Five of our Top Christmas Albums

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Our top 5 ... what's yours?
There are a ton of Christmas Albums out there - and nearly everyone has a collection, or a source of Christmas music that celebrates the Holiday.  These days it seems easier than ever. You find a station on Pandora (or equivalent), press "play" and your Holiday is sorted.

Yeah, if you want to celebrate your music with predigested blandness ...

So ... we'll list out 5 of our favorite Christmas Albums - and challenge you to go out yourself and find your own.

So in no particular order ...

1.  Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (Vinyl, SACD, CD, FLAC ... )

This is far an away our favorite Christmas album, when we play it, immediately the whole family knows that Christmas is around the corner.  Sure it goes with the TV special, but the Jazz is first rate, and is one of our favorite Jazz Albums of all time.  It is a shame it only fits best only one season out of the year!

2.  A Very Special Christmas (Vinyl, CD)

The CD is easy to find, in fact they practically push it on you at the end of the season, remaindered.  That's fine, but we'd recommend the vinyl album, pressed in the twilight of the LP Era.  It has a fantastic lineup of rock stars of the era (1987), and in the subsequent 25-odd years has become a sort of classic.  They made several in the series, and we've sampled nearly all of them, but the first is the best.

3.  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy It Feels Like Christmas Time (Vinyl)

We picked this up this year, and can tell already it is going to be in the rotation this year.  Big Band music aimed at the Holidays!  Check out their cover of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", it may just be the definitive version.

4.  Jimi Hendrix Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (10" Vinyl)

Christmas is never complete without some guitar riffs and Jimi Hendrix, right?  We found this record in a pile of "unsold" ones from a Record Store Day from a year or two ago.  Can I tell you, this makes any Hendrix fan smile.  We are sure you have a favorite artist ... and most of them have done Christmas songs - I bet you can find nearly anyone having done a Holiday record of some kind! Go find yours!

5.  Jingle Bell Jazz (Vinyl, CD)


Ah, yeah, last but not least, Jingle Bell Jazz ... There have been as many versions as years they published it.  It is a bit of a game to find every version of it, and after the first few, it becomes difficult.  And the lineup added and dropped artists.  The favorite of the 3 versions we've heard is in the picture - the snowy streetcorner version that has both Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Miles Davis.

That's about it for this list since we said we would stick to just five - but we do think having a collection of records to play in the Holiday season is important.  Here is a suggestion:  take the kids to a used record store about now, and let them look at those crazy album covers from days gone by. Then pick one or two that catch your fancy - they are under $10 for most of them! We found a few gems quite by accident this way.

But for Heaven's sake, don't just press "play" on Pandora for your complete Holiday - that's "giving up" and letting a wonderful time of the year be less than it could be.  So ... game on?

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