Christmas YouTube Party
Alright people, put on your finest fake account and join me for a very special Christmas
Youtube Party!
I freaking love Christmas music. Its so
classic and old-school and nostalgic, bringing back memories of
family and childhood care-free happiness.
I'm going to skip the usual talk about
Christmas and all it's myriad meanings – and I could go on at
length about it, I am, after all, an Anthropology Major – and just
focus on the music since I just downloaded a billion Christmas songs
which are now filling my ears like a festive mushroom cloud.
To be honest, I'm pretty picky about
versions of my favorite songs, and since most are in the public
domain, these songs have been covered over and over again. We're
going to talk about my pet peeves when it comes to Christmas music,
and link to my favorite YouTube videos of said music.
So, merry freaking Christmas.
For reasons that remain unknown to me,
this year I am really into All I Want for Christmas by Mariah
Carey. I haven't even liked that song in the past, but this year,
I've been listening to it in a non-stop repeat. It's so bouncy and
sweet and happy. But I think it started when my roommate was watching
Jimmy Fallon and this bit of adorableness came on:
Late night talk show hosts are not my
favorite breed of people, but I love someone who is willing to go
outside the box to be fun and create awesome music. So this is the
best thing ever to me. Those little kids that pop up for the harmony
kill me.
One of my favorite winter-y songs is
Baby It's Cold Outside. I may be alone in this, because the song has
not weathered the decades well in terms of intent. I'm not even going
to touch that whole thing, except to say that it does matter how it's
sung. But in this song, I love duets and I love the witty back and
forth that no one seems to be able to get right.
My biggest pet peeve for this songs is
when the singers forget there is action in there and try to sing it
as a slow look-how-impressive-my-voice-is song. Almost every version
of this song sounds like that and it drives me crazy.
The best version, in my opinion, is
sung by Bing Crosby and Doris Day. It's just classic and cute as
heck. I've listened to a thousand different versions with some of my
favorite singers and they never seen to capture the essence of the
song. The singers should be talking to each other and not the
audience.
That being said, this is, hand down,
the best live version on youtube:
These two are just too darn cute.
Another staple of my Christmas playlist
is Barenaked Ladies in their live version of God Rest ye Merry
Gentleman/We Three Kings. There is a versions with Sarah McLaughlin,
but I prefer the live one:
I just love how much fun they sound
like they're having. I love musicians who have fun making music. I unfortunately couldn't find a good version of them actually singing it.
And of course, since my family partially comes from the south, I'm very partial to this song:
Because AMERICA.
I want to hear everyone's favorites
because discovering new music is half the fun. So, post 'em if you
got 'em.
Friday, December 20, 2013
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Labels:
Christmas,
music,
YouTube Party
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About Me
I am a legit writer living in Durham, North Carolina, working at a publishing company, and ruthlessly fumigate for travel bugs on a daily basis. Follow my adventures as I try to get published, learn marketing voodoo, and pretend to be an adult.
Other Blogs
I have traveled a lot in the past teaching English and just being a general vagabond, so I have some blogs in my past. I will be consolidating them all - slowly but surely - into a single blog:
No Cilantro Extra Olives
This blog already contains my adventures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, such as they are.
Updates on my other blogs, from Korea to India will be posted as I go through the laborious process of pulling them from their current blogs into that one.
No Cilantro Extra Olives
This blog already contains my adventures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, such as they are.
Updates on my other blogs, from Korea to India will be posted as I go through the laborious process of pulling them from their current blogs into that one.
6 comments:
Stopping by to say hey from Libby's blog!
Jimmy Fallon is the best host out there right now. Hope he continues to grow on you.
Hey Alex! I think he has been growing on me. I've been youtubing a lot of these classroom instrument performances, and they are pretty freaking awesome.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Emily! I'm a big fan of Christmas music, myself, but I like the less traditional takes.
Here's some of my fav's: http://youtu.be/aMkiItNH_UY - Baby It's Cold Outside as performed by Ann-Margret & Brian Setzer. I agree, the song is dated (would love to see it redone with a role reversal, HE wants to go for fear of ruining his reputation). http://youtu.be/aMkiItNH_UY
For God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, nothing beats Loreena McKennitt for what may be the only Xmas carol you can belly dance to. http://youtu.be/CCYSITWpKIk You can almost smell the camels and the desert sand.
I also really like All-4-One's Mary's Little Boy Child, kind of reggae, http://youtu.be/JZkJ8DSlwQ4, and Red Nativity's Young Rain Drummer (Little Drummer Boy, Native America style) http://youtu.be/RSmg-DsqTfo
Hey Beverly,
Thanks for all the great songs! I liked the Baby It's cold Outside - it was just the right amount of singing and acting. They do have a version with Lady gaga and Joseph Gordon Levitt that is a role reversal which you can find on youtube, but I like this one better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MFJ7ie_yGU - it's the second half of it and it's adorable.
I like the All-4-One one, and the Young Rain Drummer one is pretty funky
All I Want for Christmas by Mariah has been a favorite of mine for years. No matter my mood- it makes me start dancing and bopping. :) Love your list. Thanks for sharing. So happy Libby introduced your blog to me on her blog!
~Jess
Hey DMS - Thanks for stopping by! It is definitely one of my top Christmas songs now. Come by anytime!
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