12-15-2008, 07:03 AM | #1 | ||
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Ashburn, VA
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Christmas Music Album Recommendations?
Alright, kids, it's that time of year, that I'm looking for recommendations of Christmas music. I've got a fair amount of Christmas music on my iPod, but much of it is "newer" stuff (songs my folks have never heard of, like "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses, TSO stuff, etc). I'm looking for stuff like the radio station at my grandparents' house would play, which is sort of classic stuff by the older more "folksy" artists, if that makes sense. I'm also looking for instrumental stuff, if there is anything that's good (guitar and piano in particular, my dad prefers that stuff).
So, hit me up! Thanks /tk
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12-15-2008, 07:12 AM | #2 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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If you haven't already.. I love the Manheim Steamroller Christmas albums. I love playing those on christmas morning.
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12-15-2008, 07:15 AM | #3 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
To Clarify.. the two that I have and love are both from the early 1980s (or maybe late 1970s).. Manheim Steamroller's albums called "Christmas" and "Fresh Aire Christmas". I see they have some more recent stuff too. I have no idea if that is any good. Another one I used to like was the Carpenter's Christmas Album.. but I have no idea if that meets what you are looking for. |
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12-15-2008, 07:18 AM | #4 |
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Ashburn, VA
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Thanks, Alan, I'll check 'em out. I love being able to preview stuff with Amazon/iTunes, I'll take any/all recommendations and go from there.
/tk
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12-15-2008, 07:20 AM | #5 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Dayton, OH
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As stupid as it sounds, the Charlie Brown Christmas album is fine Christmas music. Mixes traditional and jazz really well. And it's mostly instrumental, so it meets a couple of your criteria.
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12-15-2008, 07:20 AM | #6 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Black Hole
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We like Casey Kasem's Christmas music: Amazon.com: Casey Kasem: All Time Christmas Favorites: Various Artists: Music
Great tunes by (edit--some of) the "original" artists. Last edited by Raiders Army : 12-15-2008 at 07:21 AM. |
12-15-2008, 08:26 AM | #7 |
High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: GA
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Harry Connick Jr's Christmas CDs are great. I play "Harry for the Holidays" and "When my heart finds Christmas" all the time, and just bought his most recent release.
To me it has a classic feel from a fresh perspective. |
12-15-2008, 09:26 AM | #8 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Colorado
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John Denver - Rocky Mountain Christmas (from around 1975). Still my favorite Christmas album of all time.
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12-15-2008, 09:45 AM | #9 |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Somerville, MA
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John Fahey did a couple of really good acoustic guitar christmas albums. I can't recommend his stuff enough.
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12-15-2008, 10:12 AM | #10 |
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Winnipeg, MB
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Look for stuff by Bing Crosby.
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12-15-2008, 11:38 AM | #11 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Cary, NC
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An album I like is called A Winter's Night - basically it has a lot of traditional Christmas songs done by pop artists, as well as some newer songs that are really good. All That I Want by the Weepies may be my favorite track, but there are a lot of really neat ones.
Last edited by Peregrine : 12-15-2008 at 11:40 AM. |
12-15-2008, 12:39 PM | #12 |
Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I can't do traditional christmas music and so I always look for indie music standbys that will get me through the season.
Sufjan Stevens: Songs for Christmas is a 4-disc set that's pretty schweet. I downloaded that to my MP3 player over the weekend. I also bought both sets of Peace on Earth. It's a Christmas set of original songs by indie bands/singers. Here's Vol II. and here's last year's Volume I |
12-15-2008, 01:00 PM | #13 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2002
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I would recommend Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams and second the recommendation of Bing Crosby. A personal favorite of my dads is Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Christmas.
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12-15-2008, 01:37 PM | #14 | |
Pro Starter
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Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
One of my favorites is a CD from iTunes that's a Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby compilation with each doing solos and duets with each other along with some other duets with Ella Fitzgerald and the like. Can't recall the name though. Any CD with Sinatra, Crosby, Mathis and either Nat King Cole or Mel Torme doing "The Christmas Song" should be gold. |
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12-15-2008, 09:39 PM | #15 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Raleigh, NC
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I've recently been expanding our Christmas music collection through several download purchases on Amazon (my girls can't get enough Christmas music of late), so I've been sampling quite a fair amount of stuff. One thing to note in particular is that Amazon is offering up a free mp3 download every day until Christmas and it's not a time-limited offer. In addition, they've got a pretty good variety of Christmas offerings (including a free mini-sampler set of mp3s) and I've bought some albums just based on impressions from the samples they've got on the site. One group I came across that I thought was excellent was an a capella group called Straight No Chaser. I'm not usually into such music, but their Christmas album is excellent stuff (their "Twelve Days of Christmas" live version is quite hilarious, though it's the only one they don't play straight).
