The lyrics and origins of the most popular Christmas songs are included on this site together with additional sections dedicated to Christmas songs.New Christmas Music: publication of original Christmas music, songs, carols and plays by various Christian songwriters
Looking for a smart, never-out-of-style singer who turns in a perfectly solid collection of Christmas songs, including a few surprises? J.T. is your man on James Taylor at Christmas, which is nicely balanced between pop and jazz selections, with more stately hymn-like fare and balladry. Always fine in his charmingly understated voice, Taylor and company try out the old gospel standard "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and the memorable "Some Children See Him." He smoothly cuts through "Winter Wonderland" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" with a bit of jazz flavor, and reprises Joni Mitchell's increasingly popular Christmas song (even though it's about getting away from the holiday), "River." One of the album's most satisfying delights is Taylor's funky version of "Jingle Bells," sung in a kind of barroom stomp with the most intriguing phrasing since Barbra Streisand sang it in the '60s. Soulful and bright and moody as well (when Taylor sings "In the Bleak Midwinter," you believe it's indeed rough), there's barely a clinker here. -- Martin Keller
One of the more impressive things about A Christmas Celebration is its glowing immediacy. The record's rich vocals and colorful instrumentals create a concert-like setting, reprising the season's most loved hymns, carols, and pop standards, along with a Gaelic version of "That Night in Bethlehem." Unexpected numbers such as "Christmas Pipes" and "Carol of the Bells" (here led by the spirited fiddling of Mariread Nesbitt) only enhance an already engaging disc that finely weaves between the piety of classical music and the playfulness of pop. Chloe Agnew, Orla Fallon, Lisa Kelly, and Meav Ni Mhaolchatha combine their Celtic voices against orchestral arrangements and sparser settings--spiked with the traditional Irish fare of uilleann pipes, harp, and ancient choral harmony--to deliver an assortment of reverent but lively arrangements that wouldn't be out of place at a church, concert hall, or good Irish celli. --Martin Keller
Irish producer/arranger David Downes, the creative mastermind behind Celtic Woman's chart breakthrough and burgeoning international success, here conjures up an inviting holiday showcase for his neo-superstar crossover quartet. He pushes the group's crowd-pleasing formula into more expansive arrangements with the Irish Film Orchestra, supplemented by a strong core of featured instrumentalists, including Downes himself. If the ethnic folk influences that gave the group its name are sometimes less pronounced, the result is a collection whose dignified, pop elegance often transcends national boundaries. The vocal performances are expectedly polished, with the quintet breaking off into smaller units and solo showcases such as Lisa Kelly's Broadway-lullaby take on "The Christmas Song," a neo-classical "Panis Angelicus" by Chloe Agnew, and the muscular orchestral/choral setting for Mariead Nesbitt's earthy fiddle on "Carol of the Bells." The quintet (backed only by Nesbitt's spare strings) harmonize richly on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and bring their trademark neo-Celtic charms more fully to bear on intimate translations of "Silent Night" and "The Wexford Carol" as well as a glorious take on the Gaelic traditional "That Night in Bethlehem." Perhaps to remind fans of their true range, the swinging, big-band bonus track "Let It Snow" closes the collection with upbeat flair. --Jerry McCul
The Grammy-nominated, twenty-something, pop-classical phenomenon's fourth studio album is an expertly accomplished entry to the holiday marketplace. Noël tackles the familiar sounds of holiday music with a charmingly eclectic array of guest vocalists and a wide range of material. The songs range from the sacred to the secular, while Groban--buoyed in spots by none other than the London Symphony Orchestra--soars in his duets with Brian McKnight, Faith Hill, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There's even a song with a gospel choir directed by Kirk Franklin. Produced yet again by crossover maestro David Foster, the arrangements never overwhelm the songs. Groban's smooth and supple vocals can be hard to categorize--seeing how his range is somewhere in-between a high baritone and a low tenor--but he always finds and emphasizes the emotional core of these songs. And whether they have origins in pop or classical music seems not to matter. The addition of messages from troops stationed in Iraq on top of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" is undeniably heart-wrenching, while the album's highlight is its most spare song, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," which finds Groban alone at his piano, sounding very much like some kind of angel. --Mike McGonigal
Bringing Josh Groban’s majestic yet intimate voice to Christmas music is truly a gift this holiday season. The young Adult Contemporary star’s fourth studio album brings together the traditional such as Silent Night with the contemporary such as I’ll Be Home For Christmas and the new, Thankful. Featuring duets with Country’s Faith Hill and R&B’s Brian McKnight, and inspirational music’s master choir, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and produced by the illustrious David Foster the album’s wide appeal promises that a timeless Christmas music classic will be beneath the tree this year.
