Most hated Christmas music

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: G-Force
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:02 AM

No-one's mentioned that godawful Slade record.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:25 AM

Might that not be because a significant number (of which I'm one) do actually quite like it?

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:39 AM

More favorites-

Run Rudolph Run by Chuck Berry
Galician Carol by Carlos Nunez
Stella Splendens (I especially like Jordi Savali's version).

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 10:41 AM

and Don't Shoot Me Santa by The Killers

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:21 AM

Right, folks, you asked for it ---

I hereby take "hate" as "will leave the room" or "will throw the radio against the wall", and nominate White Christmas as the worst-ever earworm fodder. To me it's so repulsively dire that only the commissioning execs in Hollywood could have had the bad taste to extract it from one film and build another round it.

Hollywood in general, and said atrocity in particular, are part of the reason that English people, for whom getting snowed in is headline news, believe Something Is Wrong With The Universe if there's no snow on Christmas Day.

.... End of rant.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Groovy
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:22 AM

Helen's also a twat.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:27 AM

Oh dear, and it was going so well. There’s always one…

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:29 AM

...fly in the Christmas Punch.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Rain Dog
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 11:39 AM

"Yea, hate may be too strong a word"

It is but unfortunately too often found on the internet these days.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 12:10 PM

I don't know if this qualifies as Christmas music, but it is a part of the festive season. If I never hear Auld Lang Syne again, it will be too soon.

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,!
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 12:17 PM

And Doug Chadwick's the biggest twat of the lot!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 12:18 PM

Flattery will get you nowhere!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 01:10 PM

Yay, DC and I have been granted a Twathood! What a lifetime achievement!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 01:14 PM

I'm going to add it to my CV.

DC

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 02:41 PM

One of the other reasons I have to leave the room when The Little Drummer Boy is played is the boring, repetitive, unimaginative melody line ("melody line", quote unquote). It is like water torture.

On the opposite side of the fence, the interesting melody, its twists and turns, and the harmonies in O Holy Night for me are sublime, IMHO.

And yes, I know some people cringe when they hear it, but it stops me in my tracks when it is beautifully performed.

IL DIVO - O Holy Night

Mahalia Jackson

And of course, again IMHO, there has to be a version with harp:
Celtic Trio and Choir - Emer Barry and Affiniti

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 04:37 PM

Robomatic - didn't Isla St Clair record "Christmas Dream" some 40+ years ago?

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 05:00 PM

Just remembered the Bob Dylan one. Well, I say remembered but my auto immune system has actually blocked out the title. All I can really remember is "Must be Santa Claus". I guess it is ironic?

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 07:11 PM

Thanks for the “Carols in August”, Malcolm!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 08:39 PM

Cheers Tattie
My favourite modern festive song incidentally is
Nat King Cole's chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Best wishes to all!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 05:26 AM

"That terrible version of While Shepherds Watched, as sung in some Yorkshire pubs which, in many cases, are excellent establishments..."

Which version (of the 30-odd) have you in mind? One virtue of the multiple versions is that no brain power needs to be expended on remembering the words, so there's more brain power left for the parts.

But I do hate one that is often sung in the pubs, the one about Kris Kringle with his sleigh; largely because KK is otherwise unknown in Britain, where the person on the sleigh is Father Christmas / Santa Claus himself, not "Santa Claus's man".

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 11:46 AM

*Disagree*, Helen: O Holy Night has, much to Herself's very audible disgust, just been voted Classic FM Carol of the Year for the Nth time running (for a staggeringly large value of N). For her, that really does have the "leave the room" nature, largely through the ceaseless repetition of it right through December. But then she can't see why I complain about the endless repetition of (*akkh* *phht*) White Christmas.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 01:33 PM

MaJoC, I was betting that at least one person here would vote against O Holy Night. I recall reading that when it was first performed there was a lot of negative criticism.

There are some performers' versions that I can't listen to, but there are some others which are amazing - again, IMHO. A Canadian man who is a member of the music session group here has, on a number of occasions, tried to convince me to listen to the Celine Dion version, but I can't bring myself to do it. Also, it has taken a few years for the session group to finally get their heads around playing the tricky rhythm of the song - but they only play it for a couple of weeks before Christmas in preparation for our annual Christmas carol busking and then they forget about it for another 11 months.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 04:23 PM

Until recently I was our music session group tsar but ... well, other events have occurred. That's another story.

Anyway, a few years ago I managed to impose my choice of Christmas carols on the busking list:

Hark the Herald Angels Sing, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (aka Washed Their Socks), We Three Kings of Orient Are, Ding Dong Merrily on High, Good King Wenceslas, O Little Town of Bethlehem (to the Lewis Redner tune), O Come All Ye Faithful, The Holly and the Ivy, The First Nowell, O Holy Night (surprise, surprise!), and Silent Night.

I deliberately chose traditional carols and not modern songs and I left Jingle Bells and (the neverending) Twelve Days of Christmas off the list.

I would have liked to add a couple more, e.g. Once in Royal David's City but we had to be realistic in putting together a busking list.

