For me, it's easily the Twelve Days of Christmas. It's interminable. By the twelfth day, I want to kill all of the creatures given as presents.
The next time John Gibson brings up the supposed war against Christmas, I will note that Paul McCartney fired the opening salvo in said war with "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime." If McCartney attacks us with that abomination, how can the public not expect us to fight back?
I absolutely agree that song is an abomination. Lennon's foray into the genre is a bit better....but ventures into abomination territory at the end when Yoko takes over the singing.
Christmas Eve in Washington, no doubt. The lyrics are bad enough, but it's sung by someone who sounds like Glynda, the Good Witch of the East. My wife loves it.
There's "Grandma Got Run Over...", "Last Christmas" by Wham!, "Santa Baby" by Madonna, the aforementioned McCartney debacle, the entire Mannheim Steamroller oeurve, etc., etc. It's a lot easier to make a list of good Christmas songs: The Kinks, "Father Christmas" Run DMC, "Christmas in Hollis" Whoever it is that did "Christmas in Jail" That's it, that's the good list. Everything else is crap.
if you could put an Al Queda operative in a room and loop "Grandma got runover by a reindeer", we wouldn't need Guantanomo. we'd get all the information we need in about an hour and a half.
you can add Red Peters' "you ain't getting sh!t for christmas" and the classic "holy Sh!t its Christmas"
How can you not have feelings for the greatest NJ/NYC holiday song ever, "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses?
jose feliciano-feliz navidad "i wanna wish you a merry christmas, i wanna wish you a merry christmas..."
Eh. Thank goodness that Christmas music only takes over three Sirius channels. I can add other song to the good list: Fairytale of New York. Naturally, any Christmas song with the line "you scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot / Happy Christmas your ass, I pray God it's our last" holds a warm place in my heart.
The most annoying? "Reggae Christmas." I know - it sounds promising. But it isn't reggae. And it's sung by Hall and Oates. Who sing "We're havin' a reggae Christmas" over and over again. I haven't seen the video or heard the song since about 1992, but I can't shake it. <shudder>
"New Kids got Run Over by a Reindeer... " "Rudy the redneck reindeer" I hate HATE that one that goes, "Whoopdee doo and dickory dock... Don't forget to hang up your sock" I think it's by Andy Williams. Good ones: Pretenders: "2000 Miles" The Collective Soul version of "Blue Christmas" One last one for the good pile... You'd have to go back in time to Christmas 1979 to hear it. One of the most beautiful things I've ever heard were these two little 7-10 year old English girls at Milton Road School in Cambridge, England... they were singing "Mary's Boy Child" together, and I still can't get the sound and image out of my head. I was 9, and I'll never forget it. Oh... since I mentioned England -- I like the English versions of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Away in a Manger" and hate the American versions. Can't help it... I learned the English versions better. Why in the world do they have different tunes? How does that even happen?!
Many old Christmas carols and other hymns were originally published as poems, and then some church musician would find them in a book or magazine and write tunes or adapt existing tunes for them. Certain tunes would catch on and spread and become forever linked with the text. With the US and England separated by an ocean, and no recorded music to popularize a single version everywhere, the process of a song catching on and gaining widespread acceptance could occur on a completely parallel path in both countries with different tunes.
I remembered this today - unfortunately, I also remembered that in the video he is accompanied by both Hall and Oates. Bryan Adams. Hall. Oates. Faux Reggae. WINNER!
This is the only video I know of that song...no Hall & Oates in sight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BsTVJKNXos