T.Rex (Marc Bolan) - Christmas Bop

by Dick Mac

This is the last of my Christmas song posts for 2011.

I hope you are having the merriest and happiest of Christmases.

Marc Bolan recorded this song in 1972, but it was not commercially released.

It appeared on bootlegs regularly, and eventually was included on some later CD compilations.

Enjoy!

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard

by Dick Mac

From Wikipedia:

Wizzard were a Birmingham [England]-based band formed by Roy Wood, former member of The Move and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra. The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits states, "Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings were Paul McCartney."

Not long after the release of Electric Light Orchestra's first album, Wood found himself frequently at odds with co-leader Jeff Lynne. Deciding he wanted to head off in a different musical direction, Wood left, taking band members Bill Hunt (keyboards and french horn) and Hugh McDowell (cello) and ELO's sound engineer, Trevor Smith, with him, to found Wizzard. Also in the line-up were former Move bassist Rick Price, drummers Charlie Grima and Keith Smart (all formerly of Birmingham group Mongrel), and saxophone players Mike Burney and Nick Pentelow (the son of actor Arthur Pentelow). Hunt was later replaced by Bob Brady.

The band's 1973 Christmas single "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" has become something of an annual fixture on British radio and television (along with Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" and, until his public fall from grace, Gary Glitter's "Another Rock n' Roll Christmas"). It was reissued in 1981, and a 12" re-recording appeared in 1984.

See Wikipedia

War Is Over (Happy Xmas) - Plastic Ono Band

by Dick Mac

"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono and released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. (See, wikipedia entry.)

War Is Over
(Lennon/Ono)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

by Dick Mac

Kings College Cambridge 2008 #9
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
arr David Willcocks

The Angel Gabriel - Kings College, Cambridge

by Dick Mac

Angels We Have Heard on High - Mormon Tabernacle Choir

by Dick Mac

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

by Dick Mac

Recorded at St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Clare Coll. Choir, Cambridge)

by Dick Mac

Hallelujah!

by Dick Mac

'Tis the season to be jolly . . .

and to be holy . . .

to shop 'til you drop . . .

to pray and worship with all the best songs Christian churches have to offer . . .

to attend as many drunken holiday parties as there are invitations . . .

to attend concerts and recitals in churches and auditoriums . . .

It is that time of year we we celebrate the almighty dollar and the birth of Jesus Christ.

Unbridled consumerism is commingled with church services, Nativity scenes are erected and rejected, people say there is a war on Christmas, others ask why they have to have Christianity crammed down their throats.

It is a time for the celebration of peace, and a time to outspend your neighbor.

I have some favorite pieces of music, and I will be posting them during the coming Twelve Days of Christmas.

Handel's Messiah is one of the most famous and popular pieces of music performed during Advent, with the "Hallelujah!" (the great hallelujah) as its centerpiece.

The recording of Hallelujah in the video below "was conceived, rehearsed and filmed in Tamworth, NH, a small town with a population of 2556 that has as its backdrop Mt Chocorua, the most photographed mountain in America. Tamworth is part of Occupy The Mt Washington Valley. Tamworth was the summer home of President Grover Cleveland."

I think that more than any other song this Christmas, this version of the song reflects most accurately on the moral and spiritual condition of America:



Merry Chri$tmas!

Now shop: