It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Xmas

I finished up my annual Christmas compilation CD last night. I didn't deviate too far from what I typically put on it, but I put much more of a concerted effort to make a CD that's enjoyable from start to finish. In my opinion, this one is good enough to copy and give to friends. Here's how it turned out, in order:

1. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” – the Ventures
What better way to get it started than having an instrumental reworking a of Christmas classic.

2. “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” – Wizzard
Probably my third favorite Christmas song of all time. Wizzard was an interesting time in Roy Wood's career, and this song is basically a Phil Spector/Girl Group sendup. It works beautifully.

3. “Run Rudolph Run” – Chuck Berry
Another classic. I don't really see how you can leave this one off. I briefly thought about omitting this one in favor of Keith Richards' version of it. I just couldn't do it, though.

4. “Frosty the Snowman” – The Ronettes
Not only is this an amazing song by an amazing singer, it was prominently featured in the film Goodfellas.

5. “Fuck Christmas” – FEAR
Being that it's under a minute long, I can't think of a reason why this shouldn't be on everyone's Xmas playlist. Especially after getting to see them play it live. In the summertime.

6. “White Christmas” – Stiff Little Fingers
I actually didn't know this existed until a few days ago. It's pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. It sounds like a relatively recent(definitely not from the 70's), but I can't say for sure.

7. “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” – Tom Waits
I really wanted a Tom Waits song on here. Basically, it came down to including either this song, or "Christmas Sucks" by Tom Waits and Peter Murphy. The cons against this song are a) Christmas is only referenced in the title and not in the lyrics of the song, and b) it's about a minute longer than "Christmas Sucks", and I probably could have jammed one more song in there had I opted for the shorter one. This one is much, much funnier, though, and the other one, well, that one has Peter Murphy on it. This one wins.

8. “Merry Christmas, Baby” – Otis Redding
Great rendition of a great song. This sure beats the shit out of Springsteen's. I'd like to track down the original, which was recorded by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in 1947. I bet it cooks.

9. “Father Christmas” – The Kinks
My second favorite Christmas song of all time. It fucking rocks, and the lyrics are hysterical in a way that only Ray Davies can pull off. I have fond memories of hearing this song around the holidays on AOR stations. I can't recall the last time I heard a rock station play this, and that's a shame.

10. “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy” – Buck Owens and his Buckaroos
I never knew this one existed until a couple of years ago. Of all the songs on here, this isn't my favorite, but it's the one that I'm most proud of including on my own compilation. Buck Owens gets name dropped in a lot of circles, but I can't think of any radio station, terrestrial or satellite, that would ever play this song. It came out in 1965 on Buck's Christmas Album, and I think I want to seek that out to see what other gems are on it.

11. “Christmas Vacation” – Descendents
It's really just another classic Milo song about getting dumped, but the dumping in question happens to occur over Christmas break, so that's good enough for me. I love this tune.

12. “Jingle Bells” – Booker T. and the MGs
I love Booker T. and the MGs and I love what they do with this song. I used a total of three songs from Stax artists.

13. “Fairytale of New York” – The Pogues
It's nearly impossible to escape this song during the holidays, but I don't care. It's still iconic.

14. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love
This is the best version of an amazing song. I don't know why anyone else ever bothered to try their hand at this.

15. “Merry Xmas Everybody” – Slade
Best. Holiday Song. Ever. And of course it's virtually unknown in the U.S. Slade is one of my favorite bands, and this is arguably their masterpiece. Noddy Holder does his best John Lennon on this song, and it works because Noddy was a lot better singer than Lennon (and virtually everyone else, for that matter).

16. “Mr. Grinch” – Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors
This was the most palatable choice of Nixon's Horny Holidays record, and I wanted to include something off of that one to keep things fun.

17. “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas” – Carla Thomas
The third and final song by a Stax artist is this one. It's a nice song, although basically just a simple reworking of Thomas' hit song "Gee Whiz". It's relatively obscure, but somewhat recognizable, so I thought it was a good choice.

18. “Little St. Nick” – The Beach Boys
Classic Beach Boys and there's nothing wrong with that.

19. “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” – Ramones
I don't think my conscience would allow me to leave this one off of any Christmas compilation.

20. “Feliz Navi-Nada” – El Vez
I had never heard this before the other day and it's a fun one. I also put it on here because I missed El Vez' early Christmas show at the Earl this past Tuesday, and I feel bad about it.

21. “Santa Baby” – Eartha Kitt
I really wanted to include a fabulous cover of this song by defunct Atlanta band 6x, but I couldn't find an mp3 copy of it. That's a tragedy, but the original version will have to suffice.

22. “Christmas with the Devil” – Spinal Tap
Even though this song never appeared on a recording until Spinal Tap released Break Like the Wind, I remember them performing this on Saturday Night Live in '83 or '84, so it could be considered an extension of the stuff they made for This is Spinal Tap.

23. “Blue Christmas” – Elvis Presley
This is one of the usual suspects for Christmas tunes, but I really wouldn't have felt right if I'd left it off.

24. “Christmas in Hollis” – Run-D.M.C.
See explanation for track 23.

25. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” – John Lennon
See explanations for 23 and 24.

26. “Merry Christmas” – Wesley Willis
There was no way I was going to make a Christmas compilation without my man Wesley Willis on it. It came down to either this one, or "Kris Kringle Was a Car Thief". I figured that of the two, this would be the one less likely to result in everyone else in the room running for the door, or violently beating on me with lead pipes. It's still distinctly possible that this will happen with this selection, mind you, it's just less likely.

27. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” – The Ventures
Start with the Ventures, end with the Ventures. Seems like a pretty good recipe for success to me.

On a side note, I remember back in the days of the actual mix tape, one of the many reasons I grew to love the Ramones was that no matter how little room there seemed to be when you approached the end of a cassette's side, there was ALWAYS room for a Ramones song. That's how I feel about the Ventures in the era of the mix CD. A virtual treasure trove of classic songs, with none of them exceeding two minutes and thirty seconds. Of course, the days of the mix CD are falling by the wayside, but that's another story for another time.

What do you think? What would you have done differently here?