This is wonderful and I love you!

I put this on the sidebar in case you want to keep adding to this post. I can't wait to make a CD from all the songs. Thank you!

What a great idea. Thanks, Miko!

Cheers for this.

What an awesome idea, Miko!

Winter Weather expired.

poop. Thanks, chuckdarwin...I am not used to the new SendUIt. I will re-post when I get home later today...

This is such a great idea. Thanks :)

WHOA, THANKS!

December 2: Winter Weather, by Benny Goodman and his orchestra with vocals by Peggy Lee and Art Lund.

≡ Click to see image ≡

NOOOOOO! WHAT HAS USENDIT DONE?
;-)

That's why I always use DivShare because the links never expire.

And it has a little flash player built in so you can listen to the song before you download it.

Well, maybe I'll use that. I thought there was a bit of an advantage, legally, to having them expire, though.

Here's a Winter Weather to last you a week.

Since ico was nice enough to create a sidebar link, what I'll do is make a daily post about the new song that links back to here, where the song will be. That way, all the songs themselves will stay in one thread. Make sense?

December 3: In honor of New England's first real snowfall of the winter - a deep and white but sloppy and wet mix - here's mandolinist and newgrass pioneer Sam Bush with a sweet and jazzy rendition of "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!"

(I so want someone to play all of these in a post-xmas broadcast)

or would that not be allowed?

No, I think that's a great idea, podey! Some final blowout. I might carry it all through December, since I have a lot and even have some New Year's-appropriate selections.

Yay!

December 4: Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses.

"A Christmas album? On a hipster label? With a bunch of junkies on it? Eurotrash? Come on. Never happen."

To a teenager in the 80s, it wasn't Christmas until this song went pogoing out over the radio. It was everything most Christmas music wasn't until then: young, flirtatious, urbane, lean, energetic, poppy. At the time this came on, the band was better known for its laconic, silly New Wave ditty "I Know What Boys Like" [museum-quality 1980 video]. For some reason, this record was almost impossible to find in the bad-old pre-digital days. I struggled to memorize the verses by listening intently whenever a DJ broadcast it. Now that the Spice Girls have covered it and it's been endlessly compiled, it's much easier to come by. Still, there's a bounce and good spirit to this song that I find irresistible.

Oh my god, do I love this song. Yes, it could NOT be had back in the day- I guess it was only a single, maybe? I finally got the Waitresses' "Best of" CD some years back, mainly to have this song.

Thanks for making my day, Miko. :)

I wish someone would rerelease their full albums...the way the Wounded Bird label did with Romeo Void. I read somewhere that Patty Donohue got the idea for "I Know What Boys Like" after learning that some form of " nyah nyah, ne nyah nyah" exists in every culture.

That's neat, brujita: I never knew the lore of that song.

December 5: "Great Day in December" by the Swan Silvertones.

You can really hear the origins of later soul and certainly doo-wop the music of American black gospel groups like the Silvertones, called here the 'Beatles of Gospel.' Their leader, Claude Jeter, is credited with bringing the clear, sweet high falsetto vocal sound to gospel. Check them out on YouTube, too -- can I get a witness?

Gospel music is one of the number one things I miss about the US.

Not only is that hair-raisingly good, it's a good example of how to not over-produce/arrange one's music.

Oh that one is great, Miko. Sends shivers up my spine.

This is excellent!

It's December 6 Miko. . .I am getting impatient here!

JK

(This is a wonderful thing you are doing!)

Sorry Danf! I got up late this morning and had the wrong link and couldn't upload from work and yadda yadda etc and so on and so forth and blah-de-blah, excuses, excuses. So sorry! (But glad you're enjoying it).

December 6:Joy to the World by John Fahey. The Godfather of the fingerstyle revival did an incredible Christmas album which is a must-have for fans of acoustic guitar; I grew up listening to it and am glad to have found it again. (See the two pages of notes, too).

His life story had a lot of chapters, many of them sad. A roots, old-time and blues fan, a profound originator, an inspiration to the likes of Leo Kottke, a student of philosophy and folklore, a thrice-married guy with a serious drinking problem. Perhaps the oddest episode was the last - his rediscovery by indie fans who attempted to revive his career. His music, though, is brilliant and always was. Plenty of performances on YouTube to look at.

