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Nov 30, 2019 · Various Artists, ‘A Christmas Record’. This album, originally released by ZE Records in 1981, is a collection of experimental, alternative, and new-wave takes on Christmas. With Suicide ...
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Dec 1, 2020 · Here's AllMusic's countdown of the 30 most essential Christmas albums, from Ray Charles to Bing Crosby to James Brown and even Charlie Brown. Unwrap these albums early and get ready for the Yuletide season. #30 — Gene Autry Sings Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town — Gene Autry. Gene Autry Sings Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is a charming ...
- The Roches – We Three Kings
- Various Artists – Something Festive
- Various Artists – Ghosts of Christmas Past
- James Brown – Hey America
- Bob Dylan – Christmas in The Heart
- Various Artists – A John Waters Christmas
- Various Artists – A Laface Family Christmas
- Sufjan Stevens – Songs For Christmas
- Kacey Musgraves – A Very Kacey Christmas
- Loretta Lynn – Country Christmas
The US avant-folk trio began their musical career carol singing, which makes We Three Kings a kind of back-to-their-roots enterprise. Quite sparsely arranged, it allows the Roche sisters’ harmonies to dazzle – the acappella Star of Wonder is magical – while their New York-accented Winter Wonderland is an absolute hoot.
In which the cream of A&M Records’ easy listening artists – Herb Alpert, Burt Bacharach and Sérgio Mendez among them – offer up a Christmasalbum as velvety-smooth as eggnog. The highlight: Claudine Longet’s delicate confection of strings, acoustic guitar and breathy vocals, Snow.
That most improbable of things: a post-punk Christmas album, that features Aztec Camera doing a Django Reinhardt-inspired instrumental, a selection of Factory Records alumni and San Franciscan oddballs Tuxedomoon. The Durutti Column’s implausibly beautiful Snowflakes is a standout.
James Brown made three Christmas albums, but the last one earns its place here by dint of being the weirdest. The issue isn’t the music – a string-laden take on funk – but Brown himself, who appears to be making up the words to every song as he goes along, with bewildering results.
An honest, heartfelt expression of faith and seasonal cheer? A concerted effort to snatch the title of most bizarre Christmas album from James Brown’s aforementioned Hey America? Untangling the thought processes and motivation behind Christmas in the Heart is a tough call, but the crazed Must Be Santa is a once-heard, never-forgotten experience.
You might expect gleeful schlock from film director John Waters, and there’s plenty of it here – singing kids, the Chipmunks, Rudolph and the Gang’s sweary Here Comes Fatty Claus – but the genius of A John Waters Christmas is how he mixes the weirdness and laughs with sheer loveliness, as on Stormy Weather’s doo-wop Christmas Time Is Coming.
This compilation earned its place in history by featuring the first track ever released by OutKast, Player’s Ball. The track, an ultra-funky saga of a harassed drug dealer’s Christmas Day, is undoubtedly the highlight, but TLC’s All I Want for Christmas and Toni Braxton’s classy take on The Christmas Song run it surprisingly close.
A 42-track compilation that charts Stevens’ progress from shambolic folk-rocker to baroque pop mastermind. He sings carols with conviction, but it’s the tunes he wrote himself that really hit home – not least the cheeringly realistic Get Behind Me, Santa!, which expresses weary optimism regarding the festive season: “It’s a fact of life whether you...
A perfectly balanced seasonal feast, where kitsch – I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – coexists with heartbreak set to weeping pedal steel guitar on Christmas Makes Me Cry, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer meets A Willie Nice Christmas, a weed-addled duet with Willie Nelson that urges listeners to get “higher than the angel on top of the tree”...
The country star’s first Christmas album is just fantastic: hushed carols, an ample helping of sass (To Heck With Ole Santa Claus, I Won’t Decorate Your Christmas Tree) and, best of all, unadulterated tears-in-the-tinsel misery on Gift of the Blues and Christmas Without Daddy.
- ‘My Christmas,’ Andrea Bocelli. Release date: Nov. 3, 2009. Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 for five consecutive weeks beginning Nov. 28, 2009. Producers: David Foster, Renato Serio.
- ‘Home for Christmas,’ Amy Grant. Release date: Oct. 6, 1992. Billboard 200 peak: No. 2 (Dec. 26, 1992) Producers: Brown Bannister, Ronn Huff. Notes: This was Grant’s second Christmas album, following 1983’s A Christmas Album.
- ‘White Christmas,’ Bing Crosby. Release date: 1986. Billboard 200 peak: No. 34 (Jan. 8, 2022) Guest artist: The Andrews Sisters, Carol Richards. Notes: This is an adaptation of Crosby’s Merry Christmas, which was first released in 1945 and which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in December 1957 – interrupting Elvis Presley’s reign at No. 1 with Elvis’ Christmas Album.
- ‘A Pentatonix Christmas,’ Pentatonix. Release date: Oct. 21, 2016. Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 for two consecutive weeks beginning Jan. 7, 2017. Producers: Alex Green, Andrew Kesler, Ben Bram, Pentatonix.
- James Brown ‘A Soulful Christmas’ (1968) The second of Brown’s three Christmas LPs strikes a balance between his early- career balladeering and the metronomic funk he’d explore with the J.B.’
- The Carpenters ‘Christmas Portrait’ (1978) It’s no dig to say that the Carpenters’ easy-listening style perfectly suits the season, and Karen’s contralto carries lithe renditions of holiday standards.
- Vince Guaraldi Trio ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ (1965) The second-bestselling jazz album in history, Guaraldi’s soulful mix of standards (“O Tannenbaum,” “What Child Is This”) and originals (“Skating,” “Christmas Time Is Here”) capture the joy and the melancholy of the season, not to mention Charles M. Schulz’s enduring animated portrait of childhood.
- Dean Martin ‘A Winter Romance’ (1959) Even if you’re not a fan of Martin’s signature “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” the crooner’s traditional numbers serve as window dressing for the lesser-known ones (“The Things We Did Last Summer,” “Out in the Cold Again”) that form the album’s snowy, surprisingly evocative narrative spine.
Jan 15, 2024 · Always be prepared for the holidays with the best Christmas albums of all-time, ranked by fans everywhere. Featuring great Christmas music from popular artists, like Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Michael Bublé, and Sia, this list of good holiday albums is the perfect starting point for creating your Christmas music playlist.
