(via Shutterstock)
The first batch of Christmas single took us down a quietly contemplative, chestnuts roasting kind of path but this time we’re channelling all the joy and eggnog-y energy of the season with 11 very catchy songs.
Most of them hail from this year’s bountiful crop of festive tracks but a couple are a number of years old which, thanks to algorithms happily getting a little to over-enthusiastic, are well and truly going high rotation on this year’s festive playlist.
If you’re not already in the Christmassy mood, or you want more fuel add to the festive fire, then we’re to oblige.
So, grab your candy canes, hot the dancefloor and let your inner tinsel fiend fly merrily free HO HO HO!
“The Christmas Song” (Cheery & Bright) by Elysia Biro
(courtesy YouTube)
You absolutely have to love a music artist, especially a Vancouver Island-born but now L.A.-resident one, who rather fabulously describes herself as “a forest nymph masquerading as a 24-year-old singer-songwriter”. That alone means you have to listen to Elysia Biro, classically trained in piano and voice, but might I also suggest you give her a shot based on her sublime cover of Christmas classics like “The Christmas Song” which she has recorded in both a “cheery and bright” setting and a “Warm & Cosy”. Drawing on her well-deserved reputation for “warm vocals and virtuosic transcriptions of jazz solos” (yep, her bio again; isn’t it a joy?) and which gives the song, written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé, first recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio and often known as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, a jauntily upbeat and warmly cosy vibe (yes, I know it’s the name of the other variant of her cover but it feels like a big hug even so.)
“Christmas Is Groove” by Marcia Hines
(courtesy YouTube Music)
Ever since Marcia Hones arrived in Australia as a 16-year-old in 1969 to perform in the Australian production of the stage musical Hair, she has been taken to the hearts of Australians who loved her sunny, down-to-earth persona, her soulfully catchy voice and her ability to imbue her songs with an earthiness that works no matter the genre she tackles. She does it all and with grace, style and a sense of fun and all of that is very much in evidence on “Christmas is Groove” which casts a deliciously danceable disco vibe across the festive season. The artist goes one step further, and an evocative one at that, describing the sings as “the ultimate Christmas banger” which comes “jam-packed with her signature disco/pop Diva [sic] beats and anthemic musical magic!” Sure the end of the year can be stressy but here’s your chance but here’s your chance to dial it all away with a festive buzz in your ears and beats humming through your feet.
“We Three Kings” by We Are Messengers
(courtesy Apple Music)
Way back when I was learning the piano, and no, I am not a virtuoso of the instrument which involved far too much ho-humy practicing for this extrovert’s taste, I have loved “We Three Kings” which for reasons I can’t explain, is my favourite Christmas song of all time. The Christmas carol was penned way back in 1857 by John Henry Hopkins Jr. while he was serving as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, so says Wikipedia, and it achieved quite the popularity right across the States given it was written for a Christmas pageant in New York City, which was, and remains, a big deal as cities go. Whether it’s the solemnity of the music, which suggests worshipful contemplation and a processional vibe, or the lyrical flow, which is delightful poetic, I love this song and quite like the Celtic lilt applied to it by Contemporary Christian Music band We Are Messengers. It makes me feel like an excited child listening to my favourite carol to get all Christmassy carol and yes, we can safely say they play it far better than I ever did.
“Holiday Dream” by Jamra
(courtesy Apple Music)
Hailing from a small beach town in New England, which apparently is in some sort of urban witness relocation program and must remain anonymous, Jamra now call Nashville home where she is, and I quote her bio at Big Yellow Dog Music, “a fixture in the city’s emerging pop scene, known for her dynamic voice that shifts effortlessly from soft and raspy to powerful and soulful [as she blends “pop with shades of jazz and R&B”. Her song “Holiday Dream” ix a bright, effervescent pop gem, all sigh-worthy harmonies and bright dreaming, it’s all there in the title after all, and buoyantly happy lyrics that declare that being with the love she loves is “A holiday dream with you / A Health dream come true”. If that’s not enough, commentary buzz on her YouTube-listed clip says it’s been used in an ad campaign for a jewellery store which makes perfect sense because it feels like Chistmassy and one listen makes you ready buy pretty much anything as you surf a wave of holiday bonhomie.
