If I may defer, however briefly, to the wisdom of the late Tom Petty, “Well, it’s Christmas all over again.”And for a lot of people, that means listening to the same old Christmas records all over again.
For some, it’s a blessing. For others, a curse.
I tend to view it as a blessing, having grown up on my parents’ Christmas music (Andy Williams, Perry Como and my mother’s fav, Bing Crosby), eventually making my own way in this world to rock ‘n’ roll classics as timeless as John & Yoko’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” and my vote for the greatest Christmas album ever made, “A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector.”
Both those records had been out for ages by the time they creeped their way into my consciousness. But that’s the way it works with Christmas music — old treasures re-gifted to new generations as new classics slowly work their way into the mix.
As we head into December 2025, both Brenda Lee and Bobby Helms are in the Top 5 on Billboard’s Holiday 100 — for 1958’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and 1957’s “Jingle Bell Rock,” respectively.
You’ll find those both those classics on this countdown of the greatest Christmas songs of all time, an unabashedly subjective undertaking, from “White Christmas,” the song that first suggested a market for secular holiday songs and always made my mother’s day, to Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree,” a 21st century standard that sounds like it could’ve been written in the 1960s.
There are songs by former Beatles, punk rockers, Elvis and Run-DMC. And I did not forget Mariah Carey. How could anyone forget Mariah Carey at a time like this, with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” at No. 1, as usual, on the Holiday 100?
40. The Monkees ‘Unwrap You at Christmas’ (2018)
Andy Partridge of XTC gifted the Monkees this instant yuletide classic to begin their “Christmas Party” album on a playful note with festive echoes of Phil Spector’s classic Christmas album, which, as Partridge told Mark Fisher of “The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls,” was far from unintentional.
It feels like Christmas morning, complete with sleigh bells, Micky Dolenz bringing a suitably childlike charm to the mix as he sets the tone with “I can’t wait to unwrap you at Christmas/ You’re the gift for me/ I can’t wait to unwrap you at Christmas/ Under the Christmas tree.”
There’s even a wonderfully bittersweet bridge, with Dolenz pining, “I’ve been waiting all year now, baby, for the snow and you to return.”
39. Elton John ‘Step Into Christmas’ (1973)
The Rocket Man was riding high on the success of two chart-topping albums he had somehow managed to release that year – “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” – when he hit the studio to rush-record a little shot of yuletide joy, inviting one and all to “hop aboard the turntable” and “step into Christmas with me.”
It’s only fair to credit Bernie Taupin for the goofy charm of those lyrics and guitarist Davey Johnstone for the timeless nature of that riff. It’s also blessed with suitably Spectorian production touches. But as often happens in these situations, the resulting magic wouldn’t sparkle half as brightly if it weren’t for Elton John’s joyous delivery.
This single and its flipside – the even goofier “Ho, Ho, Ho (Who’d Be A Turkey At Christmas)” – were recorded in a single day and arrived in U.S. record shops the day after Thanksgiving. As John told Melody Maker at the time, “It was written and recorded on Sunday and will be in the shops this week.”
It topped the Billboard Christmas Singles chart and was recently certified platinum for U.S. sales of a million copies. It initially peaked at No. 24 on the UK singles chart, hitting No. 8 on that same chart in 2019.
38. Judy Garland ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’
Judy Garland’s trembling vibrato really leans into the melancholy essence of this wartime ballad written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Garland in the 1944 MGM musical “Meet Me in St. Louis.”
There’s nothing especially heartbreaking about the lyrics “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light,” but she follows that opening line with the first indication of why Garland and the orchestration sound so sad. “Next year, our troubles will be out of sight,” she sings, a sentiment she echoes in the second verse with its hopeful insistence that “Next year, our troubles will be miles away.”
The original lyrics were darker still (“Have yourself a merry little Christmas/It may be your last”), but Martin was asked to rewrite for use in the film.
When Frank Sinatra cut his 1957, he had Martin change a line that made it into Garland’s version. “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow” was changed to “hang a shining star upon the highest bough” and other lines were changed to let the listener have a merry little Christmas this year. And that’s just sad.
37. Wizzard ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ (1973)
The great Roy Wood, who co-founded Electric Light Orchestra after rising to fame at the helm of The Move, was on his third successful band when he recorded this seasonal favorite, which remains a yuletide staple in the U.K., where it spent four weeks at No. 4 upon release.
