With Christmas Eve less than 24 hours away as I write this, I gather you, like me, have had more than your fill of Christmas music by now. Perhaps you are thrilled with wall-to-wall Christmas music on your favourite radio station about the end of November; or perhaps you are a little tired of it all by now, as I am.
Time was, radio stations eased you into the Christmas music a little at a time, starting with about one an hour or so at the start of December. It would gradually build to a grand Christmas crescendo about the 24th of December and continue that way until midnight on December 25th before magically disappearing again for another 11 months. I know; I spent 40 years of my radio life listening to the sounds of the season in various iterations at several different stations.
But the current all-Christmas all the time format starting in late November is a bit too much too soon for my tastes, unfortunately, and I am about to explain why. Consider this a holiday rant from a certified curmudgeon.
The problem I have with the "new era" of presenting Christmas music is it wears thin far too soon, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the music "universe" (radio-speak for how much music they actually play in the musical rotation) is far too limited. Secondly, radio people often don't actually listen to what they are playing and how often it plays.
This second fact came to light in a big way for me this year as I now work in an environment - as many do - where the radio station of choice is a local "lite-rock" format that plays day in and day out. While I am enjoying the break from hearing Taylor Swift shaking things up several times a day for almost a month, what replaces it is just as repetitive.
And that brings us back to my first point. The music selected is far too confining and leaves out many great recordings by many great artists you might just like to hear at Christmastime. Why? A consultant in a far-way city has determined this is what the audience likes to hear, and so that is what the station plays...and plays...and plays.
Now don't get me wrong on this. I love a wide variety of Christmas music and my eclectic musical tastes are reflected in a very large library of Christmas discs by a wide variety of artists, so I am not confining myself to just one era in my musical preferences.
Having said that, I am pretty tired right now of hearing these titles, my so-called Top 5 of Christmas songs I would dearly love not to hear as much as I do. In no particular order, may I have the envelope please...
Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano
Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord - Boney M
Rockin' Round the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
Jingle Bell Rock - any version
Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
Any of these sound familiar to you? Of course they do; we hear them several times a day, seven days a week for about a month. No wonder we get tired of them. But more than the repeat factor, in some cases they are just not great songs. Everyone seems to agree some of the worst offenders were probably mailing it in to make a quick buck for the holiday season, but we keep hearing them over and over again because said radio consultant has deemed these so-called contemporary classics are what we want to hear.
Okay, I get that. But what of the ones they leave out? While it is nice to hear Burl Ives sing "Holly, Jolly Christmas" and Bing Crosby's classic "White Christmas" every year, they did not corner the market on classic holiday fare. I hear far too little Dean Martin, Andy Williams and even Perry Como these days, and if I do, it is maybe one song by each of them. Yet each artist has a wide selection of great recordings from which to choose.
Can't we get a little more creative next year?
I got to thinking about all this about a month ago when I saw a release of a very old Christmas disc I grew up with and loved very much, yet it had remained stubbornly out of print for decades. The record label Real Gone Music, which specializes in bringing back classic albums from the past by mostly middle-of-the-road artists our parents grew up with, released on disc this year the old Columbia LP from 1960 entitled The Old Sweet Songs of Christmas by Frank De Vol and the Rainbow Strings. It is about 40 minutes worth of very simple, sweet-sounding musical medleys of popular and more traditional holiday fare, arranged primarily for string orchestra.
In spite of the age of the recording, it still sounds good today, and I am glad to have it back in my collection after all these years being out of print.
The liner notes for the reissue are written by Lawrence "Chip" Arcuri, Owner & Webmaster of The Yule Long.com, which many people will be familiar with over the years. Chip has also compiled his list of the Top 500 Christmas albums of all time, and he lists the De Vol disc at number 14 on that list. If you go to www.theyulelog.com, you can see the entire list for yourself.
What you'll find is a purely arbitrary listing of just about every Christmas album ever recorded in the past 60 years ranked in several categories from 1 to 500. It is firmly rooted in traditional "apple pie" territory, and doesn't stray too far into more contemporary, even "classic rock" holiday hits from the past.
While I agree with many on the list, including the 2013 release of Percy Faith's Music of Christmas/Hallelujah! albums on a double-disc set from Real Gone Music in the coveted Number 1 spot, some others are curiously way down the list or not on the list at all. For example, I would rank The Glorious Sound of Christmas with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra far higher on the list than Chip does. It remains for me one of the quintessential "big-orchestra" recordings from Columbia's glory days, recorded as it was back in 1963.
But that is the thing about music in general and Christmas music in particular: the sentimental value can never be underestimated, and one man's potion is another man's poison. So I understand not everyone will agree with Chip's rankings - or mine for that matter. Everyone has their favourites, and that's as it should be.
For me, my dirty little secret is an album of Christmas music by the all-girl group The Golddiggers, who appeared on the Dean Martin TV show back in the late 60s and early 70s. Yes, this leggy collection of singers did a Christmas album I remember from my early days in radio in Toronto, yet has never made it to CD, and certainly is not on Chip's list of the Top 500, or even his list of honourable mentions.
When that comes out on CD, I will be the first in line to buy a copy. I might be the only one in line, but no matter. We all have our favourites, right?
If you have a favourite Christmas disc from your past you would like to hear again, drop me a line at music@vaxxine.com and I will see if I can find a copy of it for you in the New Year.
Enjoy your Christmas music, and above all, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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