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 1000 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]

Top 20 Christmas Albums. Actually, 40 - I started unwrapping presents and just couldn't stop! Anyway, who said Christmas music has to be boring? Not me! These sterling platters will put you in the Christmas spirit faster than you can say, "Go Cat Go!" [read more]

A Christmas Guitar Fantasy. The prickly heart of John Fahey grew three sizes when faced with the true meaning of Christmas. His quiet but intense acoustic holiday music has remained a touchstone for decades. He recorded a bunch of it, but the two albums he recorded for Takoma Records in 1968 and 1975 are the core of his work. [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]

Feliz Navidad, Baby! Never a household name, Juan Esquivel was thrust into the hipster limelight when his music was reissued during the lounge revival of the 1990's. Part of that bounty was Merry Xmas From The Space-Age Bachelor Pad, compiling his holiday recordings for RCA and Reprise between 1959 and 1962. [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]

Hey Sister, Go Sister! Patti LaBelle started out as lead singer of a girl group, the Bluebelles, and their 1963 Christmas album is charming, but not much more. LaBelle would record several holiday records befitting the diva she became, but none approached the funk grandeur of "Lady Marmalade" or the turbo-charged polish of "New Attitude." [read more]

Tortured Carols. Punk and new wave helped pull Christmas music back from the brink, embracing the genre with great abandon and irreverence, helping spur the revival that continues unabated to this day. Rhino's New Wave Xmas collects 17 of the musically lighter moments, including classics by the Pogues, Pretenders, and Squeeze. [read more]

Is Murder A Disqualifying Offense? It's hard to overstate the importance and greatness of A Christmas Gift For You (1963). It's the best album Phil Spector ever produced, and Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is one of his very best singles. If you can separate the man from his music, this is required listening. [read more]

What Will Santa Claus Say? Because it's time to swing with Jingle Bell Jam: Jazz Christmas Classics, one of Rhino Records' series of historic Christmas compilations. This one surveys America's musical crown jewel from just after World War II through the early 1990's. You get Charlie, Ella, Dexter, Duke, Vince, and all the coolest cats. [read more]

Christmas Gumbo. On the one hand, Fats Domino is an underappreciated founder of rock 'n' roll seldom mentioned in the same breath as Elvis, Chuck, or Little Richard. On the other hand, his 1993 album, Christmas Is A Special Day, is not his finest moment. It's quaint and charming, but you won't find your thrill on this particular hill. [read more]

Hag's Christmas. While he had a reputation for rough and rowdy ways, Merle Haggard's music was less so - often sounding soft-spoken, dignified, even genteel. Across his 50-plus year career, the Stranger recorded three middlin' Christmas albums - and one uncontested work of genius, "If We Make It Through December." [learn more]

Big Hunk O' Love. Elvis Presley earned three spots on my Top 100 Songs  and none of them are "Blue Christmas." And, the King's 1994 collection If Every Day Was Like Christmas took home #1 on my Top 20 Albums list. Elvis loved to sing gospel music, and Christmas music is right next door: His heart was really in it, and it showed! [read more]

Come On Get Happy! You have to be of a certain (advanced) age to like - or even remember - the Partridge Family. As a person of that age (with a boy-crush on David Cassidy), I think their music is just fine - bubblegum pop of the highest order. And, their Christmas album follows suit. Great? Nope. Enjoyable? Absolutely. [read more]

Hooray For Santa Claus! Rhino Records' Punk Rock Xmas is not your normal Christmas compilation. These are songs for people who love to hate Christmas - 18 slices of noise ranging from relative superstars like the Ramones, the Damned, and the Dickies to forgotten heroes like Fear, Pansy Division, and Celibate Rifles. [read more]

Christmas In Vietnam. Most holiday music is escapist. Who, after all, wants to think about death and mayhem during the season of hope? Nevertheless, the Vietnam war intruded into this idyllic genre during the turbulent 60's, and we examine six songs that looked at Christmas through the eyes of soldiers and their families. [read more]

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]