Ken Brown

Holly Jolly Christmas. Burl Ives is dead and his music should be laid to rest too.

Conversely, though I am not religious, I like hearing many carols. Yesterday I heard Oh Holy Night by Al Green and it was magnificent.

Allegheny Jet

My wife has many, make that, a whole lot of holiday CD's measuring about 2 and 1/2' and plays them frequently by putting 5 in the CD player on "shuffle". I don't mind the music but I may take the Willie Nelson Christmas CD and bury it in the circular file.

akohekohe

The incomparable Tom Lehrer got it right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZR3lJobjw

CACycling

We've got dozens of Christmas CDs and I just load them on an iPod and set it to shuffle. It's a wide variety of styles and artists and there really aren't many I don't like. Then again, I really like Christmas Shoes (at least the version I've got).

DiabloScott

I just put the TV Stereo on the Sirius Holiday channel.

Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt - excellent. Wish I could get Eartha's voice on my Tomtom "Left turn coming up, darling".
Santa Baby by Madonna - crap.

Worst music for me is big churchy choruses with a pipe organ. I rather like the new age stuff from Windham Hill eg.

tlc20010

Singing flash mobs have become a cliche, but before they were, this rendition of a little Christmas ditty has become my favorite. If you haven't seen it, it is worth a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

I am not particularly religious.....okay, I am an atheist, but that piece of music really touches me.

AzTallRider

As am I, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating sacred music, just as a belief in creation doesn't stop Christians from enjoying the benefits of having specific traits bred into plants and animals they consume.

Artkansas 

Well, my ex used to insist opening up Christmas with a medley of Elvis's greatest Christmas music. My personal favorite though was an album of Swedish Christmas carols from the early Sixties.

But the worst carols, those would be what I call productions of the Mindless Strings. Muzak versions of the carols, with so many glissandos and so little texture that they have all the appeal of spaghetti that's been boiling for 3 days.

Neil_B

Except that Christianity isn't in conflict with science.

The Weak Link

Shhhh....down boy. I've been watching iSpy between cases and was noting the wonder lack of rancor of the posts these days. Even the infidels are merry right now. Don't go stirring up stuff.

Neil_B

Sorry. Didn't mean to rock the boat. Besides, I'm late for my Tea Party meeting..... :-)

DiabloScott

This thread is not the place for trolling.

On the subject of whether music can be intrinsically religious, I remember reading somewhere (LINK) that Handel copied much of the score for the Messiah from a secular piece of music (also written by Handel). Notice how the part that goes "FOR unto US a child is born" seems to have the accents on the wrong (less important) words... that's because the secular piece it was copied from went "'NO, I will NOT trust you blind love." which of course makes more sense rhythmically.

So the lyrics to a song may be religious, but the music itself is just a bunch of notes, and how they make you feel is pretty much what you allow and expect them to make you feel.

Jiffyjam

Bob Dylan has a xmas cd out...they say its terrible but somehow still cool.

Metric Man

Very true. Many of the songs in our church hymn books have the music portion credited to old folk songs etc.

pjn0629

So bad its good...

Basshunter's Rendition of Jingle Bells

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjCBnK5vivU

kennyc

Ill match your Basshunter, raise your Christmas Shoes & trump ya'll with the Christmas Donkey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrdxtWgHbE

I first heard it on XM this year & I almost put it in the ditch reachin' to change the channel when it comes on!
ARRRGGGGHHHH!
Have a great Christmas, wherever you find YOUR music!

The Weak Link

It's gone viral with over 1,700,000 hits.

There have been a lot of really really bad songs nominated in this thread. The longest I've lasted with any of them is 45 seconds. I didn't quite break 25 with Christmas Shoes so I'll give it a nod.

Metric Man

This one must come in there somewhere.

DiabloScott

There's a cute Venezuelan one about a donkey:

Kurt Erlenbach

There are a lot of bad versions of "Twelve Days of Christmas." And most every country music country song is pretty bad.

My favorite Christmas song is Andy Williams' version of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." Not only is it a great Christmas song, it's a great song to blast through the house on the kids' first day of school.

On the subject of Andy Williams, one of my favorites is "It's the Holiday Season," released in 1963. As a kid I would listen to that song, and all the "Happy Holidays" throughout it. I came to realize that it really is the holiday season - first comes my birthday, then Labor Day, then my sister's birthday, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years eve and New Years day. Imagine my shock and surprise to learn that ol' Andy was the instigator of the War on Christmas, and that wishing "Happy Holidays" to someone was part of the attack.

Metric Man

I'm not sure what your reference to Andy Williams war on Christmas is.

I played golf with Andy and my father in-law once. He is a wonderful, gracious man and played golf regularly with my father in-law. They were part of a regular foursome at La Quinta Country Club. When my father in-law passed away he was one of the first to call and offer condolences...he is also a wonderful singer.

Neil_B

Yes, Handel copied from his earlier work, which was a common practice before the modern concept of copyright. Bach and Vivaldi did the same sort of recycling. However, I'd not assume there's nothing behind Handel's reuse of material from a secular cantata in "For unto us." Handel was a marvelous musical dramatist - he recognized the music he wrote earlier fit both the mood and the words of the Biblical text, so he used the material and rewrote it to fit the circumstances.

BTW, how is it trolling to correct an obviously false analogy by another poster?

Neil_B

For instance, "The Holly and the Ivy", which dates to the 14th century and probably had entirely secular lyrics at one point.

tlc20010

I should have realized that this would happen. Sorry for bringing religion up.

Neil_B

Ditto that.