In adapting Chris Van Allsburg's beloved, 1986 Caldecott Medal winning children's Christmas fable, director Robert Zemeckis fused the technologies of live-action motion capture and CGI to an unprecedented degree, producing a visual sensibility that perfectly embodies the netherworld between fantasy and reality that made the book so inviting. Musically, Zemeckis has shrewdly teamed longtime collaborator Alan Silvestri with hit tunesmith Glen Ballard for the original half his soundtrack, then given the rest over to a star-packed tribute to pop Christmas past that includes such timeless chestnuts as Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," "Winter Wonderland" by the Andrew Sisters and Perry Como's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." But the Silvestri/Ballard originals here are the main event, from Tom Hanks' vigorous vocal mugging on the title track and "Hot Chocolate" through the innocent charm of "When Christmas Comes to Town" and the over-the-top, jumpin' jive of Steven Tyler's "Rockin' On Top of the World." Josh Groban's "Believe" overdoes the treacle, but Silvestri's rich choral workouts and underscore suite are grand Hollywood-scaled tributes to the spirit of the season. Also available in a deluxe, illustrated children's book format gift edition that includes an actual encased jingle bell embedded in the cover. --Jerry McCulley
Promising to be this holiday season's family film blockbuster, the revolutionary computer-animated The Polar Express-based on a best-selling children's book, starring the voice of Tom Hanks and directed by Academy Award winner Robert Zemeckis-is a classic Christmas film with a modern look. The soundtrack album also mixes the classic with the contemporary, with immortal versions of the greatest Christmas songs ever penned, such as "White Christmas" from Bing Crosby and new recordings from Josh Groban "Believe", Aerosmith's Steven Tyler "Rockin' On Top Of The World" and others. This Christmas everyone will be getting on board The Polar Express.
Like the Beatles' The Beatles 1, this rundown of Stevie Wonder chestnuts is merciless in cutting a huge list of classic tracks down to a single disc's worth of the most recognizable. Anyone who's treasured even one or two of these songs and yet never bought a Wonder record will be more than pleased with the acquisition of The Definitive Collection. These records continue to ring with importance and history, but more important, all except two or three remain fresh and capable of surprising even veteran fans. Those listeners may note, though, that Wonder is among the few performers who could release a retrospective containing 15 No. 1 R&B hits and still invite the complaint that the album felt incomplete--not least in explaining how the man transformed himself from a multitalented teenage hitmaker into the funk-pop visionary of Talking Book, Innervisions, and Songs in the Key of Life. --Rickey Wright
Augmenting 1972's Greatest Hits with additional tracks, Best of... now stands as the preeminent one-disc introduction to the music of Simon & Garfunkel. Containing everything Greatest Hits offered except for the live version of "59th Street Bridge Song" (the original studio hit resurfaces here) and the incandescent "Kathy's Song," the updated retrospective boasts 20 tracks, in contrast to its predecessor's 14 selections. Added to the mix are the likes of "Hazy Shade of Winter," "The Only Living Boy in New York," "Song for the Asking," and "My Little Town," a one-off the twosome did five years after they ended their phenomenally successful partnership. Remastered from the original source tapes, Best of... also boasts far superior sound to the earlier hits collection. --Steven Stolder
Maroon 5 aren't the first band to fuse R&B and rock, but they certainly are one of the most convincing. One can almost hear Stevie Wonder's beaded braids clattering in time to their deep, funky grooves. At best, the band conjures up latter-day Motown, complete with a shuddering organ and hyperbolic vocals; at worst, they sound like a stylized boy band, with all the attendant close harmonies and dramatic pauses. But despite these musical schisms, Maroon 5 are a thoroughly engaging outfit, thanks to throbbing bass lines, hooky songs, and lead singer Adam Levin's swaggering delivery. --Jaan Uhelszki