December 7: The Boar's Head Carol by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.

I've always loved the hearty, joyous melody of this tune, but researching it for context turned out to be a darned interesting wander into centuries-old English folklore.

In reading about the carol tradition you find that it goes back quite a ways, its origins disappearing into the mists of Anglo-Saxon history. The first mention of Christmas carols was made by a diarist in 1426, and he spoke of it as a tradition that was well established by then. But it seems that what became Christmas carols had grown gradually from pagan seasonal songs - wassailing songs and other solstice-related songs like the Boar's Head - and had been integrated into Church plays as the Church attempted to gain control over solstice celebrations from the 5th century onward.

The lyrics mix English and Latin comfortably, a strong indication of the Church influence. The first appearance of this song in print was in 1521, when it was printed in one of the very first popular-press books published by Wynkyn de Worde.

The Boar's Head Carol has been sung annually at the Queen's College of Oxford's Christmas feast (called the Boar's Head Gaudy) for at least 500 years, while a plate bearing a large roast boar's head is carried in [YouTube]. There is an Oxford legend about the origin of the tradition, but it's likely much older than Oxford. The Boar shows up in Norse mythology as a symbol of death, and found a place in the Yule observances of the solstice because it represented danger, death, and darkness. Sacrificing the boar (and roasting it for good measure and a tasty feast) was another symbolic victory over the forces and fear of darkness, the theme which tends to underlie almost all Northern hemisphere December holidays.

Today, there are Boar's Head pageants and festivals you can attend, and maybe our British bunnies can add more information about those.

This version is by perhaps my favorite female traditional singer of any kind, Maddy Prior, who is probably known best for her great work with Steeleye Span, the British folk/hard rock fusion band that became pretty well known in the early 70s. Today, one of her many projects is with the Carnival Band, and they specialize in these kinds of carols, folk songs of Christmas, and hymns. They have several albums together of Middle English to Restoration-era Christmas tunes, and they are all flat-out haunting and wonderful.

Info compiled from umpteen sources!

December 8: (Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon & Yoko Ono

No, it's not specifically a holiday song. But it's definitely a December song...isn't it?

Hearing this brings December, 1980, back with crystalline clarity. Double Fantasy had been released right before Thanksgiving, and my folks had it in heavy rotation already. The album was so cheerful, hopeful, and shiny: John and Yoko, back together, leaving drugs and infidelities behind, about to enter the more mature and loving years of their relationship. Songs about John's kid Sean, songs about enduring bonds between lovers and the family. Christmas was coming. I was ten. We had just moved to a new house in a neat town; things were on the upswing and the world seemed promising.

The mood changed on December 8, the day John Lennon signed an autograph for an oddly-behaving fan.

This event shocked my parents and their peers, and due to the everywhereness of baby boomers and the universal fame of this musical hero, it had a culturally pervasive impact. Radio stations began playing tracks from Double Fantasy once an hour, it seemed, bringing it quickly to #1. Fans gathered in a round-the-clock vigil outside John's apartment, holding candles and singing, and it went on for days. Tribute songs were written (Elton John's Empty Garden probably being the best) and tribute retrospective shows aired on the radio and television. The stupidity and senselessness of the event was the topic of discussion amongst adults: why? The answer: almost no reason, excepting ones that will be always with us: mental illness, the oddness of fame, and chance. There was also discussion of Paul McCartney's exhausted, numb response: when journalists asked him for his reaction to John's death, he replied "It's a drag, man."

That reaction seemed callous to a lot of people at the time. Today, it seems completely understandable.

The Sunday after John's death, Yoko organized a worldwide, silent vigil. Rolling Stone remembers:

Ono released a statement saying, "There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean." A vigil was planned for Sunday, December 14th, when mourners could assemble to pay their last respects. Reports estimated that the attendance at vigils around the world was in the millions: 30,000 in Liverpool, where Lennon grew up; 2,000 in Chicago; 4,500 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver; several thousand in Melbourne, Australia. The largest vigil was held in Lennon's adopted hometown of New York. At 2 p.m. on that brisk afternoon, 100,000 fans observed ten minutes of silence in Central Park, which ended with "Imagine" being played over the loudspeakers.

