|
|
This index lists the essential songs (not all the songs) contained on the albums reviewed in Hip Christmas, plus singles, album tracks, or one-hit wonders not otherwise included on those albums. Whenever
possible, the artist's name is linked to my review of the best Christmas album (not necessarily
the only or original album) on which to find the song.
Barring that, the names will be linked to a place where you may buy the song
(usually Amazon).
If there's no link, it means that, to my knowledge, the song is not available
on CD or MP3. Of course, the list will expand as I write more reviews. And, nothing's
perfect - especially me and my crazy list. Please send additions, corrections,
criticisms, and suggestions via email
.
- Make It Home (Juliana Hatfield, 1995)
- Mambo Santa Mambo (Enchanters, 1957)
- Man In The Santa Suit (Fountains
Of Wayne, 1997)
- Man With All The Toys (Beach Boys, 1964)
- Marshmallow World
- Marvelous Toy
[close]
Like "My Favorite Things" - but to a much lesser extent - "The Marvelous Toy" is a regular ol' song that has been adopted as a Christmas tune. It's not hard to hear why - it's a charming ditty about a mysterious toy, and the song's whimsical use of onomatopoeia neatly captures a child's fascination with that stuff Santa brings. However, for many years "The Marvelous Toy" served simply as comic relief in earnest folksinger Tom Paxton's set list (and, I am guessing, a steady source of income). Paxton wrote the song early in his career and recorded it live at the Gaslight in New York City for his debut album I'm The Man Who Built the Bridges (1962). The Chad Mitchell Trio waxed it the following year on their album Singin' Our Mind, and a single of the track peaked at #43 in January 1964 (see The Best of the Chad Mitchell Trio: The Mercury Years, 1998). Paxton finally recorded a studio version of the song for Elektra in 1967, but it came out only in England a self-titled EP; this definitive version is hard to find - it's only been reissued on the 2004 Rhino UK 2-for-1 CD of Paxton's Elektra albums Outward Bound (1966) and Morning Again (1968). Meanwhile, Peter, Paul & Mary covered it on their popular children's album Peter, Paul & Mommy (1969). Paxton released another live version appeared on The Compleat Tom Paxton (Elektra, 1971), and it's this version that appears on Rhino's I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound: The Best Of Tom Paxton (1999). Paxton recorded it yet again in 1974 for UK LP The Tom Paxton Children's Song Book which was issued in the US in 1984 as The Marvelous Toy and Other Gallimaufry. Only in 1988 did the song (finally) appear on a formal Christmas album - Paxton's self-released A Child's Christmas, which Sony reissued in 1992 and was subsequently licensed to budget label Laserlight. (I suspect this is the same version as appears on The Very Best Of Tom Paxton, a batch of new recordings from 1988 with English folk notables Danny Thompson, Dave Swarbrick, and Archie Fisher.) All together, Paxton recorded "The Marvelous Toy" more times than I could count, and he even turned it into a children's book. Ultimately, however, it was 70's superstar John Denver who became responsible for the song's association with Christmas when he recorded a studio version on Christmas Like A Lullaby (1990) and a live rendition on The Christmas Concert (1996). Too much information? Welcome to my world....