From the Artist While creating the perfect track listing for Bocelli's first-ever album of popular songs, Bocelli and his producers searched the musical eras from the 1920s to the 1980s for songs in Italian, Spanish and French. Bocelli also added some of his favorite international pop songs, including the Italian classics "L'Appuntamento" and "Quando M'Innamoro," the Latin American hit "Besame Mucho," and the French standard "Les Feuilles Mortes," which has become the much-loved English standard "Autumn Leaves." "Solamente Una Vez" (a hit as "You Belong to My Heart" for stars including Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby) and "Somos Novios" (famously an English-language hit as "It's Impossible" for Perry Como) are also highlights of the album. The end result is Bocelli's amazingly beautiful interpretation of classics made popular by legendary vocalists from Edith Piaf and Luis Miguel to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
Amore features a stellar lineup of the world's finest instrumentalists, who between them have worked with virtually every major artist of the recent era: On electric and acoustic guitar, Dean Parks (Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, B.B. King) and Michael Landau (Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis); on Spanish guitar, mandolin, charango, bajo-sexto and vihuela, Ramon Stagnaro (Luis Miguel, Alejandro Sanz, Enrique Iglesias); on bass, Nathan East (Eric Clapton, Phil Collins); on drums, Vinnie Colaiuta (Sting, Marcus Miller, David Sanborn); on piano and keyboards, Randy Waldman (Barbra Streisand, Kenny G, George Benson); on percussion, Paulinho Da Costa (Prince, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock) and Rafaela Padilla (Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz); and on trumpet, the acclaimed soloist Chris Botti.
Product Description Romance. Passion. Emotion. These words are synonymous with the voice of Andrea Bocelli. Almost ten years ago he exploded onto the international music scene with Romanza, and has since sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide. Amore--released amongst the glamor of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy (where he will perform at the closing ceremony) and the romance of Valentine's Day--finds Bocelli straying from the carefully groomed classical ground in which he is most familiar. The concept of the album came from famed producer and longtime Bocelli fan David Foster along with co-producers Humberto Gatica and Tony Renis, who posed the question: Why not take the most beautiful love songs in the world and pair them with the most romantic voice in the world? The result is a beautiful album of pop standards that Foster has publicly claimed is "one of the most beautiful records I have ever been part of."
Embarking on a new era, Amore unveils a fresh sensuous sound that gently moves Bocelli into new territory. Spanish guitars flourish, traditional Latin percussion seductively keeps the tempo, accordions and harmonicas provide charming melodies, while sometimes Bocelli shares the spotlight with just a grand piano. Recorded late in the summer at Bocelli's Tuscan home studio overlooking the coast, the album exudes the natural beauty and breathtaking surroundings evident in Italy. Amore marks the only album David Foster has made outside of his Californian studio complex in two decades. This was also most musically gratifying for Bocelli: "I've been presented with opportunities I once could only dream of, challenges I longed to confront and experiences I will cherish forever, but while recording this album I realized that now is the perfect moment to arrive at an album of this repertoire, with the perfect producers, the perfect musicians and the perfect selection of songs."