My parents participated in the vigil remotely, through the magic of television, and it is still probably the only time I have seen ten minutes of silence broadcast on network television. I cut some newspaper clippings of the photos out of the next day's Daily News, which I still have, for some reason. Similar photos are here.

It was a memorable month. A sad dose of reality for a baby boom generation just beginning to see settled family life come together, the bloodbaths of the late 60s and 70s presumably over.

But I still remember it as a clear, beautiful, and optomistic time, and over the years, have grown to love this song, and the album it comes from, more and more. It's probably John's best work, post-Beatles. It sounds wintery and Christmasy: the chimey bell-sounds, the choral backup. And the themes are perfect for this time of year - the last month of the year. Time to count blessings and commit to making a happy future. Our life together is so precious. We have grown, we have grown.

Fantastic, Miko. Thank you.

December 9: Santa's Got a Big Ol' Bag by The Bellrays.

It's hard to believe you're not listening to an old-school, 70s funk/soul group.

Somebody told me, a while ago, that they weren't aware of any Kwanzaa songs. Well, here's one.

(I don't mean to step on your toes, Miko (especially since I think you're doing such a great job with this thing)--rather, I didn't think it was worthy of an actual post, and figured this would be a place where people might enjoy it.)

Awesome, box - thanks! Great addition!

December 10: Trinquez, Trinquez by Michael Doucet (founding member of Beausoleil).

A Cajun fiddle version of a French medieval wassailing song. "Toast! Toast!" is the title's translation -- Speaks for itself. Haunting melody.

If anyone can translate the lyrics, I'd love to read them.

December 11: Christmas in Prison by John Prine.

Not only one of the niftiest quirky Christmas songs ever written, also one of the prettiest country love ballads ever written.

Wait a while, eternity.

December 12: Santa Claus is Comin' to Town by Bruce Springsteen.

Of course, I knew I'd be posting this song to the A.C., but didn't know when. It was just a matter of timing, and today's MeFi discussion finally inspired this sharing of E Street holiday joy.

Bruce tends to deliver this one at any December concerts he's done with the band, but it's been around a lot longer than I thought. The good folks at Backstreets tell me that it was recorded during the Born to Run tour, on Dec. 12, 1975, at a college show in Greenvale, NY (torrent - that's quite a setlist but apparently not such a hot audience recording). It was released first only to radio stations, making it a bit of a rarity, and then as a single a few times during the 80s, and finally on CD with "My Hometown" as a B side.

A few commenters point out that, though this version has become the definitive rock'n'roll version of the song, Springsteen took the basic arrangement directly from Phil Spector, who had set it up wall-of-sound-style for The Crystals. No matter - the E Streeters light it up like Snoopy's doghouse. As soon as I hear that chimey intro start, and the raspy voice say "It's all cold down on the beach...wind's whippin' down the boardwalk..." I know it's Christmas and I'm headed home.

Bonus: great video of the song, Passaic, NJ 1978, with snow!

December 13:Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sung by Judy Garland.

This thread inspired today's selection: it made a lot of people's Top Three. This Entertainment Weekly piece expresses why that is better than I can:

''Chestnuts [The Christmas Song]'' has plenty going for it: embers, tots, reindeer, an assurance of everything in its right place, and that 1-to-92 target demographic. But it can't hold a candle to the depth and richness of ''Merry Little Christmas,'' which wins our hearts by celebrating a quality that's even more intrinsic to the season: emotional ambivalence.

'''Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' manages to be happy and sad at the same time, hopeful but full of melancholy, as all the best Christmas songs are,'' says Bette Midler...

The song was part of the score for the 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis (YouTube clip). WE often hear that it was changed, but the details about who, when, and how get confusing. What we think of as the 'original lyrics' - the gently wistful ones the Judy Garland sings - aren't the original originals. Those were written by songwriter Hugh Martin, and they were quite a downer, appropriate to wartime 1943, when the news could be counted upon to be bad. EW quotes Martin as saying the lyrics were "hysterically lugubrious," and indeed, they are pretty grim:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York.

No good times like the olden days,
Happy golden days of yore,
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us no more.

But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows.
From now on we'll have to muddle through somehow.
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

So Judy asked them to be changed to something a tinge more hopeful and a smidge less depressing. What emerged was the sweetly melancholy song posted here.

