{"id":4793,"date":"2015-12-23T07:08:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T12:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4793"},"modified":"2015-12-23T08:18:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T13:18:41","slug":"our-completely-unscientific-list-of-best-christmas-songs-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4793","title":{"rendered":"Our Completely Unscientific List of Best Christmas Songs Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This was a post we put together with some friends and published in 2012. Since we loved it and it&#8217;s Christmas time again, we\u00a0wanted to run it back. Merry Christmas everyone!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Christmas time and we here at JMUSB definitely have the spirit. So we decided to put a list of a few of our favorite Christmas songs of all time with the help of some friends of the blog. The resulting list of songs is below, including some brief thoughts from whomever suggested each one. \u00a0We&#8217;re referring to it as the JMUSB list of best Christmas songs ever. Sounds official.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ODrPL9-kEs\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/richpriz\">Rich Prisinzano<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It&#8217;s Elvis in all his glory. There is also a &#8216;musical&#8217; joke in that the notes he sings are &#8216;blue&#8217; (minor thirds or something) pretty nerdy I know.<!--more--><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xMtuVP8Mj4o\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dric<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Jose Feliciano was the cool blind guitarist way before Jeff Healey ever came on the scene in the 1980s. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs for many reasons, first and foremost that it is an amazingly fun bilingual sing-along. My three year old daughter already knows this song and loves it. It also has a great uptempo beat, particularly by Christmas song standards (with a nod to &#8220;Christmas in Hollis&#8221; by Run-DMC, of course). I have this on wax, which has an amazing painting of Jose Feliciano on the cover, wearing his trademark sunglasses. For what it&#8217;s worth, the album also features his cover of the Doors&#8217; hit &#8220;Light My Fire.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DiXjbI3kRus\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Little Drummer Boy\/Peace on Earth by Bing Crosy &amp; David Bowie<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jamiemottram\">Jamie Mottram<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Legend has it that Bowie didn&#8217;t like Little Drummer Boy but agreed to do it b\/c his mum was such a big fan of Bing&#8217;s. It was recorded on 9\/11\/77, 10 days after I was born and just five weeks before Bing died.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GJSUT8Inl14\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>White Christmas by Bing Crosby<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bing Crosby makes his second appearance on the list, with this classic suggested by our buddy Jari.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gaPj1GoDpQw\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Christmas All Over Again by Tom Petty &amp; The Heartbreakers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our friend Poz threw this one out there. Good song and the video above features a relatively coherent looking Tom Petty.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iSgEDKjmT5o\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bruce Springsteen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealFrankBio\">Frank Bio<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The first time you hear\u00a0it on the radio each year signals the official start of the holiday<br \/>\nseason. Just because its Christmastime, doesn&#8217;t mean you have to stop<br \/>\nrocking. There is always room for Rock and Roll. Bruce Springsteen<br \/>\nstrikes a nice balance between festive and rockin on this track.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y51JyG7M3dw\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rocking Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=4752\">Tedward<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Just seems to be in any good Xmas movie. Has a cheesy sax solo too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SPJjlBtcnbU\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>What Christmas Means to Me by Stevie Wonder<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/richpriz\">Rich Prisinzano<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is another one that got played a lot in my house. My parents also let us drink wine or a cocktail on christmas eve. This is a song we danced to and sung along to until we passed out. I was a lightweight at age 10.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UV8x7H3DD8Y\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jamiemottram\">Jamie Mottram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Originally released on the amazing 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, she still performs this classic on Letterman each Christmas, and I&#8217;m a sucker for it every time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GpFudDAYqxY\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>River by Joni Mitchell<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Todd<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Just a flawless four minutes. Also in my favorite movie, Almost Famous, even though Cameron Crowe didn&#8217;t include it on the official soundtrack because the album &#8220;Blue&#8221; came out a couple years after he meant for the Stillwater story to take place. \u00a0Side note: someday a rock band will figure out that remaking &#8220;Carrie,&#8221; the best song from that album. Could be unreal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aSynDh_K0EE\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong>Little Saint Nick by The Beach Boys<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Me<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Beach Boys Christmas Album was in heavy rotation in my house growing up. I go back and forth between this song, Frosty the Snowman and The Man With All the Toys, when deciding on my favorite track, but this one hits the mark today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OR07r0ZMFb8\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong>Christmas in Hollis by RUN-DMC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As suggested by practically everyone who grew up in the 80s. Because it&#8217;s awesome.