Amazon.com Noted English screenwriter Richard Curtis makes his directorial bow with this romantic comedy that follows the dizzying foibles of no less than a dozen couples, featuring a cast that includes Hugh Grant as a bachelor British PM and Billy Bob Thornton as a disturbing hybrid of the worst of Clinton and Bush. Seemingly taking its lead from Bridget Jones's Diary and its sequel (both of which Curtis also wrote), Love's rich, eclectic collection of pop songs becomes something more than mere movie-soundtrack wallpaper. Indeed, tracks as disparate as Joni Mitchell's hauntingly autumnal remake of "Both Sides Now" and the Pointer Sisters' effusive '80s hit "Jump" function somewhere between supporting player and narrative Greek chorus. It's a mature, often introspective collection that mixes the expected chestnuts (the Beach Boys' evergreen "God Only Knows") and covers (Eva Cassidy's stately version of Christine McVie's "Songbird," an R&B-infused take of "All You Need Is Love" by Lynden David Hall) with standout work from Norah Jones (a torched-up "Turn Me On"), Texas (the Dusty Springfield-esque dramatics of "I'll See It Through"), and Wyclef Jean's joyous "Take Me As I Am." Underscoring the film's Christmas subtext are three holiday-themed bonus cuts by Otis Redding, Billy Mack (the film's resident rock star burnout, played by Bill Nighy), and Olivia Olson. --Jerry McCulley
Amazon.com essential recording Most critics complain Back in Black, the album AC/DC recorded after the death of their original lead screamer Bon Scott, is ridiculously juvenile, obvious, snickering, bludgeoning, derivative, single-minded about sex and booze, a big cartoon. All true, of course, and--on rock 'n' ragers like "What Do You Do For Money Honey," "You Shook Me All Night Long," and the title track--all great. As Scott's replacement Brian Johnson reminds us, loud and crunchy, no-holds-barred "rock and roll ain't noise pollution...it makes good, good sense." Never trust anyone who refuses to drink domestic beer, laugh at the Three Stooges, or crank Back in Black. --David Cantwell
Product Description AC/DC's 1980 album digitally remastered and reissued in a special digipak plus a 16 page full color booklet containing all original album art, many unpublished photos, classic memorabilia and new 2003 liner notes. Epic.
We were at the venue for the filming of this DVD, and I've got to say, he put on one heck of a show. The best thing about Rodney is that he's always fresh. He very rarely uses his old bit, so each time you see him, you're in for surprises, and this one was no exception.
But it seems that he has taken a bit more of a conservative path since his show on ABC. If you've heard his old albums (Laugh You [...] and Morning Wood), you will probably agree that this is a bit on the "light" side.
Just about anything that comes out of Rodney's mouth is hilarious, but I personally came to love the guy for his complete lack of respect for anyone or anything. While "Live at the Majestic" and "King of the Mountains" (they are both from the same show) are both well-produced and extremely entertaining, they lack the level o
A meeting of two over-the-top pop minds was said a few years ago to have happened. If work between chest-pounding pop balladeer Celine Dion and legendarily eccentric producer Phil Spector hadn't been aborted in its early stages, fans of the Canadian superstar might have heard her best, most interesting music. As it is, Dion has shown herself game for a challenge, notably in a collaboration with Meat Loaf svengali Jim Steinman on the offbeat opus "It's All Coming Back to Me Now." All the Way... A Decade of Song is just what you'd expect of a multiplatinum seller's greatest-hits package, but it's also more. Displaying a generosity toward her fans, Dion cherry picks nine signature singles ("My Heart Will Go On," "Because You Loved Me," "Beauty and the Beast"), then fills the rest of the CD with seven new cuts when one or two would have done the commercial trick. Most of these are just what admirers and detractors would expect, and Sinatra lovers will hope that All the Way's title track is the last time his family allows an invented Frank-and-random-celebrity duet to take place. But the textures of "I Want You to Need Me" and "Live," while hardly understated, are more measured. They give hope that Dion may yet take herself to a higher artistic plateau, while still pleasing her millions of listeners. --Rickey Wright
This past year, many records have been re-relased from their artwork, and the feeling of the music. That has also been the case when it comes to greatest hits records. This year, there have been greatest hits records that've been reissued from performers such as the Bee Gees, Luther Vandross, and Aerosmith. That has also been the case with Journey. Throughout their career, with and without Steve Perry, the group has still remained a guilty pleasure throughout the years. Although many people would rather hear acts like Beyonce', and other, the rock and feel still remains great, as it relevant with their greatest hits.
Journey's re-release of Journey's 1988 Greatest Hits is still a well-received and well reflected of the Corporate Rock band at their best. This is ironically the second time this record has been re-released, the first was back in 1996. The songs here still sound great and include pop gems like the rock ballad Open Arms, Only The Young, and Faithfully. The album also includes Be Good To Yourself, and their first mainstream hit with Steve as the lead Wheel In The Sky. The album also includes the add-on track When You Love A Woman, which was featured from their final record with Steve Perry, 1996's Trial By Fire.
