It feels like time could do it no harm. Like 35 years have passed without nearly a trace. Subject matter is the first Christmas album by the group Alabama, which was released in 1985. It holds the simple title "Christmas" and it still sounds contemporary and full of atmosphere more than 3 decades after its first release. Because in contrast to so many other projects which take the easy way and only cover well-known Christmas songs from the past, the band Alabama decided to record 10 original songs for their project. At the very height of their fame they could afford to go for new songs and a wide spectrum of emotions typically associated with Christmas.
As 2023 gets closer to celebrating the most important commercial and Christian holiday of the year, it again brings a slew of accordingly themed musical releases with it. Typically recorded in the summer and released in late fall, not all of it sounds like a winner though. In addition, the majority of it still is a cover version of simply a well-known Christmas classic from years long gone by. But once in a while artists do make the effort to write or record some original material.
Just like Caitlyn Smith did with 'Snow Day', a song she co-wrote with Ben West. In it they let the butterflies of infatuation have an unmistakeably Christmas feeling. The result of which charms with the gentle voice of Caitlyn Smith.
Already at the end of October 2023, Jon Pardi released his first Christmas album under the unmistakeable title "Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi". The 12 songs included are a good mix of well-known classics and new material. The latter are predominantly humorous interpretations of the Christmas theme. That way 'Merry Christmas From The Keys' leads to southern Florida, while one has had enough of winter already in 'Swing On Down To Texas' and Santa Claus can look forward to some cold beer when coming down the chimney in 'Beer For Santa'. In addition song titles such as '400 Horsepower Sleith' and 'I've Been Bad Santa' speak for themselves.
Grammy winner Brandy Clark remembers a lost love on the occasion of Christmas in the wistful ballad 'My Favorite Christmas': guess some wishes ain't meant to come true, still, my favorite Christmas was you.
The young traditionalist Randall King presents 6 songs on his Christmas-EP called "Silent Night". He opens it with a cover of the old Austrian title song and closes it with a feisty honky tonk version of the classic Chuck Berry song 'Johnny B. Goode' dubbed 'Run Run Rudolph'. In between he put 4 originals, among them the atmospheric, yet melancholic 'White Christmas Makes Me Blue' as a standout.
In contrast Madeline Edwards lets reality sink in with a 3-song EP she calls "Perfect Christmas". The title cut does not only show off contemporary production, but also some sociocritical lyrics. So she sings about her uncle's political opinion and the fact, that her niece gets a brand new car, while she only got a gift card she may never use for the perfect Christmas. All of it backed by distorted guitars, underlining the maybe yet not so perfect Christmas after all. The piano ballad 'Celebrate Me Home' is a cover of a Kenny Loggins song from the 1970s, while the short project closes with a no longer Christmas-themed 'Me Missing You', which Madeline Edwards co-wrote, just like the title track.
Scotty McCreery brings some classic swinging Christmas sounds with 'Feel Like The Holidays': jazzy, lighthearted and full of holiday cheer. Some Rock 'n' Roll gets contributed by Eric Paslay with his cover of the Chuck Berry classic 'Run Rudolph Run', while T. Graham Brown proves with his sexy blues of 'Santa's Got His Baby Something' that his voice still got the bluesiest soul of them all.
And while Harper Grace gets the award for the most seductive Christmas song with 'Santa Baby', Tyler Halverson claims in 'Christmas By Myself' that he prefers to spend the holidays alone anyways.
Much less succesful sounds the updated version of the mega hit from 2021 by Walker Hayes, now called 'Fancy Like Christmas'. Same goes for the computer-generated duet of Kane Brown with Elvis Presley on the classic 'Blue Christmas'.
But then not every attempt at becoming a new classic can be successful. And once in a while it takes 65 years to make it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts with a Christmas song, as was the case for the past 2 weeks. The song is 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree', which was first released by Brenda Lee in 1958 when she was only 13. Being 79 years old now, it makes her the oldest person to date, to ever have a Number 1 Pop hit in the USA. That may give hope to anyone taking a shot at it.
However, they should not overlook the fact, that 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree', written by Johnny Marks, is only the third Christmas song that has reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
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