As others have noted, if you're looking for classic stuff, then Bing Crosby and Andy Williams will probably be the best starting points. Then there's Gene Autry's well-known takes on Here Comes Santa Claus and Rudolph. Charlie Brown Christmas is great stuff. The first "Very Special Christmas" album is also good, featuring a nice lineup of 80s stars and their takes on mostly well-known Christmas songs. |
12-16-2008, 01:10 AM | #16 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: The Great Northwest
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I know you want more traditional stuff, but the Relient K album from last year, "Let it Snow... Let it Reindeer" was really nice, it's what my wife and I usually listen to during Christmas since I got it last year. Has traditional songs and some of their own as well (I think some are their own).
Let it Snow, Baby... Let it Reindeer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Winnipeg, MB
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Here is my play list for Christmas 2008, hopefully this will help people find some songs since I have impeccable taste :
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"Breakfast? Breakfast schmekfast, look at the score for God's sake. It's only the second period and I'm winning 12-2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver maybe once or twice in a lifetime." |
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12-16-2008, 09:33 AM | #18 |
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12-16-2008, 02:01 PM | #19 |
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Location: Minneapolis
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When that Manheim Steamroller crap just won't cut it, I can suggest this:
Amazon.com: We Wish You a Metal Xmas...and a Headbanging New Year: Various Artists: Music Great album. Bought it this year. Also, I got Nat Cole's xmas album this year too. Oh, and I found John Denver and the Muppets christmas album for .99 at half-priced books. Awesome.
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12-16-2008, 02:23 PM | #20 |
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"Breakfast? Breakfast schmekfast, look at the score for God's sake. It's only the second period and I'm winning 12-2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver maybe once or twice in a lifetime." |
12-16-2008, 02:26 PM | #21 |
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12-16-2008, 02:56 PM | #22 | |
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Location: Winnipeg, MB
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Quote:
"The Christmas Waltz" sort of interrupts the list of things that start with Christmas, so I'm guessing that caused you to overlook it. Christmas Wrapping is in my top 5 'Fun' Christmas songs. Fidatelo's Top 5 Fun Christmas Songs
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"Breakfast? Breakfast schmekfast, look at the score for God's sake. It's only the second period and I'm winning 12-2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver maybe once or twice in a lifetime." Last edited by Fidatelo : 12-16-2008 at 02:56 PM. |
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12-16-2008, 03:04 PM | #23 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2002
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For anyone that has kids, The Care Bears' Christmas is a great album if you can find it anywhere. I absolutely loved it as a kid, but I can't find mp3's of it anywhere. I need to ask my uncle to digitize the album for me some day.
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"Breakfast? Breakfast schmekfast, look at the score for God's sake. It's only the second period and I'm winning 12-2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver maybe once or twice in a lifetime." |
12-16-2008, 03:57 PM | #24 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Green Bay, WI
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the Barenaked Ladies' Christmas album is gonna be $2.99 on amazon tomorrow. That's got a couple fun ones on it, as well as more traditional holiday classics.
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12-16-2008, 04:02 PM | #25 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Sep 2004
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My favorite is the Boyz II Men Christmas Interpretations CD.
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12-16-2008, 05:26 PM | #26 | ||
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Quote:
I came into the thread planning on posting that album. I had the first album, and wasn't able to find it last year. This is a re-release with added tracks. Quote:
Along those same lines, also have this: A Santa Cause - It's a Punk Rock Christmas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which has some pretty good stuff on it-- I am not a huge Fall Out Boy fan, but that is a good track, and the Punchline track is fantastic.
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12-16-2008, 05:57 PM | #27 |
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12-16-2008, 09:31 PM | #28 |
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That video is embarrassing. I don't think it would be possible to look more full of yourself.
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"Breakfast? Breakfast schmekfast, look at the score for God's sake. It's only the second period and I'm winning 12-2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene, but Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver maybe once or twice in a lifetime." |
12-17-2008, 07:38 PM | #29 |
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Ashburn, VA
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For you iTunes users, the free single of the week is a rendition of Silent Night by soprano Sarah Brightman (and is she ever a soprano!).
I really like the version, so it's been added to my Christmas playlist. Right now, my normal one (that I listen to when my dad's not around) is 173 songs, the "traditional" one (when my dad is around) is 136 songs. Some of it is still not quite what I'm looking for, but thanks to a lot of your suggestions, I've got a lot more that I was. I only wish they had that Kasey Kasem album available for download. /tk
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12-17-2008, 07:58 PM | #30 |
Head Coach
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12-23-2008, 10:21 AM | #31 |
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...what we have here is a man who looks like Tarzan, but fights like Jane! My VG collection | Xbox 360 Gamertag: ManThol | PS3 Network ID: hukarez Doce Pares International - San Diego Council Filipino Martial Arts Digest tweet tweet twitter |
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