h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great. I'm singing the damn rubber bung song again now. Thanks.

My Christmas playlist

A spaceman came travelling - Chris de Burgh
A winter's tale - David Essex
All I want for Christmas is you - Mariah Carey
Christmas Wrapping - the Waitresses
Do they know it's Christmas? - Band Aid
Gaudete - Steeleye Span
I believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake
I wish it could be Christmas every day - Wizzard
In dulci jubilo - Mike Oldfield
In the bleak midwinter - Bert Jansch
Keeping the dream alive - Freiheit
Last Christmas - Wham!
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! - Dean Martin
Merry Christmas everybody - Slade
Merry Christmas everyone - Shakin' Stevens
Once upon a Christmas song - Geraldine McQueen
Ring out solstice bells - Jethro Tull
Rockin' around the Christmas tree - Mel & Kim
Santa baby - Eartha Kitt & Henri Rene
Sleigh ride - Air Supply
Step into Christmas - Elton John
Stop the cavalry - Jona Lewie
The twelve days of Christmas - The Spinners
Walking in the air - Aled Jones
Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney

And I'm really happy with that. No tracks to skip!

Mol

You should get a job in Asda!

Apart from your last one (which inspires murderous rage in me for some reason) Mol, I love that list I would add Fariy Tale of New York and the Darkness's ridiculousness (the bell's end one) but that would do it for me.

We've got a 'greatest christmas hits' 3 cd monster, from which we glean about 12 songs we like - there is a lots of skipping but thankfully there is no Cliff on it so not all bad. t'Boy has worked out how to put it on so we have CD2 played almost continuously while we're at home. Very festive!

"Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney"

NO!

Mol, I like your list for the most part. I also like A87728223, a PR item brought to you by our editor.

I had no idea Sir Paul could be so controversial ... my first preference was of course for the frog chorus, but that's not really a festive song (although I'm sure I remember it first appearing at Christmas time - David Bowie in an attic with snow outside or something).

It appears I made a mistake. Aled Jones was the last one I chose, because I seemed to have more credit than I was expecting. Turns out this was because I'd managed to miss off Jona Lewie So I will have to go back on again - or do something clever with one of my Christmas compilation CDs.

I forgot to look for Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Christmas. I'm not sure I'd buy it but I wanted to see if it was actually available - it doesn't turn up on compilations nowadays.

Yes, the list of songs I always skip on the compilation CD would include (but is not limited to):

Little Drummer Boy
White Christmas
Mary's Boy Child
some weird Mary had a little boy rap thing
anything by Cliff
Frosty the Snowman

We appear to have lost the Christmas CD the school made a few years ago. Most of it was dreadful, so it's not an unbearable loss, but I always enjoyed listening to Jingle Bells sung by lots of childish voices, plus one child with hiccups.

Mol

Okay, I'll bring it back for another year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6IG6F6E5Ac

Then I'm bringing back Thea Gilmore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qQAE794uvo

PP

In 1969 in San Francisco, at the height of the
hippy movement, a local church choir recorded a
song in their gospel style and had just 500 copies
pressed in hopes it might raise some money for
new choir gowns.

It got into the hands of a local deejay and soon
was Number One on the American Billboard charts,
selling more than a million copies! It even went
to No 4 in the UK.

But no one sees it as a Christmas song.

Which it is!
More than most.

http://youtu.be/CNQXQKflJNA


~jwf~

And don't forget the Christmas pledge:
"I promise, in every way,
to make every day, almost
as happy as Christmas Day"

'69 was also when Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and Billy Cox did a medley of 'Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night/Auld Lang Syne'

Sadly, I cannot locate an online version, because the Hendrix Estate seems rather over-protective

But it rocks!

And here's Satriani doing Silent Night... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXj22WAiDPM



But my favourite Christmas music is anything from The Nutcracker

(Hmm, I wonder if anyone has done 'Danse des Mirlitons' on overdriven electric guitar?)

Wow! Heavy metal Xmas tunes.
Gives the whole thing a new twist.
Thanks Taliesin.

Love this one:
http://youtu.be/Ys7S1HwjQyk
Well the beginning anyway.
"The bells! The bells!"
Gets a little sentimental at the end.


~jwf~

Something sweet from Al?

Weird Al Yankovic - The Night Santa Went Crazy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-Mce9VpmY

On the '74 Christmas Day Top of the Pops. (Silly nonsense at beginning with Tony Blackburn and Dave Essex.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLy-v8WtY38&feature=related

One of my all time favourite songs. 'Everything I Own' ....Ken Booth

(End credits music on 'This is England' C4.)

7 O'Clock News/Silent Night - Simon & Garfunkel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-og_MxjIrzg

A Christmas Song - Jeth*o T*ll


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvth5GWFSw&feature=related

Actually, that Tull one is awful.

Yes I started to feel ill quite quickly...

(And I know mine is a cheat but it's a damned fine cheat).

Chap with the joke at the beginning of the video is actually quite cute.

TRiG.

OK so not only did I fail to download Jona Lewie, but a word of warning: the 59p version of Chris de Burgh's A Spaceman Came Travelling is not the original version. It's a recording he appears to have made after one too many mulled wines. Lots of 'woahs' and warbling that wasn't there before.

Fortunately it's the first on the playlist so it's easy to skip. But after all that effort to get a set of Christmas songs where I didn't need to skip any of them, I'm more than a little annoyed about it.

Mol

This is certainly not best and definitely not
the ultimate Xmas song but giving credit where
it is due, you have to admire America's ability
to blend sincere values, folk heritage and the
worst kind of crass commercialism.

Basically, a mobile phone company pulled a flash-
mob event in a mall outside Chicago. And it has
its moments. You can actually hear the lyrics!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcmfCXwAFs4&sns=fb


~jwf~