Songs & Singles: N

• Nå Tennes Tusen Julelys (Twang-O-Matics, 2019)
• Nappy Holidays (Stay A While) (Nappy Roots, 2010)
• Naughty Naughty Children (Better Start Actin' Nice) (Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, 2011)
• Naughty List (Trace Adkins, 2024)
• New Baby For Christmas
  • Ted Daigle (1959)
  • George Jones (1957)
  • Johnny Preston (1960)
• New Merry Christmas Baby (Bobby "Blue" Bland, 1984)
• New Snow (Sunturns, 2022)
• New Star Shining (Ricky Skaggs & James Taylor, 1986)
• The New Year (Death Cab For Cutie, 2003)
• The New Year (Jimmy Jules & The Nuclear Soul System, 1977)
• New Year, New Ring (Paul & Paula, 1963)
• New Year's Day
  • The Linedance Fever (2011)
  • U2 (1983)
• New Year's Eve (Cameos, 1957)
• New Year's Eve (Snoop Dogg with Marty James, 2010)
• New Year's Eve Blues (Smokey Hogg, 1947)
• New Year's Resolution
  • Otis Redding & Carla Thomas (1967)
  • Pike & Sutton with John Popper (2019)
• New Year's Resolution Blues (Becky Barksdale, 2014)
• New Year's Resolution Blues (Roy Milton, 1947)
• New Year's Revolution (Graham Parker, 1994)
• New York Christmas (Rob Thomas, 2003)
• New York City Christmas (Cover Girls, 1990)
• New York Snow (Melody Michalski, 2013)
• Next Christmas (The Grapes & Friends, 2020)
• Night Before Christmas - see 'Twas The Night Before Christmas
• Night Before Christmas (Carly Simon, 1990)
• Night Before Christmas (Hey Baby) (Rave-Ups, 1989) [close]

  The Rave-Ups are one of my favorite bands from the 80's and '90's - though you probably haven't heard of them, even if you lived through those now-distant times. Originally from Pittsburgh, the Rave-Ups were later based in Los Angeles and operated on the fringes of the "cowpunk" movement that helped birth Americana. But, their greatest claim to fame is probably their cameo role in the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles. Anyway, "The Night Before Christmas (Hey Baby)" is the Rave-Ups lone Christmas track, and it's a cracker! Their usual sound could be described as jangle pop (similar to R.E.M. or Toad The Wet Sprocket), but "The Night Before Christmas" has a harder edge with a bit of funk mixed in. It comes from a promotional, three-song EP called Hamlet Meets John Doe released on compact disc and 12-inch vinyl to support their upcoming 1990 album Chance and it's lead single, "Respectfully King Of Rain." Thankfully, the EP was reissued in 2019 for download and streaming.

• Night Before Christmas Song (Gene Autry & Rosemary Clooney, 1952)
• Night Santa Went Crazy (Weird Al Yankovic, 1996)
• Nine Little Reindeer (Gene Autry, 1957)
• 1913 Massacre (Woody Guthrie, circa 1945)
• No Assholes On Christmas (Stephie Coplan & The Pedestrians, 2012)
• No Christmas (The Wedding Present, 1992) [close]

  In 1992, English indie rockers the Wedding Present undertook to release a new 7-inch vinyl single on the first Monday of every month. The a-sides were original songs, while the b-sides consisted entirely of eclectic covers. The twelfth and final single was a Christmas record pressed on red vinyl - "No Christmas" backed with a rendition of Elton John's "Step Into Christmas," which had been previously released on A Lump Of Coal (1991). All of the singles made the UK charts, with "No Christmas" reaching #25. Later, all 24 songs from the series were compiled in chronological order on two albums, Hit Parade 1 (1992) and Hit Parade 2 (1993), the latter of which, logically, concluded with both sides of the Christmas single.

  "No Christmas" is a noisy, caterwauling plea for forgiveness - and one that falls on deaf ears. "Don't say we've reached the end," begs singer David Gedge, repeating "I care about you" and "It can't be ending" over and over. We are left to assume that he is left alone and bereft for the holidays since the song is called "No Christmas" - despite the fact that Gedge never utters those words. "Step Into Christmas," meanwhile, is a shambolic, if serviceable cover. It's a hoot, in a dark sort of way, but it can't erase the memory of Elton's John's sparkling 1973 original - which, admittedly, wasn't really the point.