- Mary Christmas (Redd
Kross, 1997)
- Mary X-Mas (Nina Hagen, 1997)
- Mary Xmess (Sun 60, 1993)
- Mary's Boy Child
- Mason Dixon's On The Line (Jerry Jeff Walker,
1984)
- May Christmas Bring You Happiness (Luther
Vandross, 1976)
- May Everyday Be Christmas (Louis Jordan,
1951)
- May You Always (Harry Harrison, 1965)
- Maybe At Christmas Time (Drugstore,
2000)
- Maybe This Christmas (Ron Sexsmith, 2005)
- Medleys
- Christmas Time's A-Comin'/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (John
Fahey, 1983)
- Coventry Carol/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Chet
Atkins, 1961)
- Deck The Halls/Bring A Torch (Smokey
Robinson & The Miracles, 1970)
- Do You Hear What I Hear/You Really Got Me (Bobby
Lloyd & The Skeletons, 1985)
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye Faithful (John
Fahey, 1982)
- I Love The Winter Weather/I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Tony
Bennett, 1968)
- Let It Be Me/The Christmas Song (Laura Nyro, 1990)
- Little Drummer Boy/Do You Hear What I Hear (Pressure,
1983)
- Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night/Auld Lang Syne (Jimi
Hendrix, 1969)
- Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord (Boney
M, 1978)
- Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy
- Sleigh Ride/Christmas Wish (El Vez,
1994)
- Mele Kalikimaka (Beach Boys, 1977)
- Mele Kalikimaka
- The Merriest (June Christy, 1961)
- Merry Crassmas (Crass, 1981)
- Merry Christmas (Bryan Adams,
2011)
- Merry Christmas (The Automatics, 2007)
- Merry Christmas (Cameos,
1962)
- Merry Christmas (Face To Face, 1999)
- Merry Christmas (Lightnin' Hopkins,
1953)
- Merry Christmas (Kingstonians, 1967)
- Merry Christmas (Melanie, 1970)
- Merry Christmas (Plan 9, 1984)
- Merry Christmas All (Brook Benton, 1983)
- Merry Christmas Baby
- Merry Christmas Baby (Beach Boys, 1964)
- Merry Christmas Baby (Poets,
1965)
- Merry Christmas Baby (Tasha Taylor, 2010)
- Merry Christmas Baby (George
Thorogood, 2004)
- Merry Christmas Darling
- Merry Christmas Darling
- Merry Christmas Darling (And A Happy New Year Too) (Uniques,
1962)
- Merry Christmas Doctor (Nichols & May,
1961)
- Merry Christmas Emily (Cracker,
2000)
- Merry Christmas Eve (Better Than Ezra,
2002)
- Merry Christmas From A Bar (Mike Ireland & Holler, 1997)
- Merry Christmas From Lisa Marie (Jana Sampson, 1979)
- Merry Christmas From Mars (Michael
Hall, 1994)
- Merry Christmas From The Family
- Robert
Earl Keen (1994) [close]
Those
of you outside of Texas may not have heard of Robert Earl Keen, but inside
the expansive borders of the Lone Star State, he's a hero. A hero, at least,
to Texas' unique brand of college-educated good old boys who, despite copious
book learnin' and nascent liberalism, struggle to nurture their inner redneck.
These fellows follow Keen around from gig to gig, drunkenly hollering
along (singing is too kind a word) with his acerbic, folk-tinged country songs.
Keen originally
cut "Merry Christmas From The Family" - his greatest hit - for his 1994 Sugar Hill studio album Gringo
Honeymoon, and that recording's quiet, dry, but affectionate humor make it the definitive version. This original studio take can also be found on Keen's best-of collection, The
Party Never Ends (2003), and on Sugar Hill Records: A Retrospective (2006).
The most commonly aired versions of the song, however, are the ones
excerpted from Keen's raucous live performances - including a 1995 CD
single (also released as a book, pictured, and included on Sugar Hill Record's 1996 holiday collection Tinsel
Tunes), 1996's No.
2 Live Dinner (also included with his 2006 Koch retrospective Best), 2004's Live
From
Austin TX, and 2006's Live At The Ryman.
Which is a shame, because Keen's
boistrous fans all but obscure his hilarious account of a typical white trash
holiday, complete with TV football, hard drinking, and electrical disasters.
These themes, it turns out, ring very true in Middle America. "Merry
Christmas From The Family" struck a chord with country fans everywhere,
and it became something of an anthem for urban hicks, spawning cover versions
in 2000 by Montgomery
Gentry and
the Dixie
Chicks (and alt-folkie Jill Sobule way back in 1994).
Ultimately, Keen penned a sequel of sorts, "Happy Holidays
Y'all," that he appended as a bonus track to his 1998 album Walking
Distance. Then in 2004, he recorded a new, bluegrass-tinged studio version of "Merry
Christmas From The Family" with help from Daryle Singletary and David Lee Murphy. That version was released as an
iTunes exclusive (now deleted) to promote Christmas Grass Vol. 2 (2004) - a Koch album on which the track does not appear.