Wizzard brought in a busload of schoolkids to join in the holiday hijinks, and their voices definitely rise to the occasion on this joyous celebration of the season, taking a turn in the spotlight for one final romp through the chorus (“Well, I wish it could be Christmas every day/ When the kids start singing and the band begins to play/ Oh, I wish it could be Christmas every day/ So let the bells ring out for Christmas”).
Introducing the kids’ big moment with a shout of “OK, you lot, take it!” is a lovely touch.
And Santa Claus would need a bigger sleigh to squeeze in all the instruments they pack into this boisterous Wall of Sound, from saxophone and woodwinds to French horn, glockenspiel, tubular bells, all your standard rock instrumentation and loads of percussion, including the seasonal shaking of sleight bells. The end result is pure joy.
36. Thurl Ravenscroft ‘You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch’ (1966)
Dr. Suess has always been a more inspired lyricist than most, Bob Dylan notwithstanding. And this may be his finest hour. Consider the opening verse: “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch/ You really are a heel/ You’re as cuddly as a cactus/ You’re as charming as an eel/ Mr. Grinch/ You’re a bad banana with a greasy, black peel.” But he’s just getting started at that point.
The insult comedy builds to a glorious climax as Thurl Ravenscroft (who was also “grr-r-reat” voicing Tony the Tiger) brings his booming bass vocal to bear on an intoxicatingly over-the-top delivery of “Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots.”
And the orchestration is just as inspired. It’s the theme to “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” whose soundtrack won a Grammy (Best Album for Children).
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35. Andy Williams ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ (1963)
The orchestrated intro conjures images of smiling people ice skating in cozy Christmas sweaters, the perfect introduction to a lilting celebration of the season so infused with joy, you can feel the song’s producer doing everything he can to make it sound like it actually is the most wonderful time of the year (also known as “the hap-happiest season of all”).
You don’t even have to listen closely to hear the smile on Williams’ face as he sings of “the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer,”
Recorded for “The Andy Williams Christmas Album,” this yuletide standard was passed over by the label when choosing a single in favor of “White Christmas.” That may be part of the reason this holiday classic took 58 years to peak at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and No. 9 on the U.K. singles chart.
34. Stevie Wonder ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ (1967)
This was the second of two singles from “Someday at Christmas,” a holiday album the singer released in 1967, the same year he turned 17.
It doesn’t feel as consequential as the title track, a yuletide plea for peace and human dignity that landed in the upper reaches of this countdown.
But there’s plenty of Motown magic in that melody, that groove and a Hitsville arrangement topped by sleigh bells with the Funk Brothers getting especially funky on the bridge, where Wonder sings, “I feel like runnin’ wild, as anxious as a little child, to greet you ‘neath the mistletoe, kiss you once and then some more.” The end result is classic ‘60s Wonder, fading out on a tuneful chromatic harmonica solo.
33. The Waitresses ‘Christmas Wrapping’ (1981)
This New Wave standard rocks the mic like Debbie Harry on the “Rapture” tip with an impossibly elastic bass line, punch-drunk horns slurring the contagious instrumental hook and a singer who’s blowing off Christmas this year.
“Bah, humbug!” Patty Donahue begins, then reconsiders. “No, that’s too strong ’cause it is my favorite holiday/ But all this year’s been a busy blur/ Don’t think I have the energy/ To add to my already mad rush/ Just cause it’s ’tis the season.”
Her blasé rapping underscores the sense that she needs to catch her breath and take a pass on Christmas. She gives herself “a very happy ending,” though, running into the guy she’s been chasing after trudging through the snow on an A&P run for the cranberry sauce she forgot to accompany “the world’s smallest turkey.” And just like that, love conquers all.
32. The Beach Boys ‘Little Saint Nick’ (1964)
The hit single that led to the recording of “The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album,” “Little Saint Nick” tells the tale of “a real famous cat all dressed up in red” who “spends the whole year working out on his sled.” As it turns out, the sled is the Little Saint Nick.
In a stroke of true genius, they manage to work it around their classic car-song formula, most specifically their recent hit “Little Deuce Coupe” (although the groove is closer to Dion’s “The Wanderer”). “Just a little bobsled, we call it Old Saint Nick. But she’ll walk a toboggan with a four-speed stick. She’s candy apple red with a ski for a wheel. And when Santa hits the gas, man, just watch her peel.”
