Christmas Hits

Product Information

On the 2000 charity album It’s a Cool Cool Christmas – which was pretty strong – Belle and Sebastian took on the most beautiful of all the Christmas hymns. Something so delicate suited them. Also recommended: El Vez merging Feliz Navidad and Public Image. 17. The Staple Singers Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?

A gorgeous bauble from the mid-00s wave of Scandinavian music that crossed electropop with the feyest indie. Sally falls in love on a Tuesday before Christmas, “at a gig with a band that we both liked”. But will she end up by herself “or in the perfect kiss”? 41. Solomon Burke Presents for ChristmasBublé's Christmas has sold a whopping 2.78 million in the UK according to Official Charts Company data, has spent over seven months in the Top 10 in total over the last seven years and is the UK's 20th biggest selling album since 2000. The record features 14 covers of Christmas classics plus two new songs - the most popular are his takes on It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).

Another favourite male artist, Rod Stewart, takes second place with his Number 2-peaking collection Merry Christmas Baby from 2012 (636k sales). Plus, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Sir Cliff, and he's up in third with his 2003 festive collection Cliff At Christmas (409k), which features two of his festive chart-toppers Mistletoe and Wine and Savior's Day.

Autry, the singing cowboy, had the original recording on three of the most popular Christmas songs of the 20th century: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane).” Autry co-wrote the last song and sang them all with his languid, disarming tenor. Autry released a Christmas single every year during his peak years, and this anthology offers 26 different songs, all of them a pleasure to hear. —Geoffrey Himes

Truthfully, this version is only here because the Fountains of Wayne original – an homage to the Kinks’ Father Christmas – isn’t on Spotify. But what a perfect, sad song: “And he’s a big red cherry / But it’s hard to be merry / When the kids are all laughing / Saying: ‘Hey, it’s Jerry Garcia.’” 38. The Everly Brothers Christmas Eve Can Kill You Gorgeous and stern, and undoubtedly the best adaptation by an Americana band of any poem written by Henry VIII. The horns bloom, like the flowers of the song, turning something indisputably English into a desert lament. 30. Jimmy McGriff Winter Wonderland Featuring Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" in its prime and his early stable of artists, the Ronettes, Crystals, Darlene Love, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector stands as inarguably the greatest Christmas record of all time. Spector believed he could produce a record for the holidays that would capture not only the essence of the Christmas spirit, but also be a pop masterpiece that would stand against any work these artists had already done. He succeeded on every level, with all four groups/singers recording some of their most memorable performances. This is the Christmas album by which all later holiday releases had to be judged, and it has inspired a host of imitators. A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector codified the sound of Christmas: maximal, filled with signifiers of the season (there is nowhere sleigh bells can’t be draped). Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) was the standout on a record on which the quality didn’t drop from start to finish. 9. Wizzard I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday There are plenty of keepers from the‘40s-‘70s heyday of the Christmas record as an art form, for example, but even more cynical later generations of pop haveproduced plenty of gold. Festive cheer has found its way into pop, hip-hop, R&B, metal, punk, indie… you name it. So as a gift, we've rounded up the very bestChristmas songs going. Ho ho ho.

Blank-faced and affectless, here’s Christmas for the shoegazers from the duo briefly toasted at the start of the last decade. Kevin Shields and David Holmes produced, and you can bet Beach House were listening. 39. Neil Halstead The Man in the Santa Suit

With British arranger/conductor Robert Farnon handling the transatlantic sessions, Tony Bennett's 1968 Christmas album turned into a swinging affair, from the version of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (how did this song become associated with Christmas?) to seasonal standards like "White Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Bennett's warm style was especially winning on this kind of material, making an inevitable assignment a winning combination of singer and songs. Big Star’s Third is the least likely album to contain a Christmas song, but amid the desperation and despair was this huge burst of fervour. Did Alex Chilton mean it? Was it a joke? Its effect is magnified by the music that surrounds it on the rest of the album. 31. Calexico Green Grows the Holly

Side guide

Originally issued on Dolton, this instrumental classic was reissued briefly in 1990 on CD by EMI. The Ventures have a blast with unique covers of secular Christmas songs: each instrumental borrows riffs from popular mid-'60s hits, incorporating them into their twangy guitar yule melodies. "Sleigh Ride" uses the Ventures' own hit "Walk, Don't Run," while other selections borrow from hits of other artists. It's a gas to hear "Frosty the Snowman" set to the Champs' "Tequila."