The Friday Refrain: Christmas Playlist

So until Big Freedia released an album on Friday, I created a pretty sedate playlist. I tried to include one song from every release. But I probably forgot some because there were so many this year...

Hello again RSS Feeders by the way. Sorry about disappearing. I don't do well with nebulous non-concrete tinkering, and accidentally changed my blog url. But I figured that out eventually, and I'm back. Apologies for the disappearance and then the possible barrage of posts when I reappeared. Yep, still here. Listening to too much music and blathering on about it. Anyhoot!

Ho ho ho, it's the Christmas List! And a few bonus lists:

Making a Christmas Album List? Better check it twice

Wonderland - either you'll end up with Sarah McLachlan or Marika Hackman

Tis the Season - Jimmy Buffett or Jordan Smith (given, the former's album is technically Tis the SeaSon)

Acoustic Christmas - You'll end up with Neil Diamond or Kevin Williams

And don't think you can just waltz in to a store and say, "I know it was like the artist's name Christmas..." because you could end up with A John Berry/Kenny Lattimore/Pentatonix Christmas

And now for some stats...

Of 44 albums, "Silent Night" is the most common song on 16 of the albums on my list. "O Holy Night" comes in 2nd with 15 versions. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is 3rd with 13, "The First Noel" was 4th with 12 and "White Christmas" tied with "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" at 11. "Winter Wonderland" landed on 9 albums while "What Child is This?", "The Christmas Song," "Jingle Bells," and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" all tied with 8 album representing them.

I'm a bit surprised at "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," "What Child Is This?" and "The First Noel." I guess for Adeste and Noel, it's just their time to be in fashion again but "God Rest" is one of my favorites and not many people recognize that one. "What Child Is This?" I get because I associate it with velvet and stirrup pants, so right on schedule. "Last Christmas" and "All I want for Christmas is you" had only 1 album listed, different artists. Same with "Frosty the Snowman!" I love Frosty, come on people, step it up next year. Anyway, I got curious when I kept noticing 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" kept popping up, so I tallied up all the tracks. Pretty fun to do and I hope you found it fun as well Maybe next year I'll keep track of how everyone lists "Oh Come All Ye Faithful:" do they use Oh or O? Add the comma or omit it? Or is it Adeste Fideles?

Oddities: "Coventry Carol" and Cohen's "Hallelujah" appear on both acapella albums. No surprise really, but if you're delivering a serious album or want to have a powerful song, "O Holy Night" is most likely on the album as well. "Mele Kalikemaka" appeared on more albums than I expected - 4 in total.

Overall there were at least 99 unique cover songs between all the albums, not to mention some albums boasting several originals (Jane Lynch and R. Kelly to name a few).

Bonus stat: "Jingle Bell Rock" has been a trending favorite among my students for two years now.

So there it is. Happy Christmas Listening my friends!