List of "Tired" Christmas Music (That Should Be Retired)

Self (Vanity)

[SamAdams76]

The Christmas season is upon us once again and the sounds of holiday music can be heard in shopping malls, restaurants, and other public places. Radio stations are already slipping the occasional Christmas song into their playlists and by mid-December, it will be wall-to-wall Christmas music.

Now that is not a bad thing. I like Christmas music. I collect Christmas music. Later in the Christmas season, I will post a vanity on my favorite Christmas music and that post promises to be much longer than this one.

But why is it that so many tired and really annoying Christmas songs seem to get the most airplay? Is it just me or does it seem like the radio stations play the same few Christmas songs 90% of the time?

On this thread, I will list some of my least favorite or more accurately, the most tired Christmas songs of alltime and will seek your input. I put a lot of thought into putting this list together. You are welcome to disagree with me and/or list a few really tired Christmas songs of your own.

Surely there are worse Christmas songs out there than the ones I am about to list. But I kept my list to songs that are familiar and that get a lot of airplay. The emphasis here on on "tired" rather than "bad." Also, to make my list, the song must have been out for at least five years. These songs have established some longevity of being really tired. I am listing the ones that have been "in our face" year after year. Without so much great material out there (I'll have a separate post on that closer to Christmas), there is no excuse for radio stations not to pursue fresher material.

So in no particular order, here goes...the most "tired" Christmas songs of alltime.

• Elmo & Patsy - Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Now I'm not normally a violent person. But if somebody was to shoot the person who wrote this song, it would be okay by me. This has got to be absolutely the most annoying Christmas Song I have ever heard. It stopped being funny sometime around 1984. Yet year after year, radio stations seem to play it at least once every hour. Many a Christmas compilation album has been ruined for me by the inclusion of this tired ditty.
  

• Adam Sandler - The Chanukah Song. Okay, maybe it was funny the first 232 times I heard it. But this song has really run its course and it should be retired. And to add insult to injury, Sandler released a "sequel" version of this song a few years ago but it already seems like 20 years ago. It's just not "funakah" to hear this anymore.
  

• The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping. Many, many years ago, back when Ronald Reagan used to refer to Russia as the "Evil Empire," it was cool to play this record at Christmas. It was cutting edge and having this song in your Christmas collection separated you from the Perry Como and Bing Crosby crowd. Well it's not cutting edge, cool or "New Wave" anymore. It's as mainstream as Garth Brooks and as dull as Peter Jennings. Give this record a rest, please.
  

• Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad. Must be a "PC" thing because the song itself is lame. Okay, okay, so it's politically correct to be "diverse" and know "Merry Christmas" in 17 different languages. So Buon Natale to you then, I am putting a contract out on this record. I am going to have it inserted into a block of wet cement and send it to the bottom of Boston Harbor. At least the Italians know what to do when something becomes tired and no longer "useful." Time for some new Christmas material from Mexico, and fast.
  

• Cheech & Chong - Santa And His Old Lady. Cheech: "Like I PLAYED with that dude, man." Chong: "Whoa, like Santa Claus ain't no musician, man!" Cheech: "I'm hip, man, like that dude couldn't play for beans, man!" Well I'm hip to Cheech & Chong. They can't play for beans and they aren't funny anymore to boot. Were these guys EVER funny? Must have been a 70s thing.
  

• Band-Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? Not only was this song a blatant rip-off of "We Are The World" (or maybe it was vice versa) but the question the song poses is ridiculous. Of course they don't know it's Christmas, and they probably couldn't give a shit either. Until this year, did we ever know it was Ramadan over there? And that "Feed The World" chorus, well, here it is 15 years later and the people are still starving over there. Guess it makes liberals feel good to sing the song though. Like the next one on my list...
  

• John & Yoko - Happy Xmas (War Is Over). Maybe it's the spelling of Christmas that irks me most about this record. Didn't this song start the whole loathsome "Xmas" thing? Anyway, you can be sure that this song will get even heavier airplay this Christmas season in light of the current war situation. But I'm so tired of this song already!
  

• Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Okay, I like Bruce Springsteen. But I still think he could have picked a better Christmas song to cover. Or even have done an original. Anyway, I was already tired of this song by 1979.

I could think of a few more but I'm going to let my fellow Freepers get a crack at adding to the list of "tired" Christmas music.

[Frank Grimes]

"Rockin around the Christmas Tree"

Auuuuggghhh!! That is the one that plays on those Dancing Santas that dance when you walk by. Why does every department store have like 50 of those in high traffic areas that simultaneously go off when people go by. If I worked in the department near those things, I would go postal!!!

