Top Christmas songs countdown continues….

The top 20 holiday tunes of all time, according to staff members at Billboard magazine, needs some “tidying up” on this end to comply with our “previously stated requirement” that the songs be among those that are likely to be played on the radio.

In this case, we’re talking about an adult contemporary station owned by Curtis Media Group of New Bern, N.C. – WMGV-FM: Magic 103.3 / 95.5.

Knocked out of consideration, therefore, are: No 18 – The Waitresses and “Christmas Wrapping” (1981); No. 13 – Ariana Grande and “Santa Tell Me” (2014); and No. 8 – Run-D.M.C. and “Christmas in Hollis” (1987).

 

With these “disqualifications” now out of the way…let the countdown resume:

No.20: Chuck Berry – “Run Rudolph Run” – 1958. The song was written by Berry but credited to Johnny Marks, due to Marks’ trademark on the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The tune’s melody is eerily similar to Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

 

Billboard’s Taylor Mims said: “There was a time when rock’n’roll and Christmas would have felt like conflicting themes, but Chuck Berry was up to the task of bridging them. 

With Berry’s signature guitar riffs, ‘Run Rudolph Run’ could melodically fit on any secular rock record, but his whimsical lyrics of ‘Rudolph whizzin’ like a shootin’ star’ make it a holiday staple.”

Be sure to take the freeway down.

 

No. 19: Bobby Helms – “Jingle Bell Rock” – 1957. Written by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe, who were public relations and advertising executives, respectively. However, Helms and guitarist Hank Garland said they essentially had to rewrite the entire song, because it was so bad.

 

“Helms’ country influence and well-timed guitar twang make ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ a feel-good song that puts people in the festive spirit,” said Billboard’s Josh Glicksman. “The underlying sleigh bells ringing throughout the entirety of the song bump up the score a few notches.”

 

No. 17: Joni Mitchell – “River” – 1971. Mitchell wrote the song “River” for her iconic 1971 album “Blue,” expressing regret and longing after a breakup with Graham Nash, wishing for a frozen Canadian “river to skate away on” to escape her troubles around Christmas time. The lyrics famously capture a sense of personal responsibility for a failed relationship.

 

“There needed to be a song that embraces the sorrow of Christmas,” commented Billboard’s Thom Duffy.

 

No. 16: The Beach Boys – “Little Saint Nick” – 1963. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, two of the original five members of the band that formed in Hawthorne, Calif., in 1961.

 

“This enduring hit, which shares melodic and rhythmic elements with the group’s ‘Little Deuce Coupe,’ gives a holiday slant to The Beach Boys’ trademark harmonies and penchant for lyrics about classic cars, this time around envisioning Santa’s sleigh as a candy apple red hot rod,” reported Billboard’s Jessica Nicholson.

She makes notice of “the group’s reedy, sugary harmonies mixed with sleigh bells and a glockenspiel at times.”

 

No. 15: Judy Garland, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – 1944. Written in 1943 by Hugh Martin, this song was introduced by Garland in the 1944 MGM musical “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

 

Garland promises her kid sister that they’ll “muddle through somehow” as their family plans to move away from their beloved hometown,” wrote Billboard’s Katie Anderson. “A lot of people can relate to this melancholy-yet-hopeful ballad delivered with Garland’s reassuring, velvety voice.”

 

No. 14: Andy Williams – “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” – 1963. Written by Edward Pola and George Wyle.

 

“Andy Williams’ declaration of love for the holiday season is the unofficial theme song for Christmas,” wrote Billboard’s Rania Aniftos. “It embodies what makes Christmas so special: time spent with family, snow on the ground, mistletoe at cocktail parties and an overall sense of joy. It truly captures the ‘hap-happiest season of all.’”

Aniftos said the song is “the most schmaltzy” of all the Christmas songs. “From gushing over the ‘parties for hosting / marshmallows for toasting / and caroling out in the snow’… it’s like Santa flew in on his sleigh from the North Pole and wrote the song himself.”