- Jill Sobule (1994)
- Merry Christmas Girl (Figgs, 1995)
- Merry Christmas Happy New Year (Chambers Brothers, 1969)
- Merry Christmas Happy New Year (Lee Scratch
Perry, 1985)
- Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight)
- Merry Christmas I Love You (James
Brown, 1966)
- Merry Christmas I Love You (Velocity Girl, 1992)
- Merry Christmas Loopy Lu (Kaisers, 1996)
- Merry Christmas Mary (Johnny Cash, 1972)
- Merry Christmas Momma (Lloyd Price,
1963)
- Merry Christmas Polka (Andrews
Sisters, 1950)
- Merry Christmas Polka (Tex Ritter,
1947)
- Merry Christmas Santa Claus (You're A Lovely Guy) (Max Headroom, 1986)
- Merry Christmas To Me (Swoon 23,
1994)
- Merry Christmas Wherever You Are
- Merry Christmas (Wherever You Are) (Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots, 1985)
- Merry Christmas Will Do (Material Issue,
1991)
- Merry Fucking Christmas (To Some Of You) (85% Jesus, 2011)
- Merry Jingle (Greedies, 1979)
- Merry Merry Christmas (Alton & The I
Listicks, 1972)
- Merry Merry Christmas Baby (Dodie Stevens,
1960)
- Merry Muthafuckin' Xmas (Eazy-E,
1992)
- Merry Something Tou You (Devo, 2009)
- Merry Stupid Fucking Christmas (Thorazine, 1998)
- Merry Swiftmas (Even Though I Celebrate Chanukah) (Evan Taubenfeld, 2009)
- Merry Texas Christmas, You All!
- Merry Twist Mas (Jay Matty, 1961)
- Merry Twist-mas (Marcels, 1961)
- Merry Xmas Blues (Celibate Rifles, 1982)
- Merry Xmas Everybody
- Merry Xmas (Screw You) (Audra & The Antidote, 2005)
- Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa (De
La Soul, 1991)
- Missus Santa Claus (Leslie Crayne, aka Uggams, 1953)
- Mister Kringle's (Dressy Bessy, 2011)
- Mistletoe And Holly
- Mistletoe And Me (Isaac Hayes, 1969)
- Mistress For Christmas (AC/DC,
1990)
- Misty Wonderland Hop (Hayseed Dixie, 2008)
- Mommy Look, Santa Is Crying (Stonewall
Jackson, 1966)
- Monster Holiday (Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The
Crypt Kickers, 1962)
- Morning Christmas (Beach Boys, 1977)
- Mr. And Mrs. Santa Claus (George
Jones & Tammy Wynette, 1973)
- Mr. Grinch (D.I., 1994)
- Mr. Santa Claus (Nathaniel Mayer,
1962)
- Mr. Santa's Boogie (Marshall
Brothers,
1951)
- Mrs. Claus Has Menopause (Sterilles,
1987)
- Mrs. Santa Claus (Nat King Cole, 1953)
- Mule Size Yuletide (Evan Johns, 1990)
- My Baby Fell For Ol' St. Nick (Dada, 1993)
- My Boyfriend's Coming Home For Christmas (Toni
Wine, 1963)
- My Christmas Card To You (Groovie Ghoulies, 1992)
- My Christmas Card To You (Partridge
Family, 1971)
- My Christmas Love (Bobby Vee, 1962)
- My Christmas Prayer (Saint Etienne,
1993)
- My Christmas Tree (Temptations,
1969)
- My Christmas Tree Is Hung With Tears (Sarah
Brown, 1983)
- My Christmas Wish (Ronnie Spector, 2010)
- My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year)
- My Dreams Of Christmas (Boxmasters featuring Billy Bob Thornton, 2007)
- My Most Miserable Christmas (Charles Brown, 1961)
- My Favorite Things
- My Mom & Santa Claus (George Jones & The
Jones Boys, 1962)
- My Stocking Is Empty (Leslie Crayne, aka Uggams, 1953)
[top of page]
|
Christmas Jukebox |
 Now, you can hear the Christmas music I write about! My Christmas Jukebox is bulging with over 350 tracks, and I'll be adding more rockin' Yule tunes throughout the year. [listen now] |
Sponsored Links |
 |
|