It was Frank Sinatra who replaced the line "we'll have to muddle through somehow," with "hang a shining star upon the highest bough." He wanted to cheer the song up a bit to fit the optimistic postwar American mood of the 50s. And his version became, for many years, definitive.

Though anyone who heard Judy Garland's version of the song already knew there was a difference, the story of the changes became better known the Christmas after Sept. 11, 2001, when James Taylor recorded the Garland lyrics on his Christmas record, feeling that it better suited the national atmosphere of that hesitant holiday.

There's a wonderful short history of the lyrical changes, with sources, here.

What works about this song is the mood allows us to admit the imperfections of our lives at this time of year. With a holiday that is so mythically, monolithically devoted to happiness and joy, it can be hard to reconcile the spirit of the season with the messiness and sorrows of real life that are always with us. Our families don't match the glowingly perfect ones on TV, in their new sweaters, with their beautiful, well-off children and spouses. We may be very conscious of an empty spot in the celebrations where someone we loved is now gone, or an empty place that has never been filled and may or may not ever be. We may really fall short of the expectations of homemade goodness and thoughtfulness and getting everything done, and we may not see our fondest wishes fulfilled, and the world may not be one of peace and goodwill to men all the time. This song opens up a tiny, calm space in which we can express those imperfections. And then it lets us resolve to have some sort of merry Christmas, even if it's a little one, and lets us have some hope.

Sorry, that's annoying, forgot to close my link. If any mods can hope me, I'd be so happy. Thanks!

Very cool, Miko. Thanks again!

December 14: Overture and Sugar Rum Cherry by Duke Ellington

The Nutcracker Suite has to be among the world's most familiar, most popularly-known pieces of classical music. Like many, most Decembers during my childhood I sat in the town theatre with my family, watching dancers from the state ballet do their flowery-fairying and mouse-king-killing, wondering what it took to be one of the kid dancers scurrying around Drosselmeyer's feet. THe best part was when the 'snow' fell from the flyes, and it was a gorgeous spectacle onstage (sometimes you worried about the dancers slipping), but also cool to look up and see the long sifter it was coming from and the stagehands operating it, shadowed high above us.

It's music everyone knows, even if they don't know they know it. That's why it was especially cool to discover, later in life, that Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn had brought out Tchaikovsky's old snow-globe confection and reimagined it for the twentieth century. Released in 1960, their "Nutcracker Suite" reworked only 9 of the 19 movements of the original, comprising just 31 minutes, but what a half hour it makes. These pieces aren't just reinterpreted, they're revived, imbued with an entirely new energy, swing, and sexiness . Individual movements took on hepper names, so "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies" becomes "Sugar Rum Cherry," "Waltz of the Flowers" becomes "Danse of the Floreadores," and "Chinese Dance" becomes "Chinoiserie." It's the Nutcracker for grownups, more Mouse King than fairy dance, more Drosselmeyer than Clara.

Um...heh.

NICE!

December 16: Thanksgiving Theme by Vince "Dr. Funk" Guaraldi.

Lots and lots and lots of holiday complications feature Guaraldi's memorable tune, "Linus and Lucy." The Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack is definitely a must-have - Guaraldi's hep but good-natured sound goes so well with Charlie Brown's Woody Allenish world of childhood. But I've always thought the music from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was equally good, especially this tune. I also vote for the Thanksgiving special as decidedly more hilarious (YouTube) - it plays for laughs, where the Christmas special goes for the touching deeper meaning. Snoopy's Thanksgiving feels like my own - whenever I host, I feel exactly like him, bustling around with mismatched chairs, a crazy modified table, proudly winging plates of food at people. I hope isn't received quite the way Peppermint Patty welcomes her repast of buttered toast, popcorn, pretzels, and jellybeans, but it feels sort of close in its chaotic, improvisational, gamely-spirited, motley production.

When I was a kid, the appearance of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (on ABC sponsored by Peter Paul Mounds, thank you very much) signaled the start of the Holiday Season, and was thus excitingly welcome.

Vince Guaraldi's had a long and productive career, far beyond the more than a dozen scores he wrote for Charles Schulz specials. Check out his website for more.

December 17: 2000 Miles by The Pretenders.

