Out the Other

Christmas Playlist - December 21

2009-12-22T11:51:08-06:00

Last night's show was just as fun as the week before - and though I didn't get as many phone calls as I did for the first Christmas show, the calls I got were wonderful - sounds like you guys really like the tunes I pulled out. This archive will be up for the next week, so hopefully you'll use it to soundtrack a part of your holiday weekend. Go ahead:

Stream the December 21 edition of Out the Other

And since I played a lot of music that's hard to track down or out of print (plus since Christmas is in three days and I'm feeling extra cheery), I decided to load this post with mp3s from last night's show. I've also linked to albums where you can find most of these songs, in case you want to spend your xmas money on next year's holiday music!

1. Vince Guaraldi Trio - Skating (A Charlie Brown Christmas)
2. The Bad Girls - Santa's Got a Brand New Bag (The Girls of Texas '60s) (mp3)
3. Rogue Wave - Christmas (This Warm December) (mp3)
4. Nat King Cole - Mrs. Santa Claus (A Soulful Christmas) (mp3)
5. The Three Suns - The Chipmunk Song (A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas) (mp3)
6. The Penguins - Jingle Jangle (Doo Wop Christmas)
7. Perry Como - (There's No Place Like) Home For the Holidays (A Perry Como Christmas)
8. Dave Paulson - Ruby Falls (Battle Pod 4)
9. Eddie Dunstedter - I'll Be Home For Christmas (Christmas Candy) (mp3)
10. Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes (Motown Christmas Volume 2) (mp3)
11. Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance! (Songs for Christmas)
12. Lou Monte - Dominick the Donkey (How Cool Is That Christmas) (mp3)
13. Booker T and the MGs - We Wish You a Merry Christmas (In the Christmas Spirit)
14. The Crystals - Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector) (mp3 post)
15. Lenny Dee - The Christmas Song (Happy Holi-Dee)
16. Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper (Pretty Paper) (mp3)
17. The Moog Machine - Silent Night (Christmas Becomes Electric) (mp3)
18. The Beach Boys - The Man With All the Toys (The Beach Boys Christmas Album) (mp3 post)
19. Rufus Wainwright - Spotlight on Christmas (The McGarrigle Christmas Hour) (mp3)
20. Billy Squier - Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You (A Rock 'n' Roll Christmas) (mp3)
21. Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee - Little Jack Frost Get Lost (Christmas Duets) (mp3)
22. Stevie Wonder - What Christmas Means To Me (Someday At Christmas)
23. Esquivel - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Merry Christmas From the Space Age Bachelor Pad)
24. The Andrews Sisters - Winter Wonderland (Christmas)
25. The Millionaire Magicians - Hope You Find Some Magic (Battle Pod 4)
26. Burl Ives - Holly Jolly Christmas (Have A Holly Jolly Christmas)
27. The Ventures - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (The Ventures Christmas Album)
28. Jan & Dean - Frosty the Snowman (Frosty the Snowman) (mp3)
29. Queen - Thank God It's Christmas (Thank God It's Christmas) (mp3)
30. Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen (About a Boy)
31. Glenn Miller - Jingle Bells (Christmas Spirit) (mp3)
32. Peggy Lee - Deck the Halls (Christmas Carousel) (mp3)
33. Eef Barzelay - Joy to the World (Bitter Honey) (mp3)
34. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Sleigh Ride (Christmas Album) (mp3)
35. Elvis - Here Comes Santa Claus (Elvis' Christmas Album)
36. The Drifters - White Christmas (Doo Wop Christmas) (mp3 post)

Xmas Radio: The Beach Boys - "The Man With All The Toys"

2009-12-18T08:45:22-06:00

This is probably total blasphemy, but I'm pretty much over "Little Saint Nick." Originally released as a single in 1963, the song has "run run reindeer"-ed its way past my years for twenty nine Christmas seasons, and while it's a fun little holiday tune (I'd never say it's BAD or anything), I could probably handle giving it a rest for a few years. No, seriously. Of all the songs on The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, it's the one I usually end up skipping.

Released in 1964, the Beach Boys' foray into Christmas music collected five originals and seven standards, and thirty five years later it's still one of the best holiday records around - after all, Christmas tunes and those deliciously Beach-y harmonies go together like sugar cookies and sugar sprinkles. The album has been re-released several times in several incarnations, but I would recommend picking it up as Christmas With the Beach Boys, which pulls together the original tracks with outtakes, treats like PSAs and interviews, and several tracks from an aborted 1977 Christmas album (including "Santa's Got An Airplane," which is poppy and delightful and dizzyingly surround-sound).

