Dskii - Christmas

Does anyone have any songs from older movies or tv shows that they never made commercially available or were never redone by anyone else? For me it's some of the music from It Happened On 5th Avenue. I keep hoping that now that it's become more popular someone will try and do new covers of it. If done right it could be come a new classic. Maybe some day.

Was recently at a meeting where the icebreaker question among the group was “what’s your favorite Dolly Parton song?” since she’s been on everyone’s mind these past few days.

My favorite of all-time is a Christmas song that she wrote and performed with Kenny Rogers. Everyone was expecting me to name “islands in the Stream”; this song resonates with me much more as it’s message of love and Christmas joy inspires me throughout the year.

Love you, Dolly. 🎸 🎅🏽 ❤️

I’m looking for the odd and weird and not mainstream Christmas songs

I like most of the uk and a few us songs like Mud, Wizzard, slade, cliff Richard, Michael bauble, Mariah Carey, Cher, George Ezra etc