Posts by Alby

I always found this song's opening line a bit strange. "Oh, what a night, late December, 1963." Considering that "late December" is already filled with several significant calendar items, like…

H/t El Somnambulo, who suggested this for the Christmas playlist back in March. This Christmas song by Robbie Robertson went overlooked for years. Written and rejected for the Band's 1975's…

If you like holiday music played by jazzmen, you've probably heard this on Columbia's 1981 Christmas sampler, "God Rest Ye Merry, Jazzmen," because there aren't all that many jazz Christmas…

As Nathan Arizona noted the other day, Karen Carpenter could make even a happy holiday song sound a little sad, so a song about missing her beau on Christmas Eve…

This song, which debuted in 1963, turns up among Billboard's top 10 holiday songs every year, and I'd argue it owes its popularity to a TV commercial that wasn't about…

Guest post by Nathan Arizona It shouldn’t be hard to identify “the man with the bag” everybody’s waiting for this time of year. The bag has presents in it. It…

When I heard this on the car radio the other day I honestly thought it was some overlooked song from a '60s soul Christmas album. With better speakers I could…

Guest post by Nathan Arizona It took just one day to write a Christmas song that’s been a staple of the season for 70 years. Sometimes you get your work…

Jason Kelce and his erstwhile offensive linemates on the Philadelphia Eagles released the third and what they say will be their final charity Christmas LP, "A Philly Special Christmas Party,"…

You'll seldom hear a better match of music and instrument than this performance of Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from "The Nutcracker Suite." It was written in 1892…

"A Very Special Christmas," the 1987 charity LP conceived by producer Jimmy Iovine as a memorial to his father, succeeded beyond all expectations. Inspired in part by Phil Spector's legendary…

Guest post by Nathan Arizona The other day I heard a Christmas song I’d never heard before, by a composer whose songs I’ve been listening to most of my life.…

Despite a crying need for Christmas music that hasn't been played to death, some holiday songs that used to be popular have fallen out of favor. But there's always hope…