Christmas Music on Commercial Radio

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 2:01pm

Are any of you fed up with the banal Christmas music that commercial radio stations are playing lately? It seems that every FM station here on Long Island plays the same 10-12 songs all day long. If I hear Brenda Lee sing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" one more time I may scream--and it's only 12/6!!!! The same is true for Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town". I'd love to hear LeRoy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" or the Harry Simeon Corale do "The Little Drummer Boy". I guess that's why I have a CD player in my car.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 2:05pm

Try Linds Eder's Christmas Album for a welcome change

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 3:21pm

When Clear Channel owns almost all the stations you end up with 10 song playlists created by computers on every station. YAY! God, radio was so much better when monopolies were illegal. (Thanks, President Reagan!) It's only going to get worse as Bush privatizes what USED to be known as the "public airwaves."

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 3:44pm

It's true. The stations I was alluding to are all Clear Channel. There's gotta be some sort of kick-back involved her.

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 3:50pm

Dp, 102.7 FM has been playing Christmas music since before Thanksgiving. It is not the same banal tunes that the other stations play. When I am using my CD, I have the wonderful Ann Murray Christmas CD, which I play over and over and over.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 3:56pm

My favorite Christmas CD is HOLIDAY POPS with the Boston Pops (Keith Lockhart conducting). They've got a bit of music from the Charlie Brown TV special and a terrific tune called "Merry Christmas" from HOME ALONE. The orchestrations are excellent and the conductor is handsome.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 9:08pm

DP, among other concerts, I saw the Boston Pops when they released their Celtic album.

Keith Lockhart. In a kilt. Yum.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 9:13pm

I'll be seeing the Pops' Christmas concert next Sunday (the 14th) at NJPAC in Newark, NJ. I'm a big fan of the Pops and Keith Lockhart has become a good friend of mine--and he's oh, so gorgeous!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 9:17pm

No disagreement on that one, Dolly! I've met Keith a few times through my friend (whose brother is a Pop). Absolute gentleman. Nice arse doesn't hurt, too.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 9:24pm

When I attend concerts at Symphony Hall, I alsways ask for the seat directly behind the conductor's podium. The box office staff is always telling me that I won't be able to see anything, but boy of boy are they wrong! Keith has the best buns in the business and when he's conducting certain works those buns become poetry in motion. (Too bad his wife is so insipid!)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 9:27pm

I myself enjoy the balcony seats at Symphony Hall. As much as I enjoy ogling Keith, I get the biggest kick out of watching the entire orchestra from bird's-eye. That comes from being an orchestra girl, I suppose....

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 11:46pm

My two favorite Christmas albums, oops....CDs....are the Boston Pops playing Leroy Anderson's A Christmas Festival (the overlay of Jingle Bells on Oh, Come All Ye Faithful is brilliant) and The Bells of Dublin by the Chieftains. I also love Rutter's Cambridge singers doing all the old English songs, and Loreena McKennitt's To Drive the Cold Winter Away.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/6/03 at 11:55pm

I love The Chieftain's Bells of Dublin. I'm also a fan of Robert Shaw's Festival of Carols. Sometimes you just need those traditional, cathedral arrangements. So amazingly done on that CD, too.

Currently listening to the Pogues' wonderful Christmas carol, "Fairytale of New York."

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/7/03 at 11:55am

My all-time favorite Christmas music is organ and chimes. I have a real chintzy CD that I cought at Duane Read for about a dollar several years ago. It's so poorly done that at one pont the master tape snags and no one bothered to clean it up when it was trasnferred to disc. However, it is the real "sound" of Christmas as far as I'm concerned.

I haven't been able to locate any other organ and chimes recording--either on CD, cassette or LP.

[Maggie]

Posted: 12/7/03 at 2:03pm

We have three Christmas CD's that we listen to while opening gifts...The Nutcracker, Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas ("all I want for Christmas" is played waaaay too much on the radio) and then we have one that's a compilation of all the classic Christmas songs (Bing Crosby's "White Christmas", etc)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/8/03 at 2:26am

Just got Lady Ella's "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas" today.... impulse buy at Tower, quite enjoyable. I'm more of a Billie Holiday fan, myself, but this is one hep album. Currently playing it in rotation with John Pizzarelli's Let's Share Christmas.