We count down the best Christmas Carols, from John Fahey, the Sonics, and the Waitresses to Slade, Wizzard, and Mariah Carey.
It really signals the beginning of the holiday season to hear Christmas carols in shopping malls, at work, or, in 2020 – only in your car on the radio.
A fiercely debated topic, though, is the festive song is the greatest. Below, we have given our view, showcasing pieces from the 1930s until 2020.
See what you think about yourself, from the Christmas OG artists such as Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Michale Bublé to new smashes from Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson to secret jewels from Darlene Love and Stevie Wonder.
We’ve rounded up the best Christmas carols;
Bob Seger and the Last Heard
Sock It to Me Santa
“Santa has a brand new bag! Hollers Bob Seger was an R&B shouter in Detroit years before becoming an American heartland rocking a beard. Sock It to Me Santa is a legendary explosion-garage rock and soul brought together on Christmas Eve into something built for the best bar in town.
Wham!
Last Christmas
There was nothing deliberately fresh about a giant Christmas carol hit that wasn’t covered in sleigh bells, unlike previous UK seasonal singles. Perhaps George Michael had paid careful attention to some of the American Christmas soul’s great singles since this was a sad album that just happened to be set in December.
The The Pretenders
2000 Miles
Often plain is best: the guitar of Robbie McIntosh performing the 1984 hit of the Pretenders is a paradigm of folk-rock discipline, taking from the Byrds, and offsetting the voice and lyrics of Chrissie Hynde with a feeling that all is going to be OK somehow.
The Temptations
Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Yeah, cover yourself in those glorious voices’ scarf! Motown took Christmas seriously, so you should actually do this compilation solely on songs from Motown. This one is chosen because a flawless arrangement turns what is genuinely a somewhat dismal album.
Clarence Carter
Back Door Santa
Pure filth for Christmas. When the boys are out to play, Back Door Santa will “make all the little girls happy / While the boys are out to play.” But don’t mistake him for Father Christmas: “I’m not like old Saint Nick / He’s not coming but once a year.”
Lou Rawls
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
One imagines that this will be the soundtrack to the Christmas of Don Draper-as creamy as eggnog, with a flexible way that’s nagging but not unobtrusive, it’s just the tone of the 60s’ idealized Christmas. Rawls released a lot of Christmas carols, but the best is his first one from 1967.
Little Joey Farr
Rock’n’Roll Christmas
Rock’n’roll and ability to rock are a relic to a trove of Christmas carol novelty (try Elvis with Marlene Paula’s I Want To Spend Xmas), but we So, given that Christmas is all about girls, rest their hearts, let’s have a song by a real kid who vanished from the pop world immediately.
Joy Zipper
Christmas Song
Blank-faced and untouched, Christmas is here for the duo’s shoegazers, momentarily toasted at the middle of the last decade. Kevin Shields and David Holmes were producing, and you can bet they were listening to Beach House.
Donny Hathaway
This Christmas
It was not a success, but it began when it was included in a 1991 reissue of the Soul Christmas 1968 Atco album. Of which you can say only: why did it take so long for the world to notice? It’s a Christmas song that, regardless of the season, stands up. And it is currently the 30th most performed Christmas album of all time in the US, according to the publishing body Ascap.
Marvin Gaye
Purple Snowflakes
Marvin Gaye’s perfect falsetto, the sudden chord swings, the feeling of wonder, an album so exquisite it’s almost otherworldly. Yet, without ever specifying why the snowflakes are purple, it is rolled up in the most soothing Christmas carol: chestnuts roasting, blankets of white.
Also Read, 13 Best Christmas Movies for you this Holiday Season
The Free Design
Close Your Mouth (It’s Christmas)
The song possibly goes on after Lou Rawls in Don Draper’s flat, when the cool young kids arrive. They sing, “Get to know the people in your house.” Perhaps you would prefer them.” Draper knocks a whisky back, raises his eyebrow, and shakes his head.”
Johnny & Santo
Will we have to cheer up? I assume we do. Thank heaven, though, for Brooklyn couple Santo & Johnny’s twangy pipes, the gaudy, overlit shop window contrasted with the Everly Brothers’ stark isolation.
Low
Just Like Christmas
One of the most unexpected holiday delights was Low’s 1999 Christmas EP, released as a “gift” to fans: the ascetic indie band enjoying the season without irony. Its lead track was a delight that reminded them of the pain of touring when they were young, and it sounded just like Christmas. Only two verses, and, fine, a repetitive refrain.
Mariah Carey: The most heard Christmas carol
All I Want for Christmas Is You
Only at Christmas do the best Christmas carol work. They should make you believe festive, in the same way as The Snowman’s 174th echo did. In shopping malls, in pubs, pumping out of PAs in gig venues after the band has gone down, on the radio in a cafe, in your house, or on your headphones, they can work everywhere. Everything I Want is You for Christmas is all that stuff. It’s Phil Spector’s blatant pastiche that’s so arrogant and cheerful and simple. It just took 15 minutes for Carey and Walter Afanasieff to write that it goes beyond its lack of creativity. It’s the odd modern Christmas carol that has become, and rightfully so, a staple.
