The Best and the Worst of Christmas Music, 2007

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Feel free to chime in with comments on anything really good or bad you hear this Christmas season. Here’s my first contribution:

The bad news: The Three Tenors butchering “Sleigh Ride.” Eww! There are no other words. Just…Eww!

The good news–“Adeste Fideles,” by Il Divo. Absolutely magnificent!
 
The song " Mary did you Know" while it sounds nice, is kinda creepy to me.
I think that Mary DID know what was going on, but not what would ultimatley happen. It almost seems like a protestant song to say that Mary didnt know that her Son was special. Any thoughts??

Mike
 
vinarabo said:
The song " Mary did you Know" while it sounds nice, is kinda creepy to me.
I think that Mary DID know what was going on, but not what would ultimatley happen. It almost seems like a protestant song to say that Mary didnt know that her Son was special. Any thoughts??

Mike
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It was written by a Baptist comedian/singer (Mark Lowrey), but his intent was not to intimate that she didn’t know. It’s as if he’s asking her what she did know, because he wants to know what it was like, raising the Son of God.

I have his monologue about how he wrote the song on a videotape; one of these years I’ll transcribe it and post it. But not tonight. Gotta run–Community Band practice.
 
For Unto Us is my all time favorite. I first heard it sang regularly, not by choir, on a Veggie Tales cd… what can I say with kids in the house, but now the version on the Praise Baby Collection is beautifully sang. I love it.
 
“Joy to the World”
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
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Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
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No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
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He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
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It is so upbeat that no matter what mood I am in, I can’t help but want to celebrate the birth of our Savior.😃
 
DaveBj said:
Feel free to chime in with comments on anything really good or bad you hear this Christmas season. Here’s my first contribution:

The bad news: The Three Tenors butchering “Sleigh Ride.” Eww! There are no other words. Just…Eww!

The good news–“Adeste Fideles,” by Il Divo. Absolutely magnificent!
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A bit early in the season (yet the radio stations started a week ago anyways 🤷 )

Worst:

John Denver: Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)

musicalfruitcake.com/2007/02/24/john_denver_-_please_daddy_dont_get_drunk_this_christmas/

I first heard it last year on CBC Radio’s As it Happens as the worst song voted by listeners in Canada and the northern parts of the US.

:eek: is all that can be said about it.

Still thinking about the best.
 
Kevin, funnily enough, “Joy to the World” wasn’t written as a Christmas song. It was written as a Second-Coming song, celebrating the time when Jesus is ruling over all things. Still sounds good in December, tho.

Today’s best and worst–Il Divo again (“O Holy Night”–magnificant) and the Three Tenors again (“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”–“Pleeeze haaava snoooow and miss-leeee-tooooo…”)

Nice thing about Sirius Classical Christmas–no John Denver or Grandma getting run over by a reindeer 😃
 
Josh Grobin…silent Night. Never Heard It Sung So Beautifully!
 
The Cambridge Singers, “In Dulci Jubilo” (arr. Pearsall). Hands down my favorite Christmas hymn.
 
Today’s gleanings:

Good news–We Three Kings, by the Irish Tenors. Yummmmm!

Bad news–Winter Wonderland by the Three Tenors.

Yes, I know I’m picking on them, but for good reason. If one is going to sing in a foreign language in public, one should at least acquaint oneself with the phonetic system of that language.
 
Today’s best–“Carol of the Bells” by the Raleigh Ringers. How appropriate to have that carol done by a handbell choir. It sounded like snowflakes falling on a cold, crisp winter morning.

No bad news today 😃
 
I can’t stand Holly Jolly Christmas. I had to sing it in grade school and they play it all the time around here.
I love Silent Night, O Holy Night, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Joy to the World, O Come All Ye Faithful, and so many other beautiful real Christmas songs.
Rock-and-roll carols annoy me. Showtune carols annoy me more. Let It Snow is annoying. Winter Wonderland is OK for the type of song it is, but I’d rather hear a real carol.
 
Mirdath said:
The best Christmas carol ever.

I keep a copy in my emergency stash.
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:eek: Who’s strangling a cow? That is absolutely dreadful!

This one takes the cake as the worst one…but I have others that aren’t a joke that are in my bad list.

My least favorites are the ones I hear on the radio- I hear a few good ones now and then, but they are too few and far between all the bad ones to make listening to the radio this time of year worthwhile. Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas, Santa Baby, Sleigh Ride (uggh…we had to play that every year for band when I was in junior high and high school- the tune annoys me to no end), So this is Christmas, and Blue Christmas are especially bad- but I don’t like most of the secular songs.

My favorites…too many to name, but I’ll name some Christmas and Advent…
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Adeste Fideles (both in English and in Latin)
O Come O Come Emanuel (both in English and in Latin)
The Coventry Carol
I Saw Three Ships
The Holly and the Ivy
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Joy to the World
O Holy Night
Silent Night (it’s better in German)
O Tannenbaum (best in German)
Il est ne’ le divin enfent (best in French!)- My favorite

I want them performed as they are written- with a 4-part choir and possibly an organ. Orchestral arrangements are fine as long as they do not detract from the choir.
 
m134e5 said:
:eek: Who’s strangling a cow? That is absolutely dreadful!

This one takes the cake as the worst one…but I have others that aren’t a joke that are in my bad list.

My least favorites are the ones I hear on the radio- I hear a few good ones now and then, but they are too few and far between all the bad ones to make listening to the radio this time of year worthwhile. Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas, Santa Baby, Sleigh Ride (uggh…we had to play that every year for band when I was in junior high and high school- the tune annoys me to no end), So this is Christmas, and Blue Christmas are especially bad- but I don’t like most of the secular songs.

My favorites…too many to name, but I’ll name some Christmas and Advent…
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Adeste Fideles (both in English and in Latin)
O Come O Come Emanuel (both in English and in Latin)
The Coventry Carol
I Saw Three Ships
The Holly and the Ivy
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Joy to the World
O Holy Night
Silent Night (it’s better in German)
O Tannenbaum (best in German)
Il est ne’ le divin enfent (best in French!)- My favorite

I want them performed as they are written- with a 4-part choir and possibly an organ. Orchestral arrangements are fine as long as they do not detract from the choir.
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We have very similar tastes, I see. If you haven’t heard a recording of Pearsall’s “In Dulci Jubilo” (which was written for a capella SATB choir), you’re missing out.

I love “Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant.” And “Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabella”. There’s something really charming about the traditional French carols. 🙂
 
The best:

“The Gift”, about the poor girl and the nightingale. I don’t know who the singer is—she has one of those breathless, throaty little-girl pop-singer voices with no projection or power—but the lyrics always move me to tears.

“Christmas Island”, by Leon Redbone. It’s bouncy and happy and unintrusive.

The worst:

“Feliz Navidad”, by Jose Feliciano. Its is so repetitive that I start thinking about Weird Al’s song where he says “This song is just six words long…I’ll sing 'em over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again…” I mean, enough already!

“Christmas Shoes”, by whoever does it. It was touching the first 473 times I heard it. Now, it’s just annoying. If I hear it one more time this year, I will scream.
 
Mirdath said:
Obviously nobody listened to the one I linked 😉
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One word, Mirdath–dialup :mad:

Didn’t listen to anything today. No bad news, but I’ve got a good one from a couple days ago–Ying Huang, “Gesu Bambino.” What an angelic voice!
 
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