31. Bobby Helms ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ (1957)
This is one of several Christmas standards of the 1950s that were clearly meant to give the kids a little yuletide thrill by playing to the rock ‘n’ roll vote while in no danger of being mistaken for the latest Elvis Presley single.
It starts with guitarist Hank Garland putting a rockabilly twist on the hook to “Jingle Bells” and tosses in a reference to Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” with sleigh bells jingling to complete the mood and the Anita Kerr singers chiming in on backing vocals.
The lyrics may be on the corny side, but Garland’s lead guitar work lends an air of authenticity to the proceedings.
30. Bing Crosby ‘White Christmas’ (1942)
Irving Berlin won an Oscar for writing this seasonal standard, which Bing Crosby first recorded for “Holiday Inn,” a film released in 1942, establishing a market for secular Christmas music, thereby paving the way for every other record on this list. Crosby’s 1947 re-recording is the biggest-selling Christmas 45 of all time.
The timing of Crosby’s original version, released during World War II with U.S. soldiers stationed overseas for Christmas, only added to the melancholy essence of a ballad whose opening line finds Crosby “dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know.”
But you don’t need that as a backdrop to get caught up in nostalgic longings for a Christmas like the one you used to know, not with Bing on the Victrola, as it were.
29. Kelly Clarkson ‘Underneath the Tree’ (2013)
Not unlike Mariah Carey’s holiday triumph from the ‘90s, all Clarkson wants for Christmas is you while hearkening back to the seasonal standards of a bygone age, when Phil Spector was king.
It checks off all the boxes, from sleigh bells to church bells, with an effervescent vocal so infused with not only the holiday spirit but utter joy as Clarkson tells her special someone, “You’re all that I need underneath the tree” without the slightest hint of sexual innuendo. You would have to be the biggest Grinch in town to resist this record’s charms.
28. Big Star ‘Jesus Christ’ (1978)
I’ve never seen this on a Christmas compilation (unless you count that dB’s Christmas record), but I don’t know why. The melody’s sweeter than Santa-shaped chocolate, the vocals are soulful and joyous, and — get this — the lyrics are actually about the birth of Jesus.
Alex Chilton sets the stage with “Angels from the realms of glory, stars shone bright above, Royal David city was bathed in light of love.” Then, the chorus hits and cuts right to the chase. “Jesus Christ was born today. Jesus Christ was born.” And is that really tympani? I think that’s tympani! How Christmas can you get?
27. Charles Brown ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’ (1960)
The pain and loneliness of being forced to go without that special someone on the holidays is something of a running theme on Christmas records, and few have done it as successfully as “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
This deeply soulful ballad topped the Christmas singles chart 12 years after the fact and went on to be covered by the Eagles, Etta James, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, Cher and Willie Nelson, among others.
By the time he got to “Please Come Home for Christmas,” Brown had long since blessed the season with a single often cited as the first R&B holiday record, 1947’s “Merry Christmas Baby.”
This is a a far more emotional case of the blues and all the better for it, from the scene-setting tolling of church bells to the opening verse, where Brown follows “Bells will be ringing the glad, glad news” with “Oh, what a Christmas to have the blues.” And why? “My baby’s gone, I have no friends/ To wish me greetings once again.”
He’s hopeful she’ll be home if not for Christmas, then by New Year’s night, at which point “There’ll be no more sorrow, no grief and pain/ ‘Cause I’ll be happy, happy, once again.” It’s for the listener to decide if that just makes it sadder.
26. Run-D.M.C. ‘Christmas in Hollis’ (1987)
It eases in with jingle bells. And that’s about as far as traditional goes on this holiday classic as Run-D.M.C. rock the mic with a horn-driven hip-hop track about that time one Christmas Eve when they stumbled upon a bearded man with a bag full of goodies in Hollis, Queens, where “mom’s cooking chicken and collard greens.”
The man drops his wallet and when Run picks it up, there’s not only a license inside that “cold said Santa Claus” but a million dollars cash. He runs straight home to mail it back but finds a note under the Christmas tree from Santa Claus saying the money’s for him. How sweet is that?
The horns are sampled from another Christmas classic, Clarence Carter’s “Back Door Santa.” It also samples “Jingle Bells,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Joy to the World.” This was Run-D.M.C.’s contribution to “A Very Special Christmas,” a compilation produced to benefit the Special Olympics.
25. James Brown ‘Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto’ (1968)
In this very funky Christmas plea, the Godfather of Soul sings “I’m beggin’ you, Santa Claus. Go straight to the ghetto,” telling Santa “you know that I know what you will see ’cause that was once me” before the saxophone starts paraphrasing “Jingle Bells” over a minimalist funk groove.
“You know that they need you so,” Brown explains on his way to the final emotional verse where he sings “Never thought I’d realize I’d be singing a song with water in my eyes.”
24. Donny Hathaway ‘This Christmas’ (1970)
There’s so much soul in Donny Hathaway’s lead vocal, from the time he sets the scene for what he hopes to a “very special Christmas for me” with his smooth delivery of “Hang all the mistletoe/ I’m gonna get to know you better.”
You won’t hear many more romantic Christmas songs than this, with its fireside blazing bright at Hathaway croons, “And as I look around, your eyes outshine the town, they do, this Christmas.”
Nadine McKinnor, who wrote the lyrics to Hathaway’s music, told Jet magazine she felt “blessed to have written Donny a song that celebrates the possibilities, the expectations and the anticipation of Christmas and the good fun and happy loving times.”
23. Wham! ‘Last Christmas’ (1984)
It’s kind of weird how much this sounds like something Hall & Oates, the other big pop-music duo of the ’80s, might have written — especially that keyboard part with which they set the tone. But that hasn’t hurt the enduring appeal of a George Michael classic the Guardian would proclaim “a high watermark of mid-80s British synthpop songcraft, before slick technology killed sincerity a bit.”
Originally held at bay by “Do They Know it’s Christmas?,” it topped the U.K. charts on New Year’s Day of 2021, more than 36 years after its release. It’s a holiday heartbreaker, which may well be the key to it still resonating decades later. Who among us can’t relate to the heartache, if not the timing, of “Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away”?
22. Elvis Presley ‘Santa Claus is Back in Town’ (1957)
There are those who don’t much cotton to the concept of a sexy Santa. If you have reason to believe you may be suffering from these symptoms, trust me when I say you do not want to tussle with Elvis, the sexiest Santa of them all.
Much of the credit should be shared by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote and produced this libidinous holiday rocker with Elvis in mind.
And the King makes the most of every opportunity as he swaggers his way through lines as custom-made for swaggering as “Well, you be a real good little girl/ Santa Claus is back in town” and a seasonal double entendre for the ages: “Hang up your pretty stockings/ Turn off your light.”
He also takes great pleasure in delivering the lyrics on the bridge, where he reveals he’s “Got no sleigh with reindeer/ No sack on my back/ You’re gonna see me comin’ in a big black Cadillac.”
It’s the opening track on “Elvis’ Christmas Album,” the best-selling holiday album of all time in the U.S. It’s also the flipside of “Blue Christmas,” a million-selling 45.
21. Vince Guaraldi Trio ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ (1965)
The children’s choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Rafael, California, may be rhyming “Christmas Time Is Here” with “happiness and cheer,” but the prevailing mood of Vince Guaraldi’s yuletide treasure is somewhere between bittersweet and melancholy.
It sounds like staring out the window at the gently falling snow that caused the cancellation of the flight that was supposed to bring your loved one home for Christmas (or wondering why Santa is so bad at reading Christmas lists). It’s a breathtaking holiday standard recorded for 1965 TV broadcast “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
There’s also an excellent six-minute instrumental version on the soundtrack, which Billboard named the best holiday album of all time.
20. The Ronettes ‘Frosty the Snowman’ (1963)
Phil Spector finds girl-group nirvana in “Frosty the Snowman” with this joyous Wall of Sound production led by Ronnie Spector’s streetwise sass. Hal Blaine’s drum fills are truly inspired and the ending is pure Spector magic, all the Rankin-Bass melted away like so much talking snowman.
This one of three Christmas classics the Ronettes recorded for the greatest Christmas album ever made, “A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector.”
And then George Michael goes in for the kill with “This year, to save me from tears, I’ll give it to someone special.” That is gonna leave a mark.
19. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ‘Christmas All Over Again’ (1992)
Tom Petty in Traveling Wilburys mode salutes the season with a wistful Spector-esque production that could be his most infectious moment of the ’90s.
The Heartbreaker has never sounded more like fellow Wilbury George Harrison than he does on the verses here, sighing his way through a line about long-distance relatives he rarely sees before cracking a smile with “Yeah, I kinda missed ’em. I just don’t want to kiss ’em.”
He even wrote the music on a ukulele the former Beatle gifted him and called in fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne to co-produce. This track was Petty’s contribution to “A Very Special Christmas 2.”
18. Paul McCartney ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ (1979)
This song is unfairly maligned when it should be embraced for what it is — a somewhat sappy synth-pop trifle that captures the magic and charm of the season while pushing the musical envelope without abandoning the simple pleasures of a well-placed hook.
It feels like Christmas morning. There are sleigh bells, a bassline that thumpity-thump-thumps like Frosty the Snowman and a reference to a children’s choir. There are no actual children, just McCartney harmonizing with himself and playing all the instruments, an approach he’d been experimenting with in sessions for the homegrown New Wave DIY of an album that could easily be viewed as a companion piece, “McCartney II.”
You’d think that people would have had enough of silly Christmas songs? I look around me and I see it isn’t so.
17. Kurtis Blow ‘Christmas Rappin” (1979)
Before Run-D.M.C. gave us “Christmas in Hollis,” Kurtis Blow was busy making Christmas safe for hip-hop, dismissing a reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” as “played-out” and instructing the DJ to hit it to kick off this seasonal treasure.
“Don’t you give me all that jive about things you wrote before I’s alive,” he raps. “’Cause this ain’t 1823/ Ain’t even 1970” (although my favorite line is “He was roly, he was poly/ And I said, ‘Holy Moley, you got a lot of whiskers on your chinny-chin-chin.’”
This was Blow’s first single, followed by “The Breaks.” The bumping disco groove is undeniable with slinky funk guitar and a bassline Blow and his producer arrived at by taking the bassline to “Good Times” by Chic and stripping it down to what they felt were the bare essentials.
16. Jose Feliciano ‘Feliz Navidad’ (1970)
Feliciano brought nothing but joy to the world with this horn-driven seasonal favorite, a song he described as the first bilingual Christmas song, written one summer in an LA studio, where the Puerto Rican singer was missing his family back home.
In a 2020 interview with NPR, Feliciano said, “It was expressing the joy that I felt on Christmas and the fact that I felt very lonely. I missed my family, I missed Christmas carols with them. I missed the whole Christmas scene.”
Its charms are undeniable, from the Spanish verses to the singalong chorus of “I want to wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart,” the English lyrics that were added to give the song a better shot at airplay. According to ASCAP, it’s one of the top 25 Christmas songs most played and recorded around the world.
15. Ramones ‘Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)’ (1987)
A punk-rock yuletide classic, complete with an opening riff that sounds more like the Sex Pistols channeling Eddie Cochran than the typical buzzsaw approach the Ramones seemed to favor.
It’s Christmas in Queens, and poor Joey Ramone is just trying to find himself a little peace on Earth. He can’t find Santa, can’t find Rudolph, can’t find Blitzen and his girl can’t find it in her heart to set aside their differences, despite his pleas of “Christmas ain’t the time for breakin’ each other’s hearts.”
If only George Michael had thought to try that line last Christmas.
14. Nat King Cole ‘The Christmas Song’ (1961)
Cole first recorded this seasonal standard in 1946 with the King Cole Trio but the definitive version most of us have come to know and love is a 1961 recording with full orchestration arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. It’s a stunning arrangement. Those strings on the intro are gorgeous.
But what ultimately gives this song its staying power is the warmth of Cole’s delivery, from the time he sets the scene with “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose” to the final chorus of “And so I’m offering this simple phrase to kids from 1 to 92/ Although it’s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you.”
13. Bruce Springsteen ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town’ (1975)
Sure, the arrangement is Spector’s, but it’s Springsteen’s Christmas spirit that makes this version so contagious, although the jingle bells don’t hurt.
Captured live and loopy in his prime, Springsteen eases you in with a rap that sets the scene on his beloved Jersey Shore: “It’s all cold down along the beach, the winds whipping down the Boardwalk.” Then, he does some interacting with his bandmates, checking with Clarence to see if he’s been rehearsing real hard so Santa will bring him a saxophone.