• No Christmas For The Poor (D.L. Menard, 1988)
• No Christmas In Kentucky (Phil Ochs, 1964)
• No Gifts For Nazis (Alice Bag, 2019)
• No More Christmas (Noel Redding, 1993)
• No More Christmas Blues (Alan Vega, 1981)
• No Presents For Christmas (King Diamond, 1985) [close]

  Oddly, operatically-gifted screamer (and Satan worshipper) King Diamond chose to record a Christmas song as his solo debut after leaving death metal icons Mercyful Fate. The result, "No Presents For Christmas," is almost as hilarious as it is excruciating. The song was originally released as a 12-inch single in two different covers - one incongruously traditional (click to see), the other fittingly irreverent (pictured). Later, the song was compiled on The Dark Sides (1988), an odds 'n' sods collection; included as a bonus track on the 1997 CD reissue of King Diamond's first full-length LP, Fatal Portrait (1986); and featured on The Best Of King Diamond (2003). "No Presents For Christmas" was also covered in 2000 by grindcore masters Exhumed on a King Diamond tribute album, then included on Exhumed's own odds 'n' sods album, Platters That Splatter, in 2004

• No Reservation At The Inn (Statler Brothers, 1985)
• Nobody Should Be Lonely On Christmas Day (4 Past Midnight, 2013)
• Nobody Told Me It Was Christmas (Vista Blue, 2020)
• Noel Motel (The Klitz, 2011)
• Noel! Noel! (Eve 6, 2000)
• North Pole Rock (Cathy Sharpe, 1959)
• Not Another Christmas Song (Blink 182, 2019)
• (Not Just Until) The Season Ends
  • Mary Karlzen (original version, 1995)
  • Mary Karlzen (new version, 2003)
• Not So Merry Christmas (Bobby Vee, 1962)
• Nothing But A Child
  • Steve Earle with Maria McKee (1990)
  • Steve Earle with Allison Moorer (2005)
  • Kathy Mattea (1993)
• Nothing For Christmas (Reducers, 1988) Top 100 Song [close]
  
  listen / buy

  Founded in 1978, the Reducers were a band from New London, Connecticut, that combined the energy of punk with the East Coast working-class aesthetic of Bruce Springsteen and Joe Gruschecky. The Reducers had quite a run, once being voted as "Best Unsigned Band in America" by now-defunct magazine CMJ, but they never made the leap to the majors and broke up in 2012. Their 1988 single "Nothing For Christmas" was a great slab of loud pop that updated the old novelty "Nuttin' For Christmas" for the post-modern age. Our hapless hero boasts that he has "pissed off everyone I know" and will spend the holidays contemplating his sins. "They didn't even invite me!" he gripes. No wonder, really, since "Mom and Dad think I'm a creep."

  The band wrote "Nothing For Christmas" as something of a joke - a thumb-in-the-eye of the holiday season. Ironically, the song became a fan favorite and a frequent feature in the Reducers' set list. In 2020, the band's Peter Detmold told Connecticut Public Radio, "I still feel the same way about Christmas songs - I’m just not into it. Like at a certain point radio stations start playing Christmas music, and I kinda hate it. I wish there was more stuff out there like our song.” Me too, Peter!

  "Nothing For Christmas" was originally released on a vinyl 45 titled "Season's Greetings" backed with a rockin' "Auld Lang Syne," which was later released for download and streaming. In 1991, the band included the a-side on their retrospective album, Redux. All are available through the Reducers' Bandcamp page, and "Nothing For Christmas" was also featured on the 2002 benefit project, Ho Ho Ho Spice: A Hospice Awareness And Benefit Project. [back to list]

• Nothing For Me (Muffs, 1994) [close]

  The Muffs were a punky power pop band that grew out of pioneering West Coast garage revivalists the Pandoras. The band was built almost entirely on irrepressible singer, songwiter, and guitarist Kim Shattuck, though bass player Ronnie Barnett and drummer Roy McDonald were stalwart kindred spirits. Kim's lament "Nothing For Me" is the only Christmas song the band ever recorded, and it's typical of Kim's simple, direct, melodic, thumb-in-your-eye songwriting. It was built, however, on a somewhat atypical, 1950's-style riff not dissimilar from Elvis Presley's "One Night" (itself a cover of a Smiley Lewis song).

