Thursday, December 08, 2011

28 Days Of Christmas, 28 of the Best Christmas Songs, 9, 10 and 11... plus The 10 Best Santas and Some Stuff To Fill Out The List!



Things have not been very Christmas-y over the past few days, what with all the dirty, maybe-not-even-Christmas-y songs and all, and also I was running a few days behind because sometimes I have to work, something that we all could avoid if you'd just go ahead and start sending me money. At least try to shove a $1 bill into the USB port every time you read my blog. I'd appreciate it, and you'll feel better about yourself until you realize that you tried to shove a dollar bill into your laptop.

Anyway, to Christmas things up a bit, I've decided to add, too, a second part to this countdown: I will, on each day, also add in The Best Santas from movies, TV, books, and, heck, if I can find them, the backs of cereal boxes. So now you've got that going for you, too.

And speaking of getting caught up, here's song 9 of 28 Of The Best Christmas Songs, a cover of What's This? by Julia Nunes and Ian Axel:



And now I can introduce the First of the 18 Best Santas And Some Stuff To Fill Out The List, and you probably guessed that the First Best Santa is The Santa From "The Nightmare Before Christmas."



Why? Because he's hardly the Coca-Cola drinking smiling potbellied maybe-elf that modern Christmases have come to expect -- this Santa is a tough, lecture-y Santa who wasn't scared by facing down Oogie Boogie



"Release me now or you must face the dire consequences
": He's like James Bond crossed with Gandalf.

That's not song 10, by the way. Even with my extremely loose definition of Christmas carols, that song doesn't cut it. It's just a bonus. Song 10 is What Christmas Means To Me, by Stevie Wonder, the only grown man who can carry the name Stevie and make it seem cool:



And, finishing up with Song 12, the oddly-hipster-esque "The Little Drummer Boy," from Johnny Cash.




That has sort of a beat-poet feel to it, doesn't it? Not hard to picture Johnny doing that number in a coffeehouse wearing a black turtleneck.


Prior songs:

8. Taste The Coast, by Admiral Fallow

7. Dringo Bell, Mediaeval Babes

6. Born Is The King (It's Christmas) by Hillside

5: Tijuana Christmas by The Border Brass

4. Christmas Griping, REM

3. A Christmas Waltz, She & Him

2. Don't Shoot Me, Santa, The Killers


1. Snoopy's Christmas, The Royal Guardsmen.

2 comments:

stephen Hayes said...

I'm a big fan of Johnny Cash and I've always loved The Little Drummer Boy, yet I've never heard Johnny sing this song. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I do like me some Johnny Cash. Also, I agree with your sentiments on the Santa Claus from A Nightmare Before Christmas. As an aside, did you know that Blink 182 wrote a song dedicated to A Nightmare Before Christmas? It's got a lot of fun lyrics.