And only then does Springsteen sing, turning in a performance that feels like every word was filtered through a goofy grin, especially when the “ho ho ho” bit kicks in, causing Springsteen to sing through occasional outbursts of laughter. It’s the sound of people having fun.
12. The Kinks ‘Father Christmas’ (1977)
It eases in all sweet and seasonal — with sleigh bells, even. Then, the slashing power chords kick in and from the time Ray Davies starts to sing, it’s clear that this will be a Christmas record like no other: “When I was small, I believed in Santa Claus, though I knew it was my dad.”
As the story progresses, he’s standing outside a department store, dressed as Father Christmas, when a gang of kids attack, knocking his reindeer to the ground and shouting “Father Christmas, give us some money. Don’t mess around with those silly toys. We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over. We want your bread so don’t make us annoyed.”
Sure, it’s dark, but Davies’ heart is in the right place, encouraging listeners to think about the poor kids driven to a life of crime: “Have yourself a merry, merry Christmas, Have yourself a good time. But remember the kids who got nothin’ while you’re drinkin’ down your wine.”
Dave Davies’ solo, by the way, is genius.
11. Elvis Presley ‘Blue Christmas’ (1957)
This is Elvis doing Christmas his way, setting the scene with a brilliantly stuttered delivery of “I’ll have a Blue Christmas without you.”
There’s nothing especially merry about this particular Christmas, either, as a broken-hearted Elvis sulks about the one that got away and references Bing Crosby’s yuletide classic with a sigh of “You’ll be doing all right with your Christmas of white, but I’ll have a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas.”
Released in 1957, this rockabilly reinvention is both slower and bluer than the hit recording Ernest Tubb released in 1950 (on which there’s no hint of that opening stutter). He made it sound like Elvis and the holidays were all the better for it.
10. Joni Mitchell ‘River’ (1971)
This melancholy ballad begins with the saddest possible recasting of the melody to “Jingle Bells.” Then Mitchell sets the scene with “It’s coming on Christmas/ They’re cutting down trees/ They’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace/ Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.”
Some of the greatest Christmas songs have a touch of melancholia. This has more than most as she prepares to spend her Christmas with a broken heart. “I’m so hard to handle/ I’m selfish and I’m sad,” she sings. “Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby that I ever had.” It happens.
As Brandi Carlile once explained the need for a holiday song as sad as “River” while performing Mitchell’s “Blue” in its entirety at Carnegie Hall, “There needed to be a song that embraces the sorrow of Christmas.” This song certainly does that.
9. Brenda Lee ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ (1958)
The most Elvis-y Christmas hit of rock and roll’s first decade was not, as it turns out, done by Elvis, but by Brenda Lee, who cut this yuletide classic at the tender of 13.
A rockabilly gem with lead guitar that’s pretty much exactly what Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore would play, it even boasts an Elvis-worthy stutter on the line about “mistletoe hung where you can see every couple tries to stop.”
Of course, the sax break places this one closer to a Coasters song, but either way, the end result is timeless with “everyone dancing merrily in the new old-fashioned way.”
8. Mariah Carey ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ (1994)
This modern yuletide standard is the biggest-selling Christmas record of Mariah Carey’s generation and the first holiday song to be certified diamond for U.S. sales of no fewer than 10 million copies. Not bad for a song that reportedly took Carey and collaborator Walter Afanasieff all of 15 minutes to write.
And by “write,” I mean channel the essence of Phil Spector’s Christmas album, which certainly adds to the timeless-on-impact appeal of the recording, from the sleigh bells to Carey’s yearning vocal.
It’s as much a love song as a Christmas song, but like so many other classics on this list, at works as both (although it would be kind of weird to play it for the bride and groom’s first dance at an August wedding).
7. Chuck Berry ‘Run Rudolph Run’ (1958)
The iconic rock ‘n’ roll guitarist sets the stage with a riff I’m pretty sure could pass for “Carol” — making this a Christmas “Carol,” if you will — before offering an alternate take on the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a chorus hook that rhymes “Run, run, Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town” the extremely Berry-esque “Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down.”
