Nobody Recorded Them Better

The day after Thanksgiving I usually turn my car radio to a local LA station that plays nothing but Christmas tunes all the way to Christmas Day. By the time Dec. 25th rolls around I’ve amassed many hours of listening and have heard every Christmas song ever recorded by every possible artist from Amy Grant to Wham!.

I have become convinced that some Christmas songs have a penultimate recording by which all others are measured. When you hear someone else do the song you say “well, that was nice but *fill in the blank* always did it better". Here are some of my choices for those songs and the artist who I think captures them better than anyone:

• Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby
• White Christmas – Of course, Bing Crosby, though I give honorable mention to the guys who recorded the version on my NAACL video (I’m not sure who it was).
• It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams
• Silent Night – Mannheim Steamroller. You don’t even need the words to understand the power of the song.
• O Holy Night – I’d probably give that one to Celine Dion.
• Mary Did You Know? – the Gaither Vocal Band. Haven’t heard it? Mark Lowry wrote the lyrics and Buddy Greene the tune when both were performing with the group. Nobody does it better (no, not even Clay Aiken).
• Have a Holly Jolly Christmas – did anyone but Burl Ives ever record that song?
• Here Comes Santa Claus – Gene Autry, though he pronounces it “Santy Claus”.
• Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry again.
• The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting…) – Nat King Cole
• Ave Maria – Perry Como (that one’s just for you , Dad)
• I’ll Be Home For Christmas – I think Josh Grobin’s new version may set the standard for that song.
• Christmas Don't Be Late – Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Christmas Time is Here (from A Charlie Brown Christmas) - the kids who did the original recording for the show.
• Sleigh Ride, Instrumental version - The Boston Pops playing Leroy Anderson's famous arrangement.
• Sleigh Ride, Vocal version - The Carpenters

From some HolyCoast readers:

• The Christmas Waltz - The Carpenters
• Jesus What a Wonderful Child - Mariah Carey
• Christmas Time is Here Again - Marty Robbins
• Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Take 6 (I'd give the instrumental version to Mannheim Steamroller)
• Go Tell It on the Mountain - Mahalia Jackson
• C'mon Ring Those Bells - Evie Tournquist
• He Started the Whole World Singing - The Gaithers
• Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
• Hangin' Around the Mistletoe - Alabama

There are a lot more songs and right now I'm drawing a blank. Put your ideas in the comments section and I'll add them to the list as we go.

As long as we're discussing Christmas music and Christmas standards, there's one more thing I'll add - The Nutcracker Suite. I've seen it performed live on several occassions, two or three times in Long Beach with the local ballet company, and once at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with a visiting Russian troupe. The Long Beach performance is well staged and features a huge cast, including many local amateur dancers but no live music. The OCPAC performance had a small cast, amazing dancing and a live orchestra. If you could combine both, you'd really have something.

This week we watched two different broadcasts of The Nutcracker. The first was the George Balenchine version filmed as a movie in 1993 which featured a clumsy Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker. He was the child prodigy of the day and I guess they needed him to help sell the film, but frankly, I can dance better than what he did in that movie. I understand there was a lot of criticism of that movie because of Culkin's performance and I can see why.

The second version we watched was a 1989 recording by the Bolshoi Ballet in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Game, set, match. They win. I can't imagine anyone doing a Russian ballet better than the premier Russian ballet company. Their orchestra was absolutely perfect as well. I think they've ruined me for any other version of the holiday classic.