Overlooked Christmas Music Recommendations

Well, because Christmas is not only for kids, last week I made a playlist gathering a dozen spicy Christmas numbers, called A Very Naughty Christmas.
Expect debauchery and profanity, like on any great party.

A Very Naughty Christmas, a playlist by Nuno Bento on Spotify

 

I recently discovered him via a Facebook post my Brother shared. Both his Christmas album and Beatles covers albums are on my "to buy" lists.

 

I have a nearly 1,700 Christmas song playlist on Spotify if anyone is interested. I'm constantly updating it. Rock, soul, indy, metal, punk, country, Americana, standards-it's all in there.I know Spotify is a touchy subject for some of you so no bashing me. It's the holidays
Have Yourself a Super Soft Christmas, a playlist on Spotify

 

First UK hit sung in Latin, I believe.

 

This CD, with the Royal Scottish Orchestra and Chorus, is very nice. Some traditional carols with pleasant, interesting arrangements and quite well-recorded, too. Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Holly-Ivy-Christmas-Carols/dp/B0000030Y9

 

I enjoy a holiday song that makes you wanna shake your moneymaker.

 

An oldie but goldie.

 

I have many to share:

The Headcoatees covering the classic "Santa Claus" by The Sonics.

 

The Dickies always have KILLER covers. Here's their take on "Silent Night."

 

Esquivel brings the Space-Age Bachelor Pad sounds. The entire album is great. Here's "Frosty The Snowman."

 

Happy Fangs and I think alike.

All I Want For Christmas Is Halloween

 

Paul Horn and his ambient flute sounds. If you've never heard his Inside albums recorded inside the Taj Mahal, they're really great.

Carol Of The Bells

 

One last one with Love Spirals Downwards Cocteau Twinsish take on "Welcome Christmas" from How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

 

I really dig Joel Paterson's Hi-Fi Christmas Guitar album. I had a Christmas album listening party last year for the John Klein A Christmas Sound Spectacular that I had such a pivotal role in getting released last year, and I was trying to figure out which holiday CD among my some 300 that I was going to play as my guests entered my home before the big reveal of the John Klein music. I was getting ready with my gal that early evening and I had put on Joel Paterson's album and my gal spoke up immediately and said, "That's the one you should play as our guests arrive. It's upbeat, but mellow and very vintage sounding, all at the same time. "

 

Oh, I am just getting warmed up, my friend. How about one of the top three Christmas instrumental albums of all time, Mantovani's Christmas Carols, released during the Golden age of Christmas in 1958? This CD is a sonic beauty, and I highly recommend the Real Gone Music version from 2017. Mantovani was known for his signature cascading strings effect on many of the songs from this magnificent album.



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Wade: O Come All Ye Faithful

 

Rotary Connection's Peace is our tree-trimming go-to every year. Offbeat originals done in that lovely psych-soul style, with a few different approaches to "Silent Night" mixed in.

 

"Top three Christmas instrumental albums of all time"/"overlooked christmas music recommendations"...
I'm not getting it.

Whadda say we degenerate into posting Bing and Carpenters suggestions too...because, y'know, they're sure getting overlooked in a thread about overlooked Christmas music...

 

Yeah, that's a fair enough point, but I still feel that Mantovani's Christmas classic from 1958 is not exactly well known by forum members under the age of 60. This thread does not have a lot of albums from the Golden Age Of Christmas on it, so I thought I would throw one out there. I only discovered it a few years ago, and my family has been in the music industry on and off since the late 1950's, so I actually thought it was a hidden gem or overlooked holiday album to many, but apparently you think otherwise. And just because it is in my top three Christmas instrumental albums of all time, does not mean everybody else knows about it or has the record in their collection. I have never even heard Mantovani's Christmas music played on the radio during the holiday season, when some stations go to their all Christmas format 24/7.

 

Colbie Caillat's Christmas In The Sand is a fun album to listen to.

 

The album Les Paul should have made.

 

There is a Les Paul and Mary Ford Christmas EP.

 

Who knew that just a few years after this album was released, which does feature a collaboration with Brad Paisley, that she'd end up being popular on the country charts as an artist as part of the group "Gone West" although I have long predicted this?

 

I suspect you'll see a lot more instances of it playing during the actual holiday, particularly 12/24-25, when more instrumentals become important as background music. I've actually worked at a couple of stations where we would have this among others we were told to track a whole side in their entirity, starting about 2am.

That's the real problem with the "All-Chistmas Format" style of programming, I feel, as consultants and radio-mentality creeps into it, it gets more focused on hits and familiarity, and less on what an older demographic might relate to. Of course there's a valid need to air classics like this in more prominent positions (but then, that's just gonna kick-out any opportunities for your great-grandma's carillion-and-piano instrumental selections, that she found in the 67-cent bin in Murphy's during the Kennedy Administration...

 

That is good to hear. I just got back from a trip to Mesa, Arizona and one of their radio stations was already into their 24/7 Christmas format, which really surprised me, but I loved it. I actually heard Deck The Halls
by Percy Faith being played, and I have got to say I was thrilled with that choice. Now Percy is sort of the instrumental king, especially of Christmas music, but I have to admit that in my almost 50 years of listening to Christmas music on the radio, I have never heard Mantovani being played, but I hope your right about that changing soon.

 

With my cable TV package with Comcast, they have something called Music Choice, which are TV channels that play all different kinds of music 24/7 while advertisements and facts about the artist playing show on the screen. For years Music Choice had two channels devoted to the Sounds Of The Season - or specifically Christmas music - from right after Halloween through New Year's Day. One channel had the older Christmas music from the 1940's - 1970's. The other channel had the "newer" Christmas music including a lot of present day artists.

The channel that featured the older Christmas music was great. It was not only entertaining but educational. I discovered so much Christmas music and artists that I wasn't familiar with from the great Christmas music years of the 1950's and 1960's. And, I subsequently acquired a lot of it. Then, about three or four years ago, Music Choice decided to combine the two Christmas music channels into one Sounds Of The Season channel. And they basically ruined it for me. Now, you could have a great song from Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, or Andy Williams, only to be followed by a song from Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, or Justin Bieber. I can't sit through that! Not only that, the new Sounds Of The Season channel practically eliminated the great instrumental Christmas music/artists like Mantovani, Percy Faith, Bert Kaempfert, and David Rose. The channel has become just the most POPULAR Christmas songs - not the best.

I wrote a nice email to Music Choice a few years ago expressing my disappointment and frustration, and asked them to consider going back to the old format, but I never got a reply.