Christmas music

[Artsfols]

Every few years I update my viewable list of youtube videos featuring Christmas songs. With my churchy Christmas upbringing I favour the carols; Jingle Bell Rock stuff not so much.
Here is a link.

Link to Youtube list of Christmas music - watch like a concert ....

In the late 1990s I would burn a CD of Christmas songs each year and give them to friends and associates. I did this for 7 years until that went out of style and one year gave out 150 CDs. One result of this was a large collection of Christmas CDs to provide the material for my project which are still buried in the basement somewhere. I wrote a review of the very top CDs which was published by our local paper.
Here are a few that I remember from the list. Of course now I just pull them up on the Youtube Premium music service. I'll just list the artist name for now. My list includes pop, jazz, children's songs, world, Irish and British choral work.

Oscar Peterson
Maddy Prior
Fred Penner
Raffi (a great all ages Christmas CD)
Cambridge Singers under John Rutter
the Peanuts piano guy - it will come to me ... Vince Guaraldi (w/ thanks to muslhead).
the Chieftains
Michael Martin Murphy
Perry Como
Johnny Mathis

Most of the big name act Christmas CDs are garbage in my opinion. Just cashing in. Often minor artists produce better Christmas CDs because they take the project seriously.

What are your favourites? I hope I haven't poisoned the well with my comments on the stuff I don't like. Brenda Lee does have a great voice.

 

[Deleted member 23424]

 

[muslhead]

The peanuts guy is Vince Guaraldi

 

[ThatM1key]

Michael Buble is probably the latest artist that made popular xmas music. The problem is that he naturally has a great voice but the problem is that they used auto tune on him. As you get better and better audio equipment, his auto-tuned voice gets stronger and sounds robotic. That guy used to mentioned be all the time on the radio when I was growing up.

There is a "Charlie Brown Christmas" SACD but I'm very certain, it's just a CD to SACD conversion like the "80s Hits" SACD.

You can't have xmas without Trans Siberian Orchestra. I would recommend the DVD "movie" over the CDs at times. To me the CD's don't sound that great at all, maybe they've been affected by the loudness wars.

If you want constant xmas music I would recommend iHeartRadio's Christmas station, no ad's and it's free.

 

[LTig]

Silent Night by Tom Waits is a must, as is The Power of Love by Frankie goes to Hollywood.
EDIT: added media links:

 

[Artsfols]

The peanuts guy is Vince Guaraldi

Oh yes, of course. Thank you. I had a senior's moment and couldn't think of it. I'll make the correction.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

 

[JSmith]

JSmith

 

[Artsfols]

Michael Buble is probably the latest artist that made popular xmas music. The problem is that he naturally has a great voice but the problem is that they used auto tune on him. As you get better and better audio equipment, his auto-tuned voice gets stronger and sounds robotic. That guy used to mentioned be all the time on the radio when I was growing up.

There is a "Charlie Brown Christmas" SACD but I'm very certain, it's just a CD to SACD conversion like the "80s Hits" SACD.

You can't have xmas without Trans Siberian Orchestra. I would recommend the DVD "movie" over the CDs at times. To me the CD's don't sound that great at all, maybe they've been affected by the loudness wars.

If you want constant xmas music I would recommend iHeartRadio's Christmas station, no ad's and it's free.

I quite like TSO's "First Snow". In general the problem with their music for me is the dynamic compression. This is why I listen mostly to folk, acoustic and classical. But I do know a lot of people like them and in the past their live performances were well attended also.

 

[mhardy6647]

Bruce Cockburn's Christmas is outstanding. It is well recorded and well mastered, too.
Try before you buy:

As an aside, we have hundreds of Christmas/winter holiday albums here -- from the ridiculous to the sublime. Mrs. H and I are both big fans.

 

[Artsfols]

What can you tell me about this song? Lovely melody, and my knowledge of Danish is uh, non-existent.

 

[Artsfols]

Bruce Cockburn's Christmas is outstanding. It is well recorded and well mastered, too.
Try before you buy:

As an aside, we have hundreds of Christmas/winter holiday albums here -- from the ridiculous to the sublime. Mrs. H and I are both big fans.

I have it. Shepherds is my favourite track and it's on one of the compilations I play year after year.
I've followed Cockburn over the years (bought his very first album not long after it came out in the 1960s) and I've seen him live on numerous occasions.
That's an interesting top choice and it's also a top favourite of a friend of mine. I should re-evaluate the entire album.

 

[BitPerfect_]

I have 2 fav Christmas jazzy songs.
Till Brönner is the artist,

White Christmas

Stille Nacht (from the latest album)

 

[DanielT]

This was a test, a challenge a few years ago, Whamageddon (see attached picture).Did you have it in your countries? How many days could it take from the first of December before you heard this? Should anyone be able to NOT hear it before Christmas (suspect that hermits were not allowed to participate in the test). Of course just a silly but fun game..

Another classic, what a voice he had!

 

[pavuol]

some refreshment by nice couple..

 

[ThatM1key]

This was a test, a challenge a few years ago. Did you have it in your countries? How many days could it take from the first of December before you heard this? Should anyone be able to NOT hear it before Christmas (suspect that hermits were not allowed to participate in the test). Of course just a silly but fun game.

Another classic, what a voice he had!

The 4k transfer of last christmas was pretty good, its a bit too grainy like the "Goodfellas" movie though.

 

[Doodski]

and this one has many Christmas songs need to let it play on YouTube.

 

[MrOtto]

 

[MrOtto]

 

[Willem]

J.S. Bach, Das Weihnachtsoratorium, or the Festival of Lessons and Carrolls from King's College Cambridge. I am an atheist, but I treasure my calvinist upbringing, so I am always surprised that a relatively Christian nation like the US produces so much pagan Christmas music and ritual.