My Top 10 Christmas songs

10. Kate Bush – Home For Christmas – A rare B-side from Kate Bush. A charming short acoustic ballad with horn backing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9I7M-nR978 9. Ben Folds – Bizarre Christmas Incident – A dark comical tune regarding an overweight Santa Claus getting trapped in the chimney and dying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N12iwI-suvM 8. The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick – Maybe it’s a rewrite of Little Deuce Coupe but it has the best vocal harmonies in this list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbgxDgVmMF0 7. The Flaming Lips – Christmas At The Zoo – It’s set in Christmas rather than Christmas but it is a touching song about opening up the cage in the zoo and the animals refusing to leave preferring captivity over freedom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3mRC-foSZs 6. Willie Nelson – Pretty Paper – Beautiful song about a disabled man selling wrapping paper on the streets. I prefer the acoustic version from the “Hill Country Christmas” album, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klD8E4fu1ao 5. Joni Mitchell – River – Breakup song that is set at Christmas. I love the melancholic usage of the Jingle Bell melody which reflects the lyrical content of the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHxxBTl71I 4. John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – A bit preachy and maybe Yoko Ono’s vocals are a bit loud but it’s a classic song and melodies nevertheless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg 3. The Who – Christmas – The best defence of the nonsense plot of Tommy was from Jeff Blehar’s political beat is that it’s an album where the plot doesn’t make sense but emotionally makes sense. It is a touching story of a parent looking after an intellectually disabled child during Christmas and seeing the child being isolated while other kids are having fun and feeling helpless and pleading for its salvation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu8ZA6GUBlk 2. Sparks - Thank God It's Not Christmas – Probably my favourite song on this list but it doesn’t seem appropriate to put in number 1 considering it’s about disliking Christmas as it forces him to spend time with his partner/family that the character dislikes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEBRzrYKifU 1. Elvis Presley - Santa Claus Is Back in Town – Elvis’ Christmas Album particularly Side A is quite underrated and may well be the beginning of the idiosyncratic Christmas album that foreshadows the likes of Bob Dylan and Jethro Tull’s Christmas album. Instead of the clean-cut traditional standard Christmas songs. We have the 12-bar rhythm and blues, double entendre and a powerful Elvis voice dripping with charisma that would have likely been considered subversive at the time (Irving Berlin tried to have this entire album and his cover of White Christmas banned from radio airplay) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae7CtryWCkc