 

No. 12: Elvis Presley – “Blue Christmas” – 1957. Written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson, “Blue Christmas” was first recorded by Doye O’Dell. It was “popularized” the following year in three separate recordings – by country artist Ernest Tubb, by musical conductor and arranger Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra and chorus and by bandleader Russ Morgan and his orchestra.

Presley cemented the status of “Blue Christmas” as a rock’n’roll holiday classic in 1957, bringing attention to the backing vocal group, the Jordanaires.

 

All it took for Elvis to claim the song, according to Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger, was “one quivering ‘I’ll… have… a… bluuuuuuue… Christmas… without you….’”

(Personally, this is one highly overrated Christmas song that I can do without.)

 

No. 11: Vince Guaraldi Trio – “Christmas Time Is Here” – 1965. Written by Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson for the 1965 CBS television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which was one of the first animated Christmas specials produced for network television in the United States.

Two versions were included on the album “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – an instrumental version by the Vince Guaraldi Trio and a vocal version by choristers from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Rafael, Calif.

 

Unable to secure a credible lyricist, Mendelson sat down at his kitchen table and wrote “Christmas Time Is Here” in about 10 minutes. “It was a poem that just came to me,” Mendelson said. “Vince got a bunch of little kids together to sing it.”

 

Billboard’s Joe Lynch said: “Like Charles Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’ comic strip, the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s music is suited for everyday Americana without personifying it. It’s a loving, heartfelt tribute to Christmas that doesn’t kowtow to its commercial expectations.”

Another of the Vince Guaraldi Trio songs from the Peanuts’ TV special, “O Tannenbaum,” checked in at No. 62 on the Billboard all-time list of favorite Christmas tunes.

 And one more song that should have been included is the high-energy number titled “Linus and Lucy.” Music critics say “Linus and Lucy” has become “one of the most recognizable instrumental compositions in American popular culture.”

 

“It has been closely associated with the Peanuts characters, particularly Snoopy, whose animated dance sequences helped solidify the piece’s connection to joy and nostalgia.”

Furthermore, “the composition is widely regarded as Vince Guaraldi’s signature work and is a staple of jazz education.”

 

No. 10: Donny Hathaway – “This Christmas” – 1970. Written by Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor. She was a postal worker in Chicago who jotted down the original lyrics during a huge snowstorm in 1967, while “thinking of the holiday refrains of Nat King Cole, and singing to herself.”

 

She became “associated with” Hathaway through a home remodeling contractor who was doing work for each party…and connected the dots.

Phil Upchurch, a guitarist and songwriter, said the Hathaway-McKinnor song is “absolutely the premier holiday song written by African-Americans.”

Billboard’s Gail Mitchell commented: “Soul pioneer Hathaway’s prodigious talents as a songwriter, arranger, musician and vocalist perfectly capture the joy, fun, blessings and love that embody the spirit of the holiday season, set to an upbeat groove.”

“Hathaway’s original is a heartfelt holiday anthem for Black America that’s since become a popular modern standard,” she added.

No. 9: Bruce Springsteen – “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” – 1982.

Written in 1934 by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, the song was first recorded by banjoist Harry Reser and His Orchestra. It was covered the same year by Eddie Cantor and became a hit. Another version was recorded by George Hall and His Orchestra, with vocals by Sonny Schuyler.

The song has been since been recorded by more than 200 artists, including Neil Diamond, whose raucous recording of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” was the centerpiece of his 1992 “The Christmas Album.” 

Neil Diamond and his wife, Katie McNeill Diamond.

(Hence, Billboard’s determination that Springsteen’s version is the very best needs to be accompanied by a giant asterisk.)

 

No. 7: José Feliciano – “Feliz Navidad” – 1970. Feliciano, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, wrote what he calls the “first ever bilingual Christmas song” in the middle of the summer in Los Angeles, because he was feeling homesick for his native land.