My favorite original Beach Boys Christmas tune has to be "The Man With All the Toys" - and you'd better believe it will keep replacing "Little Saint Nick" in all my Christmas playlists.

The Beach Boys - "The Man With All The Toys"

*bonus!* - "Santa's Got An Airplane"

Xmas Radio: Ferlin Husky - "In Santa's Bag"

2009-12-17T17:23:19-06:00

Now in my seventh year as a Nashville girl, I'm finally warming up to the country side of Christmas - at least the more classic side of the spectrum, which goes over just as smoothly as the Bings and Nat Kings of the season. I mean, it's hard NOT to love a Christmas album that looks like the one above, right? And I am so madly in love with the name Ferlin Husky it's not even funny.

So country up your Christmas this year with Christmas All Year Long. My introduction to the 1967 record was "In Santa's Bag" - a mildly goofy tune that earworms its way into your head and jingles its way into your heart, so that at the end of its brief two minutes, you're singing along. The rest of the album is just as lovely - and his voice is like the aural equivalent of spiced cider, all warm and toasty and seasoned to perfection.

Ferlin Husky - "In Santa's Bag"

Xmas Radio: Les Brown - "The Nutcracker Suite"

2009-12-17T10:56:25-06:00

As I mentioned on Monday's night show (and as I believe I've mentioned several times over the years on this blog) - the music from The Nutcracker may just be what I'd choose to listen to if I could only listen to one thing for the rest of my life. I'm sitting here at this moment listening to a London Symphony Orchestra recording of "Waltz of the Flowers," and in these six minutes I can find everything I love about music, every feeling I try to recreate with every new piece of music I listen to - and the sense of absolute joy and wonder isn't even the littlest bit diminished by the number of times I listen. I think this was the first example I had of music making my heart hurt in that exquisitely beautiful way I'm always attempting to recapture, and it will forever be the best example. I think I could be content within the bars of these six minutes for the rest of my life.

But I'm getting swept away here (and I won't even touch upon Fantasia - the still above is from the "Waltz of the Flowers" part of the film - because you'll lose me for hours). The point of this post is to share the version of "The Nutcracker Suite" I played on Monday's show, because it's an amazing big band rendition courtesy of Les Brown. The jazzed-up arrangement brings a giant dash of zip and zow to the song, and amps it up to a level appropriate for a cocktail party soundtrack. The Nutcracker has never sounded saxier.

Les Brown & His Band of Renown - "The Nutcracker Suite"

*bonus!* - London Symphony Orchestra - "Waltz of the Flowers" (from The Nutcracker)

Xmas Radio: Soul Coughing - "Suzy Snowflake"

2009-12-17T09:08:41-06:00

I first heard Soul Coughing's version of "Suzy Snowflake" back when I was in high school, living in Rochester, NY and listening to the radio station that did a fantastic job shaping my music taste and giving me a good picture of what radio should be. WBER is still a fantastic station, and I really hope they still dig out this gem every year during the holidays (I'm pretty sure I heard them play it a few years ago when I was home for Christmas), because it's almost impossible to hear anywhere else.

"Suzy Snowflake" was made famous by Rosemary Clooney in 1951, but something about this version, with its pairing of scratchy, almost robotic vocals with the toy-like instrumentation in the background seems brilliant to me. It's a Christmas tune I seek out year after year after year, this one being no exception.

Soul Coughing - "Suzy Snowflake"

I didn't know until this year that a stop-animation cartoon was also created for the song in 1951, to be aired on WGN-TV in Chicago. Something about it is weirdly creepy - plus I'm pretty sure that's just a barbie on a string.

Xmas Radio: The Crystals - "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers"

2009-12-16T11:50:02-06:00

I solicited a few requests before this week's Christmas-themed Out the Other, and by far the most frequent response had to be "play something from A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector!" In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I polled my music-loving friends, the 1963 collection of tunes from Darlene Love, The Crystals, The Ronettes and Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans would come out on top of a list of everyone's favorite holiday albums.

A few things I didn't know about the album before perusing its wikipedia page:

(1) A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector was a relative failure at the time of its release, largely due to the fact that it was released on November 22, 1963, the date of JFK's assassination.
(2) The standout Darlene Love track "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" was originally intended for the Ronettes to record, but Ronnie Spector didn't bring enough emotion to the recording, so Love recorded it instead.
(3) Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys has cited this as his favorite album of all time.