Another gem from the Radio Shack boom-box cassette archives.

Miko, that's a great song.

December 18: Merry Christmas From the Family by Robert Earl Keen.

In the world of novelty Christmas songs, some have redeeming value, and some are best crammed into the giant wrapping-paper trash bag of history. This song isn't one of the latter. Sincerely warm-hearted, it's another song that gives you permission to enjoy a less-than-Martha-quality holiday for what it is. I first caught it on the radio a few years ago and laughed out loud at the shopping-list chorus: we've had a running family joke for 20 years or more about the random nature of holiday shopping lists: C batteries, heavy cream, can of black olives, box of tampons, Miller Lite, etc. He's got a classic in the making here: it's not too mawkish or heavy-handed, it's enjoyably silly, and it's oh, so Texas.

Concert performance YouTube, and even better, richly detailed official video. Or would you rather see the Mountain Goats cover it?

This is brilliant, and I'd never heard of it. Thanks, Miko! :)

I love Robert Earl Keen, thanks for this Miko. He's a good friend of Lyle Lovett, and in 'Record Lady' Lyle talks about him "Robert Earl is a friend of mine ..."

December 19: The Last Month of the Year by Betty May Bowman.

If you have a low tolerance for scratchy field recordings, skip this one. It was collected by Alan Lomax sometime in the late 30s, on a collecting trip for the Library of Congress. But if you like a capella black Southern gospel, grab it - if only so you can learn the melody and sing it in a crowd. It makes a fantastic improvisational vocal jam.

December 20: A-Roving On a Winter's Night, by I'm not sure who. A nice mountain love song (based on the older English forms of "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose," set in winter.

December 21: Run Run Rudolph by Dave Edmunds.

The 1958 version by Chuck Berry (official title: "Run Rudolph Run") was the first, and it's been covered by many, but this one is one of the best - doesn't vary much from the original, has really clean sound, a nice roadhouse piano, and Edmunds' quavery, cool vocal.

Excellent! Thanks, Miko!

December 22: Children, Go Where I Send Thee by the Gospel Scarlets.

A traditional black spiritual and counting song, each number referring to something from the Bible (Roger McGuinn provides the information). First recorded in 1936 - some folklorists consider it an American adaptation of "Green Grow the Rushes, O", but others say that cumulative songs like this arise so often it could have unique roots.

Apart from their appearance on a gospel collection I have, I can find nothing on the net about the "Gospel Scarlets." They may have used that name selectively, just to differentiate them from the pop band the Scarlets, and they may have existed only to make this recording and then disbanded..who knows. If anyone has more info I'd be interested! Their version of this frequently sung song is terrific.

December 23: Remember by Harry Nilsson

Just wanted to cross-link. Thank you, LT!

December 24th: Gaudete, by Steeleye Span

What holiday would be complete without the folkie goodness of Steeleye Span? Not mine! (guest-posted by LT)

December 25th - CHRISTMAS DAY! - Merry Xmas, War is OVER! by John Lennon

Because we all want it to be, yes?

Now go open your presents and eat your roast beast!
(guest-posted by LT)

p.s.: Gaudete suggested and sent by essexjan. As it happened, it's a song I've loved since high school, when my infatuation with Steeleye Span began. Thanks for the reminder that they did a Christmas tune, ej!

Oh no! The Guadete link has already expired. If you get a chance to repost it, please do. I have the Steeleye Span love, too.

Also, thank you SO MUCH for these posts!! I've been having a very nice Christmas season, in no small part because of these and other MeCha music posts.

lily: Probably the 1-week option on senduit wasn't chosen. I will re-post the songs Thursday when I get back to my machine. Many will think it silly that I didn't switch to DivShare, but in a way I wanted this to be temporal and fleeting, so that you'd have to stay with it to enjoy it - just like the season.

Miko, that sounds great. If you think to, please post a reminder.

Many happy holidays to you and yours.
AND to the rest of the bunnies.

Here's another link to Guadete.

Thank you so much for this, Miko!

And thank you, essexjan, for the backup link. My folks visit on Thursday and it's going to be so fun to surprise them with some Steeleye Span.

(One of my early amused memories of my folks in a record store... "No, NOT Steely Dan." And then I fell in love with what we finally brought home.)