  "Nothing For Me" first appeared in 1994 on a 10-inch LP that was part of brief, groundbreaking series by über indie label Sympathy For The Record Industry called Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus (read more), and it was subsequently collected on the 1995 CD that capped the series off. In 2000, the song was included on the Muffs' rarity collection Hamburger.

  The Muffs began as a quartet founded by Kim Shattuck and fellow former Pandora Melanie Vammen, who would depart after a few years, after which the Muffs would remain a trio. The band launched their recording career in 1991 with several singles for Sympathy For The Record Industry and other indies, but they soon got swept up by the major label gold rush that ensued after Nirvana blew the roof off the music business. The Muffs recorded two excellent albums for Reprise, The Muffs (1993) and Blonder And Blonder (1995), both later reissued in fine fashion by Omnivore. After sales considerably less impressive than Nevermind, however, it was back to the indies, where the Muffs toiled valiently for the rest of their career - not counting a couple of lengthy hiatuses. Like a lot of people, my heart was broken when Kim Shattuck died in 2019, aged just 56 years. The Muffs final album, No Holiday, was released just weeks later.

• Nothing Left To Do (Let's Make This Christmas Blue) (The Both featuring Aimee Mann & Ted Leo, 2014)
• Now And Laughter (A Certain Ratio, 2024)
• Nuclear Winter Wonderland (Nuclears, 2011)
• Nut Rocker
  • B. Bumble & The Stingers (1962)
  • Emerson Lake & Palmer (1972)
  • 5.6.7.8’s (2019)
• The Nutcracker Suite
  • Les Brown & His Band Of Renown (1958)
  • Spike Jones (1945)
• Nuttin' For Christmas (aka Nothing For Christmas)
  • Fontaine Sisters (1955)
  • Stan Freberg (1955)
  • Barry Gordon (1955)
  • Homer & Jethro (1968)
  • Eartha Kitt (1955)
  • Plain White T's (2011)
  • Vindictives (2002)
  • Joe Ward (1955) Top 100 Song [close]
    
    listen / buy

    "Nuttin' For Christmas" is a yarn of juvenile comeuppance penned by veteran songwriters by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, who had previously written pop hits like "Red Roses For A Blue Lady" and "The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane." Later, they would churn out a lot of fodder for Elvis Presley during his endless soundtrack days, most notably songs for King Creole (1958), G.I. Blues (1960), and Blue Hawaii (1961). But, "Nuttin' For Christmas" is perhaps Tepper and Bennett's biggest hit, if only because it's been recorded innumerable times. In 1955, no less than five versions charted, including records by Barry Gordon, the highest charting record, and Stan Freberg, in a hilarious variation featuring cartoon legend Daws Butler.

    But, for my money, none bested youngster Joe Ward for sheer sass. Ward was the eight-year-old star of NBC's Juvenile Jury (discovered by Steve Allen), and his "Nuttin' For Christmas" barely scraped the Top 20, while Gordon's cuter, less insolent rendition rose all the way to #6. It was Ward, though, who sold the song's central premise more convincingly. The singer isn't upset so much that there would be no bounty under the tree. Rather, he's pissed that somebody "snitched" on him and he got caught! You can almost see young Ward's tongue poking out in snotty defiance as he brags, "I ain't been nuttin' but bad!" It matters little that his transgressions are slight by modern standards ("I filled the sugar bowl with ants"). This brat is rotten to the core, and we are thrilled to see his Christmas wishes thwarted.

    Joe Ward's original recording was issued by King Records as a 7-inch single backed with "Christmas Questions," and it was never reissued on a legitimate CD - though it appeared on a few public domain releases like Jasmine's Christmas In The Air! Television Stars Ring In The Holidays (2015). In 1959, both sides of the single appeared on a King compilation LP, and that was reissued on green and red vinyl in 2019 as Merry Christmas From King Records. Oddly, the album was also released to streamers like Spotify and YouTube, but not to digital retailers like Amazon and Apple Music. [back to list]

  • Ricky Zahnd & The Blue Jeaners (1955)

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