Kat with a K

Christmas Song Roundup: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

Upon a rather alarming amount of reflection, I have concluded that I may have been overhasty in my dismissal of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" in the gift guide review the other day. It is a great track, although I stand by my convictions that it is not the greatest Christmas song of all time and that there are even better songs on that particular album. I also concede that I am biased by my general distaste for romantically-themed Christmas songs (with a few notable exceptions, but we'll get to that later too). Thematically, this is basically a standard Darlene Love song with an overlay of Christmas, rather than an actually Christmas-centric song, and that might be why I'm not quite as wild about it as some seem to be. But her voice, and that wall of sound . . . I cannot possibly deny that, musically, this is pretty darn good. So here it is. You should listen to it.

A few years ago, my best friend said he was going to learn to play "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" so he'd have something seasonal for some December gigs. And I was all "You're going to play . . . a Darlene Love song? Really?" "No!" he insisted. He was going to play a U2 song! And I was baffled. But!

(My gosh, all that hair!) Okay. That's a good version too. But Bono, much as I love him, is no Darlene Love. Still. Perfectly adequate. And it looks like there really is a Leighton Meester version:

I kind of like it, but then, I'm rather a Leighton Meester fan (because of her acting more than her music), so I can see that those of you who don't have those happy associations with her might not be so impressed. I do not, however, approve of the way that someone on YouTube set it to a scene of Blair (the character Meester plays on Gossip Girl) and Nate kissing in the snow because, ahem, BLAIR BELONGS WITH CHUCK. But! Moving on: Joey Ramone!

And . . . Death Cab for Cutie?

Okay, that one's not so interesting. YouTube also has Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen doing this, but I think I've embedded enough videos for one post.

(This was the first of what will likely be a series of posts in which I try to make you listen to Christmas songs I like, because I love Christmas music to a somewhat ridiculous extent and there's a very limited timeframe in which it is socially acceptable to discuss it. So. Just a warning! Do you have a favorite carol or song you want me to blog about? Let me know!)