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]
Matthew Sweet On Quaaludes. Long ago, I bought two albums and wrote a whole review - for just one song. In my defense, it was a pretty good song, but I assumed the band and the song had been long forgotten. Then, I learned that The Zest of Yore had endured, moved to my hometown, and the drummer lived a couple of doors down! [read more]
Sorry, Mariah Carey. To me, Brenda Lee will always be the Queen of Christmas music. "Little Miss Dynamite" is also one of the most successful female singers in history, and she recorded many Christmas sides including two albums and numerous singles. Only one became a preeminent hit, but at least one more is a bona fide classic. [learn more]
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]
Soul Santa. Over the years, Brook Benton recorded several classic Christmas singles, including one of the few "black pride" holiday tunes. But, he never recorded a Christmas album during his prime. When he finally did, it was an original but disappointing effort - and the story just gets worse from there. [read more]
Euphemisms for Boring. Columbia's Acoustic Christmas (1990) was a harbinger of a genre that we would struggle to put a name to before settling on Americana. Most of the tracks are, indeed, acoustic, and nearly all of the arrangements are spare, if not altogether solo. Some are lovely, but they sure don't rock, roll, swing, or twang. [read more]
When You Say Lou... I loves me some Lou Rawls. Boy, can he sing, and he enjoyed Christmas music enough to cut three albums of the stuff. His 20-track Merry Christmas Baby surveys all three and is a better value than any particular one - though his first album, Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho! (1967), is easily the best of the lot. [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]
Christmas Time's A-Coming. Long ago, country music was called "hillbilly" music, and nobody took offense. Rhino
Records' Hillbilly
Holiday tells the story of Christmas music during the golden age of Nashville, and by embracing the old appellation, it makes a statement: The best country music never denies its roots. [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]
Top 100 Christmas Songs. In which I attempt to boil thousand and thousands of Christmas songs in my library down to their purest essence. Countdown to Christmas
Day with these always wonderful, frequently crazy songs - from Phil Spector's celebrated Wall Of
Sound to obscure punk, country, and rhythm & blues. [read more]
Snowman Magic. Power pop icon Dwight Twilley scored a handful of classic hits during his long career including "I'm On Fire" (1975) and "Girls" (1984). He kinda capped it off with Have A Twilley Christmas (2004), a charming and eclectic EP that, over the next few years, would be expanded into a full album. [read more]
Boogie On, Santa Claus. I'm a huge proponent of Motown's Christmas music, but even I will admit they made better singles than albums. Stevie Wonder's 1967 LP Someday At Christmas is okay at best, but it yielded two excellent singles: the poignant title track and "What Christmas Means To Me," a classic uptempo Motown bopper. [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]
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]
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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