Snow Patrol are frequently compared to Coldplay in the press, which seems strange as they write far better songs and do not appear to be quite so self-hating, nor as rich. Their delightfully dour little pop songs do touch on the melancholic side of things, but the lyrics are wonderfully slice-of-life descriptions. Singer/lyricist Gary Lightbody gives a shout-out to Sufjan Stevens when on the punchy "Open Your Eyes" he sings, "The anger swells in my guts." Perhaps a better comparison would be American indie-rock act Sebadoh? Regardless, this band continues to surprise. If you went to see this mixed Scottish/Irish group on tour after hearing their wistful, breakout third album Final Straw, you might have been a bit confused by the rock juggernaut confronting you. Eyes Open is their most straightforwardly rock record yet, and thanks in large part to producer Garret Lee, it's their best. If there was ever perfect music to get lost to while driving around confused about a relationship, this is it. --Mike McGonigal
"There are swaggering bands, bands who are in your face. And then there are bands who get hold of you somewhere else. I think it's a heart thing, an intimacy thing. Like you know them and they know you. I think we are one of those bands." So says Snow Patrol singer and chief songwriter Gary Lightbody.
And all the proof you'll need is Snow Patrol's new album Eyes Open, a collection of songs which more than makes good on the promise of its predecessor, 2004's two million selling Final Straw.
Values: beautiful powerful songs underscored by some of the most poignant and telling lyrics in rock. Eyes Open is Snow Patrol's post card from the cliff edge. It's going to be hard to ignore these songs in 2006.
Bob Seger has racked up a lot of worthy tracks over the years, but it took until 1994 for a greatest hits package to appear. Voilà. The bad news: We're missing an awful lot of songs here. Night Moves is Seger's crit-pick album, and a great place to start if you don't have any Seger at all. Next in the rankings is Stranger in Town. Otherwise, his highs are pretty scattered, which would make any best-of package a worthy investment. But if you want to get comprehensive, "Rock & Roll Never Forgets," "Fire Down Below," "Horizontal Bop," "Her Strut," "Betty Lou's Getting Out Tonight," and "Katmandu" aren't on this CD--and you'll have to go to the original albums to secure them. --Gavin McNett
THE FIRST-EVER CAREER-SPANNING SINGLE DISC GREATEST HITS COLLECTION FROM ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS OF OUR TIME One of the best-selling albums of the Nineties, the five-times-platinum, 1990-issued The Best Of Van Morrison, is out of print. For a new, career-spanning collection from the singer-songwriter ranked in the top half of both Vh1's "100 Greatest Artists Of Rock And Roll" and Rolling Stone's "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time," only one man could possibly handpick the tracks and oversee their mastering -- Van Morrison himself. That is what the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has done for Still On Top - The Greatest Hits. Spanning his work from 1964 to 2005 on a handful of different record labels, Still On Top - The Greatest Hits celebrates a singer who has influenced everyone from Bruce Springsteen and The Doors' Jim Morrison to Tom Petty and Elvis Costello. Van the Man has been hailed as one of "popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues, and Celtic folk produced perhaps the most spiritually transcendent body of work in the rock & roll canon" (All Music Guide).
One of the most common complaints about musicals is that the books are flimsy pretexts from which to hang numbers. Wicked runs into the opposite problem: it has a great plot, but too often the songs just get in the way. Based on Gregory Maguire's novel of the same name, Wicked tells us what happened between Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, before Dorothy showed up in Oz. And the show is lucky to boast a pair of ace leading women in the main roles. As Glinda, Kristin Chenoweth delivers a sensational star turn, displaying a crystal-pure voice and sharp comic timing; Idina Menzel lends her powerful pipes to the tricky role of Elphaba. Unfortunately, you wish they had better material to work with. Stephen Schwartz's pop score is often dragged down by overly synthetic orchestrations and sentimental lyrics (think Chicken Soup for the Witch). Still, at its best Wicked is a seductive slice of popular entertainment that could well give a younger audience a lasting taste for musical theater. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