Who is this Randolph the Reindeer who “ain’t too far behind” in the opening verse, though? It could be a reference to a 1953 novelty record by Homer & Jethro called “Randolph the Flat-Nosed Reindeer.” And if you’re wondering why that record didn’t make the cut, you clearly haven’t heard it.
6. The Pretenders ‘2000 Miles’ (1983)
This one fades in with the chime of a dreamy guitar part. Then, Chrissie Hynde steps to the microphone and sighs, “He’s gone; 2,000 miles is very far.”
Snow is falling, it’s getting colder day by day and she’s pinning her hopes on the love she misses being back by Christmastime. We never do find out if he gets back in time, but judging from the melancholy beauty of it all, I’m thinking no.
There has been speculation that the song was inspired, in part, by the death of Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who died of heart failure caused by cocaine a year before this record was released.
5. Otis Redding ‘Merry Christmas, Baby’ (1968)
Charles Brown, Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen all did well-known versions of this song, but no one made it sound more soulful — or more poignant — than the legendary Otis Redding, who’d been dead a year before this single hit the streets.
It sounds just like an Otis Redding single, from the horn charts to the raw emotion in his vocals as he tells her, “Merry Christmas, baby, you sure did treat me nice.” His phrasing is impeccable, as always, as are the brilliant horn arrangements and those vocal ad-libs, tossing in a “ho ho ho” to punctuate the line “Feel mighty fine/ I got music on my radio.”
Then he follows that line with “I feel like I’m gonna kiss you standing beneath that mistletoe” with all the charm and personality at his disposal. That’s a lot of charm and personality. And that key change takes what would’ve been a perfect record and improves it.
4. The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl ‘Fairytale of New York’ (1987)
This single topped the Irish charts and is routinely voted the greatest Christmas single ever in the U.K. But chances are, you’ll think twice about throwing it on when the family gets together for the holidays, unless they don’t mind cursing.
Shane McGowan sets the scene with a suitably slurred delivery of “It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank,” still dreaming of “a better time when all our dreams come true.” But soon, he and Kirsty MacColl, sitting in as his true love, are hurling insults at each other in a brutal back-and-forth that ends with MacColl’s “Happy Christmas your arse; I pray God it’s our last.”
There’s real love between them, though. In the final verse, MacColl responds to McGowan’s self-pitying “I could’ve been someone” with “Well, so could anyone,” telling him, “You took my dreams from me when I first found you.” To which McGowan replies, “I kept them with me, babe, I put them with my own/ Can’t make it all alone, I’ve built my dreams around you.”
Then, it’s back to the chorus, where the boys of the NYPD choir are still singing “Galway Bay” and the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day.
I get choked up just writing about it.
3. Darlene Love ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ (1963)
“They’re singing ‘Deck the Halls’ but it’s not like Christmas at all” in this broken-hearted yuletide plea to please come home, another standout from the greatest Christmas album of all time, “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.”
The Wall of Sound has rarely sounded more majestic and there’s Christmas magic all around in that arrangement, from the call-and-response between Love and the backing vocalists – including Cher! – singing “Christmas” to the jingle bells and church bells.
But what ultimately makes this record such a towering achievement is Darlene Love, the most soulful instrument in Spector’s arsenal.
2. Stevie Wonder ‘Someday at Christmas’ (1966)
This is a true Christmas classic, a yuletide plea for peace and human dignity recorded years before John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).”
The first words out of Wonder’s mouth, after the church bells, are, “Someday at Christmas, men won’t be boys playing with bombs like kids play with toys/ One warm December, our hearts will see a world where men are free.”
You may say it’s a dream, but Wonder’s delivery allows for the fact that it’s a lot to ask, with a chorus that ends with “Maybe not in time for you and me but someday at Christmas.” It’s kind of sad that Wonder’s message is as relevant and his dream as elusive as ever. This one never charted but it should have.
1. John Lennon and Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ (1971)
Former Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono use Christmas to promote their anti-war agenda with the great Phil Spector co-producing an arrangement that layers on the Christmas magic. Baby Jesus would be proud. But no one gets off easy here.
“And so this is Christmas and what have you done?” John demands as the wall of guitars does its best imitation of waltzing in heaven. Then, Yoko has her say and when the chorus comes around again, John’s words are underscored by the kids of the Harlem Community Choir singing “War is over if you want it.”
A beautiful thought for a beautiful day that should be more concerned with waging peace and love than commerce. Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear.
Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com.