“Merry Christmas One and All” by LOLO
(courtesy YouTube)
We love an anniversary here at SparklyPrettyBriiiight, and so the fact that LOLO, a self-proclaimed “Grammy-nominated recording artist and Broadway veteran”, is celebrating her tenth year of staging the aptly-named annual LOLO Christmas Show and Gospel Brunch in Jackson, Tennessee is more than enough reason to release a song entitled “Christmas One And All”. It’s a guitar-driven upbeat pop number and it’s a hugely catchy way of honouring a show that aims to fight “childhood food insecurity by providing consistent access to food on the weekends to Jackson-Madison County’s elementary school students”. The artist admits that doing this for her hometown is very near and dear to her heart and it’s wonderful to see such a good song going to such a brilliantly good cause.
“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Laufey
(courtesy Laufey Merch)
Santa has been coming to town, and cities and villages and small farms in the back blocks for quite some time now, ever since J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie sat down one day in 1934 and penned a song which, so says Wikipedia, was first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra (note the possessive capitalisation; Harry took his musical ownership seriously it seems). In what is no doubt the 1930s equivalent of a viral hit, “within 24 hours, 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records were sold.” Its been supremely popular ever since, and its overtones of Orwellian stalking from the North Poole aside, it remains one of those songs that is joyously upbeat and celebratory which Icelandic singer-songwriter and musician captures in all its retro glory in her cover which is giddily vivacious and festive. It’s a ton of feet-moving fun to listen to and really puts you in the Christmas mood.
“(Christmas) Time” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor
(courtesy YouTube)
What to get someone for Christmas is a perennial issue and one that vexes many a gift giver come the festive season. Fear not and worry no longer because Sophie Ellis-Bextor, best known for adding her sublimely gorgeous vocals to Italian DJ Spiller 2000 #1 hit “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”, has the perfect solution – give the gift of time. In a fast-paced, digitally frantic world where we seem to run out of time all the, well, time, it’s the greatest gift of all, signifying that you’re putting your attention where it matters the most to you. What a gift to someone is to spend time with them and I love how the clip for the song makes liberal and effective use of snapshots from Christmas celebrations in the Jones-Ellis-Bextor household.
“Hot Cocoa” by Gwen Stefani
(courtesy YouTube)
While the movie may not have exactly hit the spot, the soundtrack for OH. WHAT. FUN. starring the brilliant Michelle Pfeiffer comes complete with great songs from the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Elton John, Fiona Apple, St. Vincent and a host of others including Gwen Stefani, singer of legendary band No Doubt and possessor of a stellar solo career. She already has a catchy Christmas album to her very well-known name but has added to her festive catalogue with “Shake The Snow Globe” (with Spencer Stewart) and the song of the moment, for this post at least, “Hot Cocoa”. It’s a got ska-1950s retro rockabilly feel to it that feels like Christmas and the effervescent excitement that comes with it.
“Together This Christmas” by Maisie Peters
(courtesy YouTube)
So this song was released back in 2022 but somehow has just hit my festive radar which indicates that I may not have been paying as much to attention to the soundtrack for Your Christmas Or Mine? as I should have. I love the movie and honestly the songs were catchy AF but somehow it’s only this year, courtesy of an eager-to-please YouTube algorithm, that I truly notice how British festive “Together This Christmas” really is. The result is a track that bounces around with festively cheery joyfulness and which celebrates one of the great tropes of the season which is being with the ones you love at the most wonderful time of the year. It’s a gorgeously fizzy piece of pop that makes all the Christmas feels you could ask for jump into your feet and hour heart and send you dancing like a treehopper come to giddy life around the lounge room.
“Christmas Prayer” by Paloma Faith + Gregory Porter
(courtesy YouTube)
It’s origins lie in a religious festival so it makes sense that Christmas would summon up a prayer from the likes of British singer-songwriter, actress and TV personality Paloma Faith and American singer-songwriter and musician Gregory Porter. The result is a song called, not surprisingly, “Christmas Prayer” and while it was released back in the tail-end of the pandemic back in 2021, it’s just hit my festive listening playlist and understandably so. It’s got a fabulous 1960s-retro R&B vibe anchored by amazingly resonant voices that fill this track of longing and hope with so much seasonal emotion. It’s a gem and absolutely worth giving some more attention four years later.
BONUS HUGELY DANCEABLE HEAD BANGABLE TRACK!!
“Christmas Day” by Broken Peach