Donerail's Official Website — Portland Band

Well, well, well. Another year, another Christmas. Tis the season for overeating, fat men in red suits, overbearing relatives, more overeating and overspending. Tis also the season of the Christmas song. (duh. Guess who’s brilliant…this guy over here…me. I tend to have a nose for spotting the obvious) Every year at this time radio stations are hi-jacked by singing chipmunks and dogs barking jingle bells, while it seems that every artist and his/her brother/sister are releasing albums of often sugary feel good Christmas music (99% of which are not even remotely close to being good). This got us over at Camp Donerail thinking, what are our favorite Christmas songs? We’re guessing that you’ve undoubtedly been bombarded with Christmas music since about June, so you won’t see a bunch of traditional carols, cheezy 50’s/60’s holiday pop, or anything by Mannheim Steamroller. We’ll try to keep this entertaining. Without further ado:

10 -“Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)” – The Ramones

Peace and love the Ramones way… begging for it in a poppy surf punk song. Added bonus.

9 – “Twelve Days Of Christmas” – Bob Denver And The Muppets.

It’s The Muppets. Enough said. Oh yeah, there’s some hippie named Denver in there too. Is there anyone in their late 20’s early 30’s that didn’t have this record growing up? Pure genius. From Fozzie forgetting his lines (the best part is when he looks of at Bob Denver and cluelessly asks “…what?”) to Miss Piggy showboating (Ba-dum-dum-dum). Ah Christmas…what would you be with out muppets?

8 – “Santa Claus And His Old Lady” – Cheech And Chong

7 – “You’re a Mean One (Mr. Grinch)” – Thurl Ravenscroft.

6 – “Blue Chistmas” – Elvis Presley.

Even though I can’t help but think of Porky Pig’s version everytime I hear this, The King makes the cut. I will give him one thing, Elvis does inject a little bit of soul into this song, and how can you not sing along with the background singers? (Ah-Whoo-ah-oooo-oooo)

5 – “Christmas In Hollis” – Run DMC.

From the King of Rock, to the Kings of Rap. Run DMC spins a modern day Christmas yarn of the Holidays in Queens. My one question is, why does Santa have a pit bull pulling his sleigh?

4 – “Must Be Santa” – Bob Dylan. Okay, this is a bit of a new one, at least this version (shit, I didn’t realize it, but a lot of artists have covered this, including Skerik and Raffi). I’ll admit when I heard that Bob Dylan was releasing a Christmas album, I was aghast! WTF? Christmas albums routinely turn out nothing short of deplorable, and can seriously tarnish and otherwise great career, I don’t care if you are Bob Dylan. (Just look what happened to the Rev. Horton Heat…wait…) Then I saw this video. In the grand scheme of things, there’s nothing overly special about this song, except for the fact that it reminds me of The International Friendship Song. The thing I love about this version is it seems to have a quality that reminds me of more of a drunken stumble. A big part of it is the imagery in the video: the setting, the lighting, this impromptu fight/chase scene, even Bob’s creepy wigs (at least I think those are wigs…theres’s no way those aren’t wigs) and the special looking cross-eyed drummer.

3 – “Senor Santa Claus” – Jim Reeves. Growing up, there were a lot of intrestesting, and at times bizarre, Christmas songs swirling around the home on Christmas morning. From Polka, to country to folk, to traditional, I think this one by “Gentleman Jim” may be near the top of my list of all time favorites, even with his bad attempt (possibly borderline offensive, depending how well you can take a joke) at a broken Hispanic/English accent. I can’t tell you why I like this song so much. I think a big part of it is that is brings back warm memories of childhood Christmases. Presents, fuzzy Snoopy pajamas, mom bustling around making sure we’re all happy and comfortable, and my dad playing The Jim Reeves Christmas record(s) on the stereo. (please excuse the cheesy video. It isn’t my doing)

2 – “Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon.

Instant Classic by a great artist/peace activist/person. I don’t know how anyone cannot like this song, regardless if they like John Lennon, Yoko Ono, The Beatles, the sounds of kids singing, the idea of peace, or the concept of humans being rational beings or not. This is a modern view of what is supposed to be the Christmas Spirit: Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men (read: human kind which includes male and female…just in case anyone was confused.)

1 – “Father Christmas” – The Kinks. This is where I should insert “Merry Christmas” By Donerail, but that would be shameless self promotion (psst…you can find “Merry Christmas” on Destiny & Dishonor – available on iTunes) As far back as I can remember, I have loved this song, with it’s “anti-over consumption while there are needy people”  agenda (Just for the record, I don’t necessarily disagree with it) and it’s “hidden” Christmas cheer. . I’ve eagerly awaited this song arrival on the airways every year since I was about 8 or 9 nine. I think it was probably the first time I had heard anything that was even close to being punk rock. Maybe I liked it because I thought it was silly, I don’t remember. I just know it always brought me joy, and I liked it! In Fact, I still do. (Pardon the fuzzy video.)

Happy Holidays From Donerail!