 

With its simple, heartfelt lyrics – the traditional Spanish Christmas/New Year greeting “Feliz Navidad, próspero año y Felicidad” (“Merry Christmas, a prosperous year and happiness”), followed by text in English words “I wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart,” it has become a Christmas classic and has gained popularity around the world.

 

(In our family, the holiday season officially arrives when the first notes from the 1967 “Tijuana Christmas” album blare through the speakers. Songs were performed by a group called The Border Brass.)

 

No. 6: Brenda Lee – “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – 1958.

Written by Johnny Marks (shown below), he asked 13-year-old Brenda Lee to record his song. She willingly obliged. 

The recording session featured Hank Garland and Harold Bradley on guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano, Boots Randolph on saxophone, Bob Moore on double bass and Buddy Harman on drums.

“The rockabilly accents gave this record a timely quality back then, and now are charmingly retro,” said Billboard’s Paul Grein.

 

No. 5: Bing Crosby – “White Christmas” – 1947. Written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical “Holiday Inn,” the song was performed by Bing Crosby and fully embraced by American troops during World War II.

 

Crosby’s 1947 re-recording of “White Christmas” is the version that best reflects Berlin’s “deft lyrical detail and simplicity,” according to Billboard’s Joe Lynch. 

“‘White Christmas’ is a melancholy, even elegiac, meditation on the simple things that make life worth living,” Lynch said.

 

No. 4: Wham! – “Last Christmas” – 1984. 

Written, performed and recorded by Wham! member George Michael without the participation of the other member of the British duo – Andrew Ridgeley. The song is much loved by many.

George Messenger of Potomac, Md., is not among them. A contributor to the National Review, a conservative magazine based in New York City, Messenger said George Michael “seems to have a unique talent for ruining Christmas music, and ‘Last Christmas’ is the worst of all.”

“Something about the premise of the song is incredibly frustrating to me, and to be honest, strikes me as utter nonsense,” Messenger wrote. “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart / But the very next day, you gave it away.” What does that mean?

 

No. 3: Nat King Cole – “The Christmas Song – 1961. Written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé, “The Christmas Song” (commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” or, as it was originally subtitled, “Merry Christmas to You”) was first recorded by The Nat King Cole Trio in 1946.

 

Cole continued to tinker with different arrangements for the song, eventually settling on a stereophonic version in 1961, with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.

Billboard’s Katie Anderson remarked: “With a voice like hot chocolate poured over a lush string arrangement, there’s only one word for Nat King Cole’s recording of ‘The Christmas Song’ – warm. The definitive version of the classic…wraps listeners up in a thick wool blanket as they sit fireside roasting chestnuts, even as it invokes ice-cold images of Jack Frost and Eskimos.”

“It’s no wonder that the song is generically titled ‘The Christmas Song,’ because it perfectly encapsulates the best of Christmas music with its sense of homey familiarity and cozy warmth.”

 

No. 2: Darlene Love – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – 1963. Written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. 

This is the song that David Letterman invited Love to sing once a year on his show, beginning in 1986. Her appearance became one of Letterman’s “favorite Christmas traditions,” an annual event for as long as his show aired (through 2014).

“Love’s signature song is a layered, lush pop symphony from first note to the last,” said Billboard’s Melinda Newman. “The song wraps itself around you like a warm, flannel Christmas blanket.”

 

No. 1: Mariah Carey – “All I Want for Christmas Is You” – 1994. Written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff. The New Yorker magazine said the song is “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon.”

 “‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ is all about wanting a significant other more than anything for the holidays,” said Billboard’s Heran Mamo, “and Carey somehow manages to capture that warm, fuzzy feeling with statements like ‘I don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree’ and ‘I don’t need to hang my stocking there upon the fireplace.’”

“Carey’s wish list remains focused on receiving the ultimate gift: love.”