"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is, in my opinion, unarguably the best song on A Christmas Gift, but it's the contributions from the Ronettes and the Crystals that make this so spectacular as a whole. "Sleigh Ride" will have you bouncing along to the "ring a ling a ling a ding dong ding" of the chorus, and I always come back to "Parade of the Wooden Soliders" - the Crystals pull of one of my favorite versions of the song.

The Crystals - "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers"

*bonus!* - Darlene Love - "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

Christmas Playlist - December 14

2009-12-15T15:05:03-06:00

So CLEARLY you guys love Christmas music as much as I do - as much as I'd like to think you all tuned in because you're psyched Out the Other gets to stay on the air, I know most of the listeners that called in last night stumbled upon the holiday tunes and decided to stick around for the duration. One of my favorite things in the world is those "keep up the great work" phone calls - it's always nice to know I'm playing what you didn't even know you were dying to hear. And it sounds like a lot of the songs I played were totally new to you - which was 100% my goal: Christmas music you WON'T hear in the mall. So go ahead:

Stream the December 14 edition of Out the Other

I'm pretty damn proud of this playlist, in fact I keep listening to the archive myself. It's like an awesome two-hour Christmas mix (with me breaking in to talk every once in a while, sorry about that). It's going to be a challenge trying to out-do this show next week, but I have plenty more tunes where these came from - next week's show will be another full two hours of holiday awesomeness spanning 50+ years.

The playlist (with a TON of bonus mp3s) is below. I included a link to the best album/compilation that features the song I played if I couldn't find a copy of the original version (several of them are out of print, but you can buy a used copy). I'll also be featuring some of the other tracks/albums in the next week or so, so more of these mp3s are on the way.

1. Count Basie and His Orchestra - Morning Blues (Real Tuesday Weld Clerkenwell Remix) (Verve Remixed Christmas) (mp3)
2. Loretta Lynn - To Heck With Ole Santa Claus (The Christmas Collection) (mp3)
3. Low - Just Like Christmas (Christmas) (mp3)
4. Esquivel - Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (Merry Christmas From the Space Age Bachelor Pad)
5. Nat King Cole - Buon Natale (Means Merry Christmas To You) (Ultra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails, Pt. 3) (mp3)
6. Gary Glitter - Another Rock and Roll Christmas (The New Christmas Collection) (mp3)
7. Margaret Whiting - The Mistletoe Kiss Polka (Legends: The Christmas Collection)
8. The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy's Christmas (Snoopy vs. The Red Baron/Snoopy & His Friends)
9. Kyle Andrews - Frostbite (Damn Baby You're Cold)
10. Louis Armstrong - Zat You, Santa Claus? (Swingin' Christmas) (mp3)
11. Eddie Dunstedter - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Christmas Candy)
12. Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody (Merry Xmas Everybody) (mp3)
13. Rosie Thomas - Why Can't It Be Christmas All Year (A Very Rosie Christmas)
14. Xavier Cugat - Danse Des Mirlitons (The King Plays Some Aces) (mp3)
15. The Fontane Sisters - Nuttin For Christmas (The Very Best Of) (mp3)
16. Les Brown - Nutcracker Suite (Big Band - Essential Masters)
17. Vandaveer - The Little Drummer Boy (An Elephant Hug Christmas, Vol. 3) (mp3 post)
18. Ferrante and Teicher - Jingle Bells (Christmas Is So Special)
19. Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanel - Baby, It's Cold Outside (Elf: Original Soundtrack) (mp3)
20. James Brown - Merry Christmas, I Love You (Christmas Collection) (mp3)
21. Booker T and the MG's - Winter Wonderland (In the Christmas Spirit) (mp3 post)
22. Bob Dylan - Must Be Santa (Christmas In the Heart) (mp3 post)
23. Tom Petty - Christmas All Over (A Very Special Christmas 2) (mp3 post)
24. The Beach Boys - Santa's Got An Airplane (Ultimate Christmas)
25. The Eels - Christmas Is Going to the Dogs (Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
26. The Ventures - Jingle Bell Rock (The Ventures Christmas Album)
27. Soul Coughing - Suzy Snowflake (Holiday Promo)
28. Burl Ives - Santa Mouse (Christmas Album) (mp3)
29. Lenny Dee - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Happy Holi-Dee)
30. The Features - Christmas Wish Book (Christmas Wish Book)
31. Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector)
32. The Border Brass - Tijuana Christmas (Tijuana Christmas) (mp3)
33. Ferlin Husky - In Santa's Bag (Christmas All Year Long)
34. Ron Sexsmith - Maybe This Christmas (Maybe This Christmas) (mp3)
35. Run DMC - Christmas Is (A Very Special Christmas 2) (mp3)