[Frank Grimes]

I can say that, I was born on his birthday . . . .

Really? I was born on the day he died! 08/16/77

[SamAdams76]

Some years back, a Christmas classic was in fact adapted to fit a Led Zeppelin song. This group called John & Fleming somehow were able to fit the words to "Winter Wonderland" to the Led Zeppelin classic "Misty Mountain Hop." Even better, it starts out as some cheesy lounge-lizard version and the first-time listener is shocked when all of a sudden, the guitar riff kicks in.

[BibChr]

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (aka "Have Yourself a Christless Little Christmas")
Merry Christmas
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Anything about Frosty, Rudolph, Santa, or any other fictitious figure

Dan

[SamAdams76]

RE: That Donna Summer Christmas album. I totally agree. That will be on my post of Christmas favorites. This was released around 1995 and is still available in stores. This is one of the best Christmas albums released in the past decade. Anybody who has "profiled" Donna as a disco queen will be pleasantly surprised by this record. No disco. The songs are done straight up and it is obvious that Donna feels strongly about Christmas. The best part of the album is towards the end where Donna covers Amy Grant's "Breath Of Heaven", and does an excellent rendition of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and then does one of her original compositions "Lamb Of God." The only track not worthy is "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)" and that's only because I'm so sick of hearing that song. I must have over 200 versions of it already.

[SoothingDave]

Sam, have you heard of "The Trans-Siberian Orchestra"? They have a couple albums out, best is "Christmas Eve and Other Stories." It tells a story of an angel sent down to earth on Christmas Eve to find the perfect "gift" that we humans have made in the name of Christ. The music is mostly rock and includes both traditional songs and new compositions which tell the story. The new songs often incorporate traditional carols. And there's an instrumental medley of "O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night" done with screaming heavy metal guitar.

Check it out.

SD

[Silly]

"The Pretty Little Dolly" by Mona Abboud Rusk, on the Dr. Demento album is great. It's a live performance of her on Johnny Carson (you can hear him laughing at the end). Never fails to make me laugh.

"And she screams in realistic pain if you break her leg!"

[WIladyconservative]

Yup - born on January 8! My DH says it's the only reason he married me . . . .lol

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Last year the local rock radio station here did a really good Santa Claus parody of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" with lyrics like "I AM SANTA CLAUS!" and "Leave him cookies and beer, he'll be back to your house first next year!"

[Twodees]

Yep, me too. They were the house band at some lounge in Myrtle Beach before they did their cover of Mark Gray's "Old Flame" and had a hit. I liked their cover of the tune, but haven't liked anything else they've done since.

[World'sGoneInsane]

It's a hol-ly-jol-ly Christmas.

That one and...Oh by gosh by golly, it's time for mistletoe and holly, oh by gosh by jingle, it's time for misteltoe and Kris Kringle. (Bet you love that one too.) Argh! Other than those two and Elvis' Blue Christmas, I haven't met a Christmas song I didn't like.

[NovemberCharlie]

There's a Jimmy Buffett version of it that he covered on his CD Christmas Island.

[pankot]

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
All I Want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

[Junior]

Don't know about bad Christmas songs, but some of the best have got to be on the two Christmas albums by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Talk about getting in the spirit!

Also, a few years back one of those famous Italian tenors did a version of O Holy Night that moved me to tears, it was that good.

Of course, no one ever plays those kinds of songs on the radio any more ...

[k2blader]

I'd agree with all of those, especially the top 2, except for Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Have only heard it 2 or 3 times total on the radio in the last several years. Nice melody. :)

[k2blader]

Don't know about bad Christmas songs, but some of the best have got to be on the two Christmas albums by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Trans-Siberian O. is *the king* of Christmas musik! :)

[Pharmboy]

Funny how different we all are. I look forward every year to hearing all of them at least once. We always are driving somewhere (upstate NY or Virginia in the past 10 years) and search the radio stations so we can hear them all. And we're Jews...

[Pharmboy]

Oops--almost forgot. Merry Christmas.

[rickmoe]

one of the finest and most sophisticated pieces of musical arrangement ever created by mankind(dogkind). 'ruff ruff ruff!!!

[bleudevil]

I'm with you, except I don't mind the Band-Aid song that much. It predated "We Are the World" and is a decent song musically, IMO.

I'm an old-fashioned conservative when it comes to Christmas music. I don't want funny (usually it's not, anyway), trendy, rock 'n' roll, cutting-edge Christmas music. Bing Crosby and Perry Como are fine with me!