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The 100 best Christmas songs of all time, ranked
Brenda Lee’s rollicking Christmas track has a bassline guaranteed to get you dancing and a delightfully swinging sax solo but the star of the show is Lee herself. Phenomenally, her gravelly vocals were recorded at the tender age of 13.
43. Christmas TV (2009) – Slow Club
Before she found critical acclaim as Self Esteem, Sheffield’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor was one half (with multi-instrumentalist Charles Watson) of Slow Club. On this bittersweet duet, about being alone in the run-up to Christmas Eve, cosy fireside guitar gives way to a rousing harmonised refrain that is somehow both heartbreaking and festive.
42. Merry Christmas, Darling (1970) – The Carpenters
Nobody did swooning lounge ballads better than the Carpenters. On this one you can almost hear the crackle of a log fire amid the twinkling xylophones and stirring strings. Though Karen Carpenter’s man won’t be joining her for Christmas, she’s still in a joyful mood: “Every day’s a holiday,” she purrs, “when I’m near to you”.
41. Getting Ready for Christmas Day (2010) – Paul Simon
With a shimmering bluesy acoustic guitar and foot-stomping, hand-clapping percussion, Paul Simon celebrates “the power and the glory and the story of Christmas Day”, conjuring up good times in the midst of financial and emotional hardship. Gospel interjections, from what sounds like a roomful of gnarly old bluesmen drunk on mulled wine, add a sense of seasonal spirit.
40. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (1963) – Darlene Love
One of the great voices of Sixties pop, Darlene Love was Phil Spector’s favourite backing singer. She delivers an absolute belter on one of his killer Christmas anthems, pleading for the return of an absent lover as the wall of sound comes down like an avalanche.
39. Snow in California (2013) – Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande rivals Mariah Carey for vocal range and although Snow In California is no match for All I Want for Christmas, the twinkly ballad’s sentiment is largely the same. Grande’s breathy, apparently effortless vocals are the perfect soundtrack to a chilled-out festive celebration.
38. If We Make It Through December (1973) – Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard made it to number one on the Billboard country singles chart with one of the most depressing festive songs of the 1970s. It’s a tender tale of unemployment and loneliness – the little girl who “don’t understand why Daddy can’t afford no Christmas here” – and cemented his status as the champion of the downtrodden.
37. Christmas Lights (2010) – Coldplay
It’s hard to add to the established Christmas song canon, but with Noddy Holder still raking in untold sums every year for Merry Xmas Everybody you can’t blame succeeding generations of songwriters for trying. Chris Martin comes closer than most with this big piano-and-strings anthem seeking cheer from heartbreak beneath the lights of Oxford Street.
