Go to the link if you want to see the names of all those #1s in all the relevant decades.
I've always loved Cher, but for me that means the Cher of 1965 (and the Cher of "Moonstruck"). But if she wants to do a Christmas recording, it's pretty much the way I feel about Bob Dylan doing a Christmas album. Go ahead. Do what you want. You've earned it. And I will continue to avoid the annual avalanche of Christmas music.
Anyway, click if you like. It's Cher's #1 Christmas song:
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41 comments:
That opening synth is repulsive.
Yesterday the Chir album popped up on Spotify…in EVERY search for Christmas music- country, classic, modern, k-pop…she must’ve blown everybody. Ew.
Good old autotune...then I gave up. Can she not just sing, or something? She does have a decent voice.
As a barometer of pop music within the larger culture, the Billboard rankings aren't what they once were. Or maybe it's me.
As repulsive as this record is - and I did listen to it - it is still infinitely better than the Mariah Carey record All I Want for Christmas Is You, the nadir of all recorded music.
I will never, ever listen to Cher after she single-handedly destroyed normal human vocals in pop music . This occurred through abusing Auto-Tune for "Believe" (1998).
Alvin and The Chipmunks executed better vocals.
Aging and creepy Cher: please go away. (Madonna too.)
I limit my consumption of Christmas music to Der Bingal, Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole, the Chairman of the Board, the King, Johnny Mathis, Burl Ives, Brenda Lee and Cheech and Chong.
Gag!
Her voice has been altered by a computer!
Sounds an awful lot like her 'Believe' song from years ago.
"Moonstruck" was Cher's finest work. Terrific movie.
Cher was good in Suspect (1987), ruined slightly by Liam Neeson badly over-acting his part.
Having surgically enhanced every square inch, Cher has now moved on to electronic enhancement. Her adoring fans approve, starting with her.
A difference between Cher (and Madonna) and acts like The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison is that the former refuse to accept that they are getting old and it comes across as creepy while the latter have aged gracefully.
The standard for old rock era acts recording new music is still The Beach Boys “That’s Why God Made the Radio”. While there are 8 mediocre songs by old men acting young the last 4 songs are stunning contemplations on getting old.
Sometimes I realize my days are getting on
Sometimes I realize it's time to move along
And I wanna go home
Sunlight's fading and there's not much left to say
My life, I'm better off alone
My life, I'm better on my own
Driving down Pacific Coast, out on Highway One
The setting sun
Goodbye
Cher was never (in my opinion) a great singer. But she had a great and singular style to her singing. Her best moment was doing "Moonstruck" which is to this day, one of the best screenplays ever written, and one of the best movies to re-watch again, and again, over the years.
I'm probably due again.
Like so many others, she should have stayed away from political commentary and left it to those of us at home.
Cher mocked Sonny's death in a skiing accident. F her.
Christmas pop is generally horrible and often hideous. The few exceptions (Kinks) are notable stand-outs for being listenable year-round. Of course, Moonstruck Cher is superb and it’s a movie in which Nick Cage’s style fits like a glove.
Enigma, a male Country artist recently covered Believe and its way better than expected. Also no hideous AutoTune involved.
Nice list Howard. If store and broadcast playlists stuck to those I’d be a lot less grumpy as the 25th approaches.
Here's my authentically perfect Christmas playlist.
1. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Bing Crosby - 1942
2. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Margaret Whiting & Johnny Mercer - 1949
3. 'Zat You, Santa Claus? - Louis Armstrong & The Commanders - 1953
4. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley - 1957
5. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee - 1958
6. Winter Wonderland - Johnny Mathis - 1958
7. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) - Nat "King" Cole - 1960
8. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love - 1963
9. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) - Vince Guaraldi Trio - 1965
10. We Need a Little Christmas - Percy Faith - 1966
11. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon, The Harlem Community Choir, The Plastic Ono Band & Yoko Ono - 1971
12. Child's Christmas in Wales - John Cale - 1973
13. Merry Christmas Darling (Remix) - Carpenters - 1978
14. Christmas Wrapping (Single Edit) - The Waitresses - 1981
15. Toyland - Perry Como - 1982
16. Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid - 1984
17. Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea - 1986
18. Last Christmas - Wham - 1986
19. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Pretenders - 1987
20. Fairytale of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl) - The Pogues - 1987
21. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire) - Ray Charles 1994
22. All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey - 1994
23. Merry Christmas Baby (Live from Washington, D.C., December 1998) Sheryl Crow & Eric Clapton
24. Frosty the Snowman - Cocteau Twins - 1992
25. Greensleeved - Jethro Tull - 2003
26. The First Noel - Bob Dylan - 2009
27. It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas - Michael Bublé - 2011
Choosing 'I'll Be Home for Christmas' avoids thinking about the 'White Christmas' conversation.
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a win, so, it's got to go in.
The Christmas Song is included twice because I couldn't choose Nat "King" Cole over Ray Charles and viceversa.
I love how Darlene Love and Brenda Lee command their voice box. You don't hear that kind singing nowadays.
Who doesn't like A Charlie Brown Christmas. Other than Nabokov, and in fairness he didn't live long enough to hear this celestial tune.
The Waitresses provide a break from all the velvety
Chrissie Hynde sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' sings as though the celebration is something for everybody else but her. It has a melodic ache to it.
I love how Cocteau Twins lead singer Elizabeth Fraser says 'snowman'.
I think the theme of the playlist is the contrast between soft and wrought.
"Howard said...
I limit my consumption of Christmas music to Der Bingal, Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole, the Chairman of the Board, the King, Johnny Mathis, Burl Ives, Brenda Lee and Cheech and Chong."
Add Aaron Neville's Soulful Christmas.
what Dave Begley said. Gag!
https://youtu.be/Up6sZWEPGj4?si=8v5MNqV22dx8CeAz
Should be a lot more love for Cher here! I have linked (YouTube) to a British release of The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.
Two great lines about Cher:
“Anyone who doesn’t think Cher can act wasn’t at Sonny’s funeral”
“The first time Cher hears one of her songs is on the radio” (from a member of The Wrecking Crew)
@Lem: I think any list of Christmas Songs must include Julie Andrews and "The Bells of Christmas" from the Firestone Album of 1964 or 1965.
I read in the paper yesterday that Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas Album of 1960? 1958? has been re-released on vinyl. That's something to buy.
She’s 77. The likelihood that she could sing like she used to, electronically unaided, is just about zero.
My general preference is for traditional carols performed by an orchestra with a chorus. There are exceptions to the rule.
The Annie Moses Bands Christmas album is really good. Outstanding tracks are “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Oh Come Emmanuel”.
The Chieftains Christmas album is excellent.
One can never go wrong with the Irish tenors Christmas
The Phil Spector Christmas album is still the gold standard rock and roll Christmas music.
For individual songs with a more secular bent I recommend:
“Come On to the Christmas Party” by the Snowballs (The J Geils Band with voices sped up to 45 RPM)
“The Season’s Upon Us” (Dropkick Murphys - the video is a riot)
“Father Christmas” (The Kinks)
Shane McGowan's life was not marked by a lot of good timing, but he died at just the right time. It has given his great Christmas song, Fairytale of NY, a sales boost. At long last it will reach number one on the charts in the UK....I don't think auto tune would work with Shane McGowan's voice. His voice sounded like an open wound. And he looked like he sounded,. Plastic surgery probably wouldn't have helped much either. He should have given modern dentistry a try though. Well, anyway he made it to sixty five which is record longevity for self destructive punk stars....Some of Cher's music is pleasant enough to listen to, but the stuff McGowan recorded and wrote for the Pogues hits the deepest chords of human experience. It's up there with Beethoven's Ninth.
Lefties, Tramps and Sleaze
And every day all the docs would come around
Teh plastic surgeons of teh town
Cher has always be so 'meh' to me.
I have nothing against her.
But I will NEVER understand her appeal.
Maybe it helps to be homosexual.
Just don't get it.
Btw, she claims to be Buddhist, so maybe she should lay off the Christmas songs.
Lem's list above is perfect. Hits every one of my faves, especially the Chris Rea tune. Chokes me up every time I hear it. Will also give a thumbs up to Howard on his list as well. I heard a rather obscure Nat King Cole song this morning (the first time!) called "The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot". Rather sad.
I'm trying to avoid commercial Christmas music for at least another week, maybe two, if I can get away with it. We had it on for a little bit yesterday while putting up the tree, but it was 60 degrees and quite muggy in SF and I just could not get into it.
"When Cher sends Christmas songs, she's not sending her best. She's not sending White Christmas. She's not sending The Christmas Song. She's sending songs that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drum tracks. They’re bringing autotune. They’re lip-synching. And some, I assume, are good songs.”
-- President Donald J. Trump
In the mid '80s I worked at a record store warehouse for a year or so. From Thanksgiving till the day after New Year, we listened to only Christmas Music (on vinyl through one of them really nice 70-80s stereos - yum). Of course, there were a few that were fantastic, but the rest were nearly torture.
Ironically, I heard this song yesterday. The car radio is tuned to a station playing Christmas music. When it came on, I was fine with it for about two minutes, until she kept repeating over and over the chorus until I was saying, "So, you're saying you want the DJ to play the Christmas song? And it's tough outside and warm inside? Really, Cher?"
I'd rather listen to Mariah and Celine.
Dear Aggie:
Totally agree.
The local Home Depot put out the Christmas items adjacent to the Halloween displays on SEPTEMBER 15 this year. Last year they waited until October 15. At this rate, the cycle of holiday sales will be back in sync with their calendar dates in another decade or so.
My wife has an ancient cassette of The Nutcracker she likes to play once a year on Christmas Day. That's enough XMas music for both of us.
I listened to a few of the tracks on the new Rolling Stones album on YouTube. It was terrible...all of it processed-to-death and lacking any human feel. Jagger doesn't sound like himself, but like a bad computer simulation, and the instrumentation was over saturated, too loud in the mix and ceaselessly busy. It sounds like a computer-generated simulacrum of the Stones, a torrent of sound signifying shit.
(FWIW, I was never a big Stones fan. I bought only three of their albums: "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!," a collection of live recordings from their 1969 American tour, "Exile on Main St.," which I listened to maybe twice in full, if that much, before giving it away, and "Some Girls," their late 70s return to form, as the critics deemed it. I liked "Girls" and Ya-Yas!" pretty well, and I've enjoyed individual Stones' songs from other albums when I've heard them on the radio. But they never really grabbed me as a band to embrace or follow.)
Oh, thank god! I'm not the only one who detests Christmas music.
Hey! Burl! I got yer holly-jolly right here!(grabbing my crotch.)
The best Christmas song of all is, of course, Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy."
2000 Miles
is the Pretenders' great Christmas song.
I agree Cook above in the sense that the entire Vince Guaraldi A Charlie Brown Christmas is a masterpiece. And Kai - that Pretender's song is one I just discovered about a year or so ago. Chrissy Hynde claims she didn't write it about Christmas at all, but I guess we'll treat it the way we do Die Hard.
BTW - if you want to listen to some really peaceful Christmas instrumental music, I highly recommend George Winston's December
Thanks for the tip, Madison Man. I've updated that list a few times now.
Artists often don't understand themselves. That song starts out one thing, but it ends up totally about Christmas. : ) A beauty.
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