The "Definitive Artist" Christmas Song List [Updated and Bumped for 2009!]

Karen and I started talking about this on the way to visit the Leahy clan for Thanksgiving this week, while listening to the Holly channel on the XM radio...we were talking about when you hear a Christmas song and whether it was THE artist for that song - when you say "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year", you think Andy Williams, even if it's Amy Grant singing it...so, here is our list of those songs and the artists WE think is THE artist - in some cases we can't agree, so we may list two or more artists:

1. Its The Most Wonderful... - Andy Williams
2. Blue Christmas - Elvis
3. White Christmas - Bing Crosby
4. The Christmas Song (1, 2) - Jim says Mel Torme (Mel wrote it), Karen says Nat King Cole (he recorded it 1st)
5. The Little Drummer Boy - The Harry Simeone Chorale
   
6. Ring Christmas Bells - Ray Conniff [JW note 2009: this is an update as I had attributed The Little Drummer Boy above to Ray Conniff's singers in '08, when it was Harry Simeone's singers instead. Er, they sorta sound the same!]
   
7. Rudolph (1, 2) - Gene Autry, The Temptations (we both agree that we can't decide between the two)
8. I'll Be Home For Christmas - Bing Crosby
9. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Dean Martin (got to sneak Dean-O in here)
10. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Nat King Cole
11. Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano
12. Mele Kalikimaka - Jimmy Buffett
    
13. Silver Bells - Jim says Elvis (I'm sneaking this one in!)
14. Frosty The Snowman (1, 2, 3) - Burl Ives (tho Jim likes the Cocteau Twins' and the Jackson5's versions) Do we add Jimmy Durante since he did the version for the TV movie we all remember?
15. Please Come Home For Christmas - The Eagles (tho Karen has a well-known dislike for the Eagles)
    
16. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Bruce Bringsteen [UPDATE by Jim 08DEC08 - I had to include this version by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, as this is the version that I grew up with in my house.
17. Happy Christmas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)- John Lennon (But Jim really likes The Alarm's version, and has performed this version back in the day. For 2009, I've added The Corrs, U2, and Maroon5 versions.)
18. Sleigh Ride - The New Christy Minstrels, or pick your favorite instrumental version.
19. Winter Wonderland (1, 2) - lots of good ones, but the Darlene Love and Elvis versions really stand out.
    

Can you think of any more? Do you think we're wrong? And if we missed anything, then check out 77Santas or Ear Farm (Ear Farm is now here). ['09 update: you can also check out this wikipedia page of an 'incomplete' listing of x-mas songs and the artists that made them famous. You can also check out this 8tracks.com search on the subject for the latest and greatest mixes...]

BONUS: To help with any lingering Black Friday shopping, here's a soundtrack for the day:

Yes, I Was "Jim From Mass." on XM175 This Morning

Holden and Billy at about 7:40 AM were having a conversation about now-free agent Jason Varitek and Holden was talking all about that the Red Sox will cut players when they feel the player's contract demands are too, well, demanding, listing DLowe, Pedro, Nomar and Johnny Damon and then was going on about that his offensive output has dramatically declined this year & can't throw people out yada yada yada and what was his value to the club?

Well, that's why I called in - his value to the club is measurable. When he got injured in 2006, the Sox team ERA ballooned while he was out - so, I relayed that. Holden seemed to dismiss it since it wasn't in his meme of "Red Sox cut players when it suits them and they don't care", but Billy immediately said "Yes, I remember what the caller was talking about." My two minutes of fame broadcast across North America - yippee!

But as you can see, more people are thinking about this stuff besides me regarding Tek's value to the Sox...I found this article, from the NYTimes about the details of Varitek's pitching value to the Sox in 2006, and here's the paragraphs with the numbers:

Varitek’s absence has been detrimental to the entire pitching staff, but especially to the younger arms the Red Sox have injected into their pursuit of the postseason. Before Varitek was placed on the disabled list, the Red Sox were 63-41 and their pitchers had a combined earned run average of 4.65. That was one of the highest E.R.A.’s in the American League. Still, since then, the Red Sox were 6-12 with a 6.30 E.R.A. going into Sunday night’s game.

When one A.L. talent evaluator who has scouted the Yankees and the Red Sox extensively this season was asked why Boston had fizzled recently, he said: “Varitek, Varitek, Varitek. No Varitek. That’s huge for them.”

Varitek is so crucial to the Red Sox that he basically runs their scouting meetings before each series. Most teams have a coach disseminate the scouting information and review it with the pitchers and catchers, but Varitek embraces that role for Boston.

Here's a rotoworld.com forum thread that talks about Varitek refering to catcher's ERA and I took a cut from some poster's data (sorry, I can't link just to the post):

Josh Beckett [5.01 ERA in 2006], August, 2006: 1-4, 6.38 ERA.
Curt Schilling [3.97 ERA in 2006], August, 2006: 1-3, 5.22 ERA.
Jon Lester [4.76 ERA in 2006], August, 2006: 2-1, 7.66 ERA.
Kyle Snyder [6.56 ERA in 2006], August, 2006: 0-1, 8.44 ERA.
Jonathan Papelbon [0.92 ERA in 2006], August, 2006: 2-1, 2.40 ERA.
Mike Timlin [4.36 ERA in 2006], August, 2006: 0-3, 7.42 ERA.
Varitek definitely influences their ERA, so i think CERA is fairly valid.

A poster named "Anna" [ED.Note - link fixed - tks Anna!] at this blog says this about 'Tek:

In fact, though, I’m keeping my hopes high that Varitek will be back in Boston. Not because of the whole ‘team captain’ thing and the leadership angle — though that’s surly a factor, however large or small — but because the team and especially the pitchers are not ready to loose him. To dispute JP here, Tek is a far, far better defensive catcher than Cash, and frankly better than most other catchers in the American League. His catcher’s ERA is the lowest in the league, a huge asset to the team. He tied Mauer for fewest passed balls, had second fewest errors, second highest fielding percentage, and highest range factor. He’s astonishingly good at blocking the plate, and as every pitcher on the staff will tell you, calls a game like no one else. They’ve come to rely on that, too. I keep remembering what happened when Varitek was injured in ‘06 and the team ERA instantly swelled. For the defense and game calling the Sox get from Tek, I’d hardly care if he couldn’t get his swing back.

So, I'm not the only one that remembers that Varitek's value to the team goes way beyond taters and ribbies and OPS+ ratings and Win Shares. And I don't count myself as a Sox fanatic - I just married one ;o)

Holden? Thoughts?

XM-Sirius Merger Step Two: Complete

They've messed with the dial now, whereas before, they offered the "Best of Sirius" to us XM'ers, for an extra $4 a month. Feh. Didn't need Stern (yes, yes, I get the joke that is Stern - it does not mean I want to pay to listen to him - he's not that compelling) and paying for Martha Stewart, Playboy Radio (what's the point??), NASCAR and NFL games on the radio.

Sadly, they did mess with two of our favorite stations, Chrome (nay XM83) and POTUS'08 which originally, was not tagged to stay around past election day anyways, but they've smashed it up with a Sirius station and now just call it POTUS. Sadly, they have let go Scott Walterman and it appears Rebecca Roberts, too, with the next phase of the merger, which appears to be Sirius being the senior partner, since the press releases are "tagged Sirius XM". But, Ron Silver on POTUS? Again, feh. The POTUS lineup is now remarkably thin. At least they could have put the POTUS Press Pool on for the evening commute. At least I get Morning Briefing for the morning commute.