My Go-To Christmas Music

Before I get into my main lists, I want to share a new favorite I discovered on Todd Zolecki's Phillies blog at MLB.com. It's "Baseball Glove" by a Canadian country singer-songwriter, Gord Bamford. The lyrics talk about the many things the family wants, but all he wants is a baseball glove -- specifically, "a genuine cowhide Rawlings Pro Special, one autographed by Roy Halladay." Bamford is a Blue Jays fan and it was released last year, before Halladay was traded to the Phils, but it doesn't matter. Click the above link and you can watch the video and find a link to download the song for free.

There are so many new Christmas albums now, but in recent years I've only bought a few. These are the albums I bought in the last couple of years that I really enjoy:

Glee Cast - Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album (love the Chris Colfer/Darren Criss version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside")
Annie Lennox - A Christmas Cornucopia (I love what she did, but I kind of wish this had a couple of fun, not so serious/religious-oriented selections, like Eurythmics' "Winter Wonderland," one of my all-time faves)
Kristin Chenoweth - A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked for the Holidays (their quirky humor shines in a number of songs, especially "An Elf's Lament;" also includes a few Hanukkah songs)
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

I also found a couple of CDs that had been released previously: "A Classic Cartoon Christmas" and "A Classic Cartoon Christmas, Too." They feature tracks from many classic TV shows (and some that aren't so classic). Between the two, they include "Welcome Christmas" and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas," songs from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town," Jimmy Durante's "Frosty the Snowman," a couple from the Muppets, and -- most happily -- the "Heat Miser" and "Snow Miser" songs from "The Year Without a Santa Claus." (I really need to edit them into one mp3 so when my music is in shuffle mode, I won't hear one and not the other right away.)

The following are the Christmas CDs I've had the longest, and are still my favorites:

My iTunes Fits This Definition

In lieu of an iTunes shuffle baker's dozen, I give you a word of the day!

ca·coph·o·ny / kəˈkäfənē / Noun: A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds: "a cacophony of deafening alarm bells"; "a cacophony of architectural styles"

Being a bit frustrated by the lack of variety that the iTunes shuffle comes up with, I tried something different. I made a playlist of all the tracks that I haven't played this year (since I reset the count at the beginning of 2010). While I am listening to songs that haven't played before, within that playlist there still is a lack of variety -- songs from the same album or artist are still being played fairly close together. Right now, on a whim, instead of the shuffle mode I'm playing them in order of track length, from shortest to longest.

So basically it's things such as sound bites from cartoons (Bugs Bunny asking the immortal question, "What's Up, Doc?"), various spoken interludes from Janet Jackson albums (and others), quotes from "The Osbournes" TV show that were included on the "Osbournes Family Album" CD -- who can forget Ozzy saying "I love you all, I love you more than life itself, but you're all f--king mad!"), very short instrumentals in a handful of cases, some comedy bits from Joe Conklin...I ask you, is this not a cacophony?

I'm almost up to the tracks that are at least a minute long now. Eventually, if I continue to play the tracks in this order, it will be just a bunch of short songs. Somehow, that's a little sad.