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JgoPl35n_AY\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi Trio<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dric<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I think this stands on its own merits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MLnhVRTI8NI\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Ray Charles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Me<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Everyone knows the words to this kids song. And practically everyone things that they can sing it. Most of us can&#8217;t. Ray Charles definitely could.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O3300NlCX6s\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Claus&#8217; Kimono by Drive By Truckers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Todd<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>OK, I just can&#8217;t resist one more to the more musically obsessed portion of our audience&#8230;Drive By Truckers with a sincere redneck originial Mrs. Claus&#8217; Kimono.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Obviously there are many more great songs, but we had to draw the line someplace. We&#8217;re leaving out some amazing tunes by artists such as <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/rEyV8gnC4aQ\">Otis Redding<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/OESKV4NR3po\">The Ronnettes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/3_RStwfTAmE\">Hall &amp; Oates<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/K5bo4VDEH-U\">Mariah Carey<\/a> (you can admit you like those last two), and others. Feel free to share some of your favorites in the comments and have a Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D4793&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was a post we put together with some friends and published in 2012. Since we loved it and it&#8217;s Christmas time again, we\u00a0wanted to run it back. Merry Christmas everyone! It&#8217;s Christmas time and we here at JMUSB definitely have the spirit. So we decided to put a list of a few of our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[351],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11377,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=11377","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":0},"title":"JMUSB Pod: The Hap, Hap, Happiest Time of the Year","date":"December 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Christmas Eve and we've got a brand new episode of the JMUSB Podcast available for your listening pleasure. And if we do say ourselves, it's a pretty fun one. We spend most of the episode discussing the Dukes big win over Weber State to secure passage to Frisco for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Podcasts&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1880,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1880","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":1},"title":"Brief Programming Note","date":"December 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I trust everyone is having a happy holiday season. There really isn't much going on in the world of JMU sports, so Todd and I are laying low and taking advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with family and friends. Hopefully each of you are able to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10083,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10083","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":2},"title":"JMUSB Pod: Ticket Punched for Frisco &#038; Favorite Christmas Music","date":"December 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We went guest-less this episode, but we still think it's a good listen. In this episode we tall all about the amazing win over South Dakota State in which the Dukes forced 10 (yes 10) turnovers. We save the Frisco talk for a future pod, but wrap things up discussing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Podcasts&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1809,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1809","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":3},"title":"JMUSB First Birthday Charity Pledge","date":"December 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure if this is an anniversary or a birthday, but the first JMUSB post ever was made one year ago tomorrow.\u00a0You'll notice that the very first comment on that very first post\u00a0closed with\u00a0this little bit of friendly advice, \"Let's hope it gets better from here.\" At least we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/happy_birthday_cake_thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10090,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10090","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":4},"title":"JMUSB Pod: Early Signing Day Special","date":"December 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After a brief Christmas hiatus, we're back with another episode of the JMUSB Podcast. In this one, we welcome our friend Michael Evangalista to discuss the Dukes newest recruiting class. Trust us when we tell you that Michael knows JMU football recruiting, probably better than anyone outside Coach Houston's staff.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Football&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10727,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10727","url_meta":{"origin":4793,"position":5},"title":"JMUSB Pod Christmas Spectacular","date":"December 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"??????????????? \u00a0 So we waited a while to post and did minimal post-show hype because this show is such an audio nightmare. Both of our feeds are ahead of Nikki's so it sounds like we're reenforcing the patriarchy and talking over her all the time and, hysterically, like she is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Podcasts&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4793"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8281,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions\/8281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}