Match musicians to fave holiday songs.
What’s December without Silent Night or Santa Claus Is Coming To Town?
Or the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s sad-sack ditty, Christmas Time Is Here, featured in the TV classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas? Or Bing Crosby’s iconic White Christmas?
Music is as vital to the festive season as turkey, presents and family, which is why so many artists release their own holidays songs each year.
Listen to the Huron Carol and you might be instantly transported to a dark school gym, singing your lungs out with the rest of your Grade 4 classmates.
Or catch a few bars of Run-DMC’s hip-hop number, Christmas In Hollis, and you might remember the first time you watched Bruce Willis’s holiday classic, Die Hard, with your family piled around you on the couch.
We’ve asked a few musicians to tell us about their favourite Christmas carols/holiday tunes.
Match the artist with the song. The answers are on page B2. 3. Cold Specks, Montreal goth-pop singer 4. Rebecca Anderson, vocalist/keyboardist and accordion player for F& M 5. Jim Gray, vocalist for ’80s new wave act, Darkroom, and country cover band, Cheatin’ and Hurtin’ 6. Shakey Graves, alt-folk musician from Austin, Texas 7. Travis Bretzer, indierocker 8. BMBSHL, electro-pop vixen 9. Jesse Northey, singersongwriter, producer, video director
Here are their responses:
(a) “I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Says it all. We recorded it years ago. I’d love to re-release it.”
(b) “It’s the Christmas song from Alvin and The Chipmunks — Christmas Don’t Be Late. I love the vocal harmonies, the chord changes, the instrumentation and Dave getting angry. Also the fact that Alvin wants a hula hoop. We’ve gone from hula hoop to Xbox.”
(c) “I’m not really one for traditional Christmas songs, but my favourite would be This Christmas originally written by Donny Hathaway and sung by a lot of R & B artists, including Patti LaBelle, Christina Aguilera, Chris Brown and Destiny’s Child. With every rendition it just gets better and there’s something about it that really puts me in the Christmas spirit.”
(d) “I’ve always been a big fan of Carol of the Bells. But as far as hokey is concerned, I’ve always liked Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer.”
(e) “I don’t celebrate Christmas. But I did a cover for a friend on his record — Christmas Evermore by Mary Margaret O’Hara. I just think she’s got a wonderful voice.”
(f) “My fave is O Holy Night. Mostly because singing it feels so damn good. It’s peaceful but can become so beautifully soulful.”
(g) “The Snowman, from an animated TV special in the ’70s based on a book by Raymond Briggs. I guess I like the song because it’s haunting, very Christmassy and nostalgic. It’s partly the visuals, too — a boy is flying with this snowman over the ocean and this whale comes up. I remember watching it as a kid. David Bowie narrates it.”
(h) “Christmas is tied to the idea of coming home, marked by people returning to their families to celebrate. As I have aged, I have translated this theme of homecoming into something deeper — finding my way home to myself at the end of a long year. My favourite Christmas songs aren’t the joyful, upbeat ones about jingling bells or Santa Claus but rather the ones that reflect this longing, this seeking, like I’ll Be Home For Christmas and Bells Will Be Ringing.”
(i) “O Holy Night. I think my mom used to play it on the piano when I was a kid. There’s something about hymns that strikes a chord in me. It reminds me of Christmas without being overly spiritual. It’s one of those songs that still has a nostalgic value to me.”