TMS List: 8 Alternate Holiday Songs for December

(Justin Lubin)

With each passing holiday season, it feels like radio stations and streaming platforms are battling to make the same 4 songs the most played by Christmas. ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham? ‘All I Want for Christmas’ from Mariah? Bing’s ‘White Christmas’ or ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ with Brenda? I love all these songs, but even as a holiday season fanatic, I need plenty of variety too. So I’m taking matters into my own hands this month, and recommending some less popular tracks to spin these last couple of weeks of Christmastime. And not just intentional Christmas songs either, but songs I feel are thematically appropriate for the season even if they weren’t composed with the holidays in mind. If Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ and Kenny Loggins’ ‘Celebrate Me Home’ can be considered holiday songs with only one single mention of Christmas in the lyrics, these choices can be as well.

‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ – The Bangles

Written by Paul Simon for the 1966 album ‘Bookends’ by his folk-pop duo Simon & Garfunkel, ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ is about noticing the signs of winter replacing autumn. Leaves turning brown and falling off trees, snow creeping up on the ground, a chill in the air. At the time of release, some critics and fans thought the song might be Paul’s response to the Mamas & the Papas’ hit ‘California Dreamin’’ (1965), but cheekily referring the duo’s east coast climate instead. When ‘Hazy Shade’ was covered by the power pop band the Bangles for the soundtrack of Marek Kanievska’s college drama Less Than Zero (1987), a slow intro was added with sleigh bells softly jingling alongside a ticking clock. The arrangement works for both the film—which is set during winter break—and the general December mood.

‘Winter Song’ – Nico

Composed as one would expect from alternative music artist John Cale, ‘Winter Song’ is a track off singer-model-actress Nico’s 1967 debut LP, ‘Chelsea Girl;’ released only seven months after the album she collaborated on with John’s band, ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ (1967). ‘Winter Song’ isn’t so much about the winter season, as it is about letting off some steam and using winter imagery as some of the metaphors. The song, as well as the rest of the ‘Chelsea Girl’ record, is the seamless bridge between folk-rock and baroque pop. And while Nico herself famously hated the recurring flute secretly added by producer Tom Wilson throughout the record; I think a lot of listeners might agree ‘Winter Song’ is an example of why the instrument actually blends well into the album.

‘Winter Lady’ – Leonard Cohen

Like Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen is a mid-20th century folk legend who wasn’t afraid to make use of exposure through growing movie soundtracks. For Leonard, three songs from his breakthrough album, ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’ (1968), were featured in Robert Altman’s classic western McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). One of the tracks is the soothing ‘Winter Lady,’ about a man asking a fellow traveler to stick around because she looks similar to another woman he used to know. The soft, acoustic instrumentals along with Leonard’s vocals juxtapose the questionable context of the lyrics. Like ‘Winter Song,’ ‘Winter Lady’ uses the cold season more metaphorically than literally.

‘Wintertime Love’ – The Doors

Another late 1960s composition, this time ‘Wintertime Love’ from the Doors’ third album ‘Waiting for the Sun’ (1968). This rather pretty waltz based song is an ode to romance during the coldest time of year. When you need some warmth, who else should you share it with but the one you love? Doors frontman Jim Morrison has been accused of phoning in his singing on this track, as if suggesting the material was too soft for the rocker, but I’ve never noticed it. The rest of the psychedelic rock group mesh nicely together to give ‘Wintertime Love’ a sweeping tone appropriate for both its LP and the season. If you ask me, ‘WTL’ should be up there with Greg Lake’s ‘I Believe in Father Christmas’ (1977) and the Eagles’ 1978 version of ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’ as a classic rock staple during holiday music listening.

‘Christmastime’ – Aimee Mann & Michael Penn

Three years before she would compose and perform the whole soundtrack of P.T. Anderson’s epic drama Magnolia (1999), alternative music artist Aimee Mann recorded ‘Christmastime’ for the closing credits of PTA’s first film, Hard Eight (1996). Featuring her husband and the composer of the film’s score, Michael Penn, in a duet, and co-written by Michael and Magnolia composer Jon Brion; ‘Christmastime’ goes into detail of the average things you experience in December. Putting decorations up, playing in the snow, spending time with loved ones, but with the chorus lethargically suggesting it’s better to go through the motions of the season than be all alone at Christmastime. While Aimee’s re-recording from her 2006 holiday record ‘One More Drifter in the Snow’ seems to be most common on streaming, my favorite is the original soundtrack version, still uploaded on YouTube.

‘Christmas’ – Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore’s simply titled ‘Christmas’ is a strange occurrence where, outside of two videos on YouTube [one live and one studio recording], there doesn’t seem to be any information about this song anywhere on the internet. One assumes it was produced in 2001 since that’s when the live video is dated, but it’s odd that it’s not connected to a single or holiday compilation somewhere. Sometimes titled ‘Christmas (The Ones You Leave Behind),’ the song lyrically reminds me of Darlene Love’s 1963 classic ‘Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)’ with someone struggling to be home for the holidays because of a serious situation. In this case, it almost sounds like Mandy is singing about someone serving in a war [Iraq?]. Whatever the backstory, this seasonally themed ballad used to be a regular in my college days of discreetly ripping audio from YT videos into MP3s for my iTunes playlists.

‘I Wish It was Christmas Today’ – Julian Casablancas

Loosely based on a popular, recurring sketch on NBC’s “SNL” in the 2000s, Julian Casablancas of the indie rock band the Strokes put his own catchy, rockin’ spin on it in 2009 that rivals Elton John’s ‘Step Into Christmas’ (1974) and Tom Petty’s ‘Christmas All Over Again’ (1992). As I once saw someone on social media fittingly comment, Julian’s arrangement of the novelty song sounds like if you mixed the Strokes’ 2005 B-side ‘Hawaii’ and Billy Idol’s 1981 pop-rock single ‘Dancing with Myself.’ I wouldn’t say this tune is obscure or rare on current holiday mixes/playlists, but it definitely is poppy and earwormy enough to be on as much rotation as Mariah and Bing during the holiday season. For fans of both holiday pop culture and indie/alt-rock music, ‘I Wish It was Christmas Today’ is a great single to put on.

‘Underneath the Tree’ – Kelly Clarkson

Okay, I know this is cheating since Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Underneath the Tree’ now gets consistent radio and streaming airplay, but compared to juggernauts like ‘All I Want for Christmas’ and ‘Last Christmas,’ it’s still pretty underrated. To be honest, I think it might have actually dethroned ‘AIWFC’ the past few years as my go-to upbeat, happy-sounding Christmas pop song. Co-written by Kelly and producer Greg Kurstin, ‘Underneath the Tree’ was the lead single off the popstar’s 2013 holiday LP ‘Wrapped in Red,’ and seemingly continues to gain popularity year after year. What you hear is what you get. An awesome pop production with romantic lyrics and Kelly’s booming voice for December.

What do you think of my choices for rare/less common Christmas tracks? Do you share similar? What else would you include?

(via facebook.com)