Four Songs for the Season

What’s your favorite holiday pop song? There are many bland ones, because often artists release a perfunctory “holiday” album filled with listless songs. But then again, some holiday songs knock you out, or at least “send” you. These four perennial favorites never disappoint.

Otis Redding – “Merry Christmas Baby”

Otis Redding reminds us that all you need is love and that the presents, even diamond rings, are only packaging.

Otis Redding sweetly sings “Merry Christmas baby, you sure did treat me nice” to a slinky beat provided by his Stax colleagues. Redding sings, “You bought me a diamond ring for Christmas, I feel like I’m in paradise.”  There’s a lightness and mischievousness in his voice that hints that Redding’s bliss is not from receiving jewelry. Redding had a gift for combining yearning and euphoria that few could match.

The Pretenders – “2000 Miles”

Chrissie Hynde’s melancholy song recalls how bittersweet the holiday season can be.

Chrissie Hynde was inspired by Redding’s “Thousand Miles Away” when she wrote “2000 Miles”. The Pretender’s track has a wistful beauty and ranks amongst their best recordings. Hynde’s voice is filled with intense longing and her wonderful delivery is not unlike Judy Garland’s in the classic, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”   This song from 1984 became an instant classic and is destined to remain so as long as we have ears to hear. Just like Dr. Seuss wrote about Christmas, it “will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.”

The Kinks – “Father Christmas”

Ray Davies’s comic tale of a family’s economic struggle to have enough money for the holidays.

Ray Davies wrote the magnificent rocker “Father Christmas” in 1977. The song explodes with Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies’s fast attack, playing along to a pounding percussion. Ray’s lyrics are refreshingly frank: “We don’t want a jigsaw or monopoly money, All we want is the real McCoy, Father Christmas give us some money.” They’re wickedly funny and bitterly grievous. Davies doesn’t wallow in a winter wonderland because he’s concerned about his family’s living conditions. His request to Father Christmas is to provide his daddy  “a job cause he needs one, He’s got lots of mouths to feed.”  Davies smacks back at the cloying sentimentality of the season, concluding, “Give all the toys to the little rich boys.”

Emerson, Lake and Palmer – “I Believe in Father Christmas”

Greg Lake’s music box melody reminds us that the enchanting spirit of Christmas is not something you find, but something you must make.

Taking a different tone, compared to Davies, is Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas.”  Here, Lake is more philosophical. Although it doesn’t rock out, Lake’s tune is serious business and hits hard. He earnestly questions the value of the Christmas rituals and the season’s glitter. Lake’s voice takes on a coming-of-age tone as he sings, “They sold me a dream of Christmas/They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story/’Til I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas/I looked to the sky with excited eyes
Then I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn/And I saw him and through his disguise”.

It’s a hauntingly beautiful song that doesn’t offer any easy answers or comfortable conclusions.

There’s a wonderful video of Lake playing “I Believe in Father Christmas” at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, in the City of London, with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson on flute.

-Vincent Maganzini

Photo: Jeremy Segrott via Wikimedia Commons