get her "Santa Baby" as well. Download!

7. Lady Gaga ft Space Cowboy - Christmas Tree

This is very UNtraditional, but if you like her and are fed up of the endless bells and usual fare, then it's a whole load of fun - especially the "Lady Gaga! Lady Gaga!" bit. Download!

8. Dolly Parton - Comin' Home For Christmas

A one-off single released a year or so back, this is also in the vein of more "serious" songs, and I really like this! Surely worth it just for the cover. Download!



9. Christina Aguilera - Christmas Song (Holiday Remix)

Christina sounds almost like Christmas, so it was inevitable they'd clash at some point - though surely she missed a trick not calling her yuletide album "Merry Christina" or something. Anyway, here she gets her pipes around some wintertime tunes and the result is most pleasant. Download!

10. Queen - A Winter's Tale

Their "Thank God It's Christmas" often sneaks into the list of the Christmas Songs Shops Play To Death, but this lovely song from "Made In Heaven" always "counts" for me because of its wintry theme. It's the last song Freddie ever wrote as well, and is basically him just sitting watching the last winter he would see and appreciating it. Always makes a nice addition to the Christmas Playlist for me. Download!

11. Elaine Paige - Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

A whole album of festive tunes from Dame Paige here, and her "Walkin In The Air" is worth a crack too. Download!

12. Cyndi Lauper - Minnie and Santa

Now, this is an odd thing. Cyndi's Christmas album "Merry Christmas... Have A Nice Life" is actually REALLY good. We play it every year, and there are some great traditional sounding original Christmas songs on it - it's all slightly fiddle and lyre sounding. This is, however, a cheeky modern song about a woman who insists that Santa is real and is going to come and spirit her away for romantic shenanigans. What they're up to, no-one knows! Always raises a smile in this house. Download!

13. Kate Bush - Home For Christmas

I'm not sure where you can get it now, but this is a lovely, peaceful tune with a beautiful vocal. A nice alternative to "December Will Be Magic Again", her rather better known festive foray.

14. Jason Donovan - When You Come Back To Me (Yuletide Sleigh Mix)

This is a bit special - one of his unsung great songs, and the Yuletide mix has an additional Christmassy voiceover! Amazing. You can get it by buying the Deluxe Edition of his Between The Lines album. Buy!

15. Coldplay - Christmas Lights

In the charts right now. Yes it's a little "as you'd expect" but if you fancy something sedate and a little bit wistful at this time of year, when it could be a hit with you. Bound to be a regular on festive compilations in the years to come. Download!

So there we are! You don't ever need to complain about the "same old" Christmas songs again, as there are lots of unsung classics out there if you probe a little. Why not investigate a few of the above and make your own, fresh-sounding Christmas CD as an alternative to that battered old "Now" Christmas album?

If you know of any Christmas tunes that we might not have heard of, please share them here!

Si.

[SiHart]

The mash up of Womblin' Merry Christmas and I wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday is our modern day classic. It's wrong in every siongle way, but I can't help but love it!

Si xx

[Simon R]

Cyndi's version of "Silent Night" starts off sounding alarmingly like the incidental music in "State of Decay"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmzrqy6Ndfc

[SiHart]

I like the PSBs song and the one by The Feeling a lot too. Both good songs- especially the cursing of Bing Crosby in the PSBs one.

I have a couple of big favourites from recent-ish times- It Was Just Like Christmas by Low is splendidly Christmassy, Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland by Grandaddy is cool and very silly indeed.

Si xx

[Jeff]

12 Days of Christmas by Straight No Chaser. Best. Version. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8