Added to a previous comment I made about the BEST carol ever, i.e O Holy Night, I refuse to listen to Mariah Carey's version too. It is possible I could be pleasantly surprised by her version or Celine Dion's version, but I'm not brave enough to give it a go.

Also, I never "got" In the Bleak Midwinter, until I heard Charlotte Ritchie's gentle solo performance with piano accompaniment on the amazingly clever and funny UK TV show called Ghosts. (Even the US version of the show is amazing, mainly because the Brits assisted with the production. Normally US versions of Brit or Oz comedy get lost in translation. Sorry, that's a fight for another day!!! :-D )

So, in summary, there are some carols I absolutely love and others I can't listen to, and a big bunch in between, and mostly my response to them is dictated by the musical interpretation of the performers.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 07:12 PM

I love “O Holy Night” but the stand-out version for me is one that was recorded at my daughter’s school all of 30 years ago, with a senior school pupil with a very good voice taking the solo, and the school choir doing the rest, and one of the music teachers accompanying on piano. Not available commercially, but I still have the CD the school made of that and other carols, and did make it into a private video, featuring the very deep snow we had here in the winter of 2010-11. Definitely the best version!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Neil D
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 08:44 PM

I don't hate "I'll Be Home for Christmas" per se, I hate that nobody gets that it's a very sad song. It seems like a pleasant if sentimental song till the very last line which says I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams. You suddenly realize this is coming from a soldier in WWII (released in 1943) who will definitely not be home for Christmas. It's like a gut punch.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 12:08 AM

Sometimes, a sad song helps me feel and understand the depth of sorrow I might be having trouble with. Say I'm stuck on some assignment in the Far East at Christmas time, and I miss my family back home. If I were to listen to "I'll Be Home for Christmas" it would doubtless trigger some strong sad emotion. Yeah, my situation sucks but I'm facing and feeling that fact, which gets me thru it. Sometimes bad things happen to people and they avoid the emotional impact, which can turn them into wierd, shallow people.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 12:18 AM

Home Alive by ’45

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 01:00 AM

The song that saved Christmas

The Story behind "The Little Drummer Boy"

Harry Moses Simeone "Little Drummer Boy"

Migraine headache may result

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 03:30 AM

Bert Janch does a great version of In thr bleak Midwinter but the words are wrong!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 10:35 AM

Barbara Dickson's version of that is pretty nice.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 12:16 PM

So is Breezy's rendition. Genuinely moving.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 05:05 PM

I just found the short video clip of Charlotte Ritchie singing

In the Bleak Midwinter on the UK Ghosts TV show, but my memory was incomplete. The ghosts sing with her in gentle harmony. Beautiful!

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 05:20 PM

I'm partial to the version by The Lower Lights

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 05:57 PM

Helen (a year ago) said " I was betting that at least one person here would vote against O Holy Night. I recall reading that when it was first performed there was a lot of negative criticism."
She must be older than I am, which is saying something. Back in the 1950s we used to stand round grandma's piano sing it from an old book of songs.
Don't know modern versions of it, except the one our choir MD arranged for us.

I very much agree with Steve Shaw. The one that makes me cringe is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I thought Christmas was supposed to be a big religious festival. (though not for me now).

Heard that streaming has made a difference to the Christmas Charts. People downloading their old favourites

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: Helen
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 06:24 PM

A year ago?

From: Helen - PM Date: 25 Dec 24 - 01:33 PM

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Dec 24 - 08:30 PM

As you don't really have to hate Christmas music because you can just turn it off, I think that the thing to hate most could be the constant bombardment with it that starts on Dec 1. A huge culprit in that regard in the UK is Classic FM. From that date until New Year, tune to Classic FM for even just a little while and you'll hear all the recycled/regurgitated/refashioned/rejigged old Christmas chestnuts over and over again, ad nauseam. Now when I'm driving along, and Radio 3 is playing some God-awful Second Viennese School atonal string sextet or something, my resort is to retune to Classic FM for a bit. But that cannot be done in December. If my choice in December is between the Schoenberg, Classic FM or to staple my left tit to an angry beehive, the latter wins hands down every time.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Dec 24 - 04:47 AM

Methinks we should distinguish between real Christmas carols and Xmas music/muzak. These are agreed to be the extrema on a spectrum from Holy to Wholly Awful, but Classic FM (for one) seems to collapse the entire spectrum to a single point.

By the bye: Has anybody else noticed the discordant blare of trumpets in the third repetition of the minor theme in Sleigh Ride? It sounds to me that the sleigh is about to be overtaken by a girt big articulated lorry.

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Dec 24 - 07:10 AM

Yes, I know that piece and share your distaste. But even Mozart descended into kitsch with his Sleigh Ride complete with jingles...

Subject: RE: Most hated Christmas music
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 27 Dec 24 - 03:17 PM

No, Steve: I actually don't dislike Troika (it's the only part of Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé suite that I hear at all regularly). Apologies for the confusion; I get parity errors in my wetware.