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's New In 2024? Believe it or not, they've begun announcing new Christmas albums - lots of vinyl reissues, mainly - plus big names like Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson, and Little Big Town and indie darlings like Phantom Planet and the Sunturns. So, I've started my annual, obsessive, quixotic attempt to keep up with it all. Highlights also include a full-length Tower Of Power album, a new collection from the Carpenters, and yet another Bear Family compilation. [gimme gimme]

This just in! Dean & Britta are having a listening party on Nov. 17 at 4:00 PM CST for their much-anticipated Christmas album, A Peace of Us, which arrives on Nov. 22. Dean, Britta, and their buddy Sonic Boom are members of indie rock icons Galaxie 500, Luna, and Spacemen 3. Pre-order at Bandcamp, Amazon, and around the web. [rsvp]

Well, Now I'm Excited! So far, the biggest news for me this year is Ben Folds' first-ever Christmas album, Sleigher. Most of the tracks are new, original songs with his usual mix of pathos and humor - plus keen musicianship. Oh, and he lets AI write the lyrics for one of the songs! Read more in Variety and order the CD or vinyl at Amazon.

Spotify, Schmotify. Once again, the company busy destroying the music industry is taking a breather to add new new tracks to their ever-growing, exclusive holiday playlist. It's free to stream, but you'll have to upgrade if you want to download. This year's biggest name is Kesha who does a nifty cover of Lindsay Buckingham's "Holiday Road." [spot me]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 800 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. [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]

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]

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]

The Mother of all Lists. David McGee's list of essential Christmas albums appeared in Dave Marsh's 1981 Book Of Rock Lists and is largely to blame for my obsession and, eventually, this website. Christmas music had been my parents' music: adult, reverent, boring. McGee showed me holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. [read more]

Even Santa Gets The Blues. Pointblank Records and their corporate parent, Virgin, released two Christmas albums in the 1990's that - in the modern world of downloads and streaming - are arguably irrelevant. On their own terms, however, they're pretty great. The first is a blues tour de force, and the second is a mainstream juggernaut. [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]

Not-So-Smooth Grooves. Rhino Records' Smooth Grooves: A Sensual Christmas is a contradiction. First, lots of the songs aren't smooth at all - they're uptempo R&B jams. Second, it fails to live up to the standards set by Rhino's series of historic Christmas compilations - even though all 12 tracks are essential holiday listening. [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]

Yulesville U.S.A. The collective brilliance of Motown's holiday music was one of my first - and certainly abiding - fascinations. The 1973 compilation A Motown Christmas is all most people will need. But, there's a lot more, including Top 20 Albums by the Temptations, the Jackson 5, and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. [read more]

Go To Rhino Records! From a small record shop in Los Angeles came - eventually - the very foundation of this website. Across 20 years, Rhino Records released nearly two dozen compilations that wrote the history of recorded Christmas music in the 20th century and transformed my curiosity into obsession. [read more]

Yo, Santa, whuzzup? When I first heard Snoop Dogg's hilarious "'Twas The Night Before Christmas," I assumed Christmas On Death Row would be more of the same. I was wrong. The compilation from the infamous West Coast rap label has some good stuff (including another joint from Snoop), but it's mostly soft-headed slow jams. Sigh... [read more]

Sucking In The 70's. The 1970's was a decade of extremes. We got plenty of wonderful Christmas records, but the songs on Rhino's Have A Nice Christmas: Holiday Hits Of The 70's aren't them. Rather, they are the songs that reflect the decade's kitschiest artifacts: smiley faces, polyester pants, lava lamps, mirror balls, and leisure suits. [read more]

Christmas Is Going To The Dogs. The beloved 1966 TV special How The Grinch Stole Christmas included barely three songs, but one of them is an all-time classic. In the years since, it's been covered dozens of times, and the TV show spawned two movies, a Broadway musical, a raft of merchandise, and a lot more music. [read more]

Raising Capitol. Once upon a time, Capitol Records was an independent label cranking out an incredible body of eclectic Christmas music - from dirty blues to brassy pop. In the 1990's, the now-corporate label compiled four compact discs that chronicled those heady, halcyon times. Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear... [read more]

Jews For Jesus. A surprising number of popular Jewish entertainers have recorded Christmas albums and songs. From Irving Berlin to Beck, we've got the shmutz on this strange phenomena. Plus, Jews we wish would record a Christmas record - and Jews we hope do not! [read more]

'Tis The Season For Stalkers. In the 50's and 60's, a number of Christmas songs were recorded about the two most popular artists in rock history - Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Read about this strange and obscure - and obsessive - phenomenon. [read more]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer five free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. In 2023, I chose lost treasures by the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, XTC in disguise, fake Rolling Stones, Boston's barbecue guru, and a Christmas bummer by Concrete Blonde. [listen or download]

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