Hip Christmas

Welcome To Hip Christmas! I think you'll enjoy my dysfunctionally vast web archive dedicated to holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. If you do, please support me by shopping at Amazon, Apple Music, and Sheet Music Plus! Regardless, the best of the season to you - no matter what month it is! [about me]

What Was New In 2024? Last year's new Christmas albums included lots of vinyl reissues, big names like Jennifer Hudson and Little Big Town, indie darlings like Dean & Britta and Phantom Planet, a full-length Tower Of Power album, a new collection from the Carpenters, and yet another Bear Family compilation. I've completed my annual obsessive, quixotic attempt to keep up with it all, including my Top 10 Albums and Top 25 Singles. [gimme gimme]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 900 hip tunes - and counting! You can listen to the music I write about - the coolest, weirdest, and loudest holiday songs ever, all while enjoying my inimitable prose - or not! [press play]

My Face, Your Book. There's a lot of holiday hilarity going on over at Facebook, in case you can't get enough on my website - or vice versa. Check out the Hip Christmas page, and follow me for maximum holiday fun all year long. No Russian trolls, please. I also post cool cover art on Instagram and Pinterest. [follow me]

The Usual Rubbish. Not too surprisingly, the Beatles never recorded any formal Christmas music. But, they had a ball every year recording a Christmas message for their fan club. Collecting those little things is not an easy, inexpensive - or even legal - task, but it's worth the effort. Merry Krimble! [read more]

Mel Torme's Retirement Plan. As the singer of that "Chestnuts" song, Nat King Cole needs no introduction. But, there's more than "Chestnuts" to Cole's holiday oeuvre. He waxed at least a dozen Christmas classics, including the hippest version ever of "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)." [read more]

Dig That Crazy Santa Claus. Rhino's Christmas Rock EP (1982) and Rockin' Christmas albums (1984) are partly responsible for this website. Their diverse, nontraditional, wackadoodle portrayal of holiday music gave me one of my first glimpses into a world where Santa is twistin', surfin', rockin', and rollin' - and everybody is welcome. [read more]

Christmas Is Coming. Is there any holiday album as universally beloved as Vince Guaraldi's 1965 soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas? None springs to mind. To me, what makes it so special isn't that it's a jazz classic, nor that it's a timeless holiday treasure. It's special because it's both. [read more]

A Super Sunny Christmas. Rodney Bingenheimer, aka Rodney On The ROQ, was a Los Angeles disc jockey who figured prominently in the rise of American punk, new wave, and power pop. He also compiled several influential albums including two rockin' volumes of Santa's Got A GTO. His story turns ugly, I'm afraid, but the music remains. [read more]

Follow Me To Christmasland. In the 1990's, elderly crooner Tony Bennett made a big comeback and, happily, that included the rediscovery of his fine 1968 Christmas album Snowfall. In the coming years, he'd make more - but he never topped his first foray onto holiday music. [read more]

Praise Jah, It's Christmas. Studio One was producer Coxsone Dodd's legendary Kingston hit factory, and he ruled the Jamaican charts like no one before or since. Reggae Christmas From Studio One and its sequel, Christmas Greetings From Studio One, are typical of the thrilling roots reggae that routinely sprang from within those blessed walls. [read more]

Christmas Spirit?? Released on tiny Etiquette Records in 1965, Merry Christmas From The Sonics, The Wailers, The Galaxies is a compendium of three garage bands from the Pacific Northwest that's not quite the Christmas-themed Nuggets one might expect. But, with no less than two songs from my Top 100, it's very, very good. [read more]

Blue Again. I've revisited Rhino Records' 1991 CD Blue Yule: Christmas Blues And R&B Classics, and I love it even more than I did back then. It's full of the sort of weird, wonderful moments that made all those Rhino compilations such collector's delights. It's not perfect, but it was good enough for my Top 20 Albums, and it's not on Spotify. [read more]

Everything Is Cool. Wry songwriter John Prine came up with folks like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, but he never earned such notoriety. Rather, he earned the respect of his peers and a devoted cult following. By the time of his death, however, he was universally acclaimed, and his Christmas music had become a big part of his legacy. [read more]

Man, later, like, dig? The subtitle "A Collection Of Rockin' Stocking Stuffers" doesn't quite do Rhino's Cool Yule justice. Almost bereft of hits, it compiles strange, wonderful, and rare sides from the halcyon days of rock 'n' roll - obscure slices of discomfort and joy that make Christmas music so fascinating and record collecting so much fun. [read more]

My Wish List. It wouldn't be a record collector's website unless I published my wish list - Christmas songs I'm still hunting down, and songs for which I'd happily barter from my relatively vast treasure chest. If you have a copy of any of these rare goodies, let's talk! [read more]

Run - Don't Walk. The Ventures' 1965 Christmas Album is a widely acknowledged classic - and #2 on my Top 20 Albums. What makes it so special is the way the band melds hits of the day with holiday classics. You haven't lived until you've heard the Beatles' "I Feel Fine" segue seamlessly into "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer." [read more]

Christmas Gumbo. It's taken me a while to take a close look at Rhino Records' Alligator Stomp: Cajun Christmas. Why? I don't really like Cajun music that much. But, that's my problem. On its own terms, it's a great way to spice up your holidays. But, compared to Rhino's other compilations, it's got some problems. [read more]

Everybody's Christmas Granddaddy. Ever since he started cranking out Christmas classics in the 1940's, Gene Autry has played a pivitol role in almost everybody's childhood experience of the holidays. His cornpone music can hardly be considered hip, but it is deeply buried in our collective unconscious. [giddy-up]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. In 2024, I revisited the legendary, exceedingly rare Flagpole Christmas albums, filling in some gaping holes and sprucing up the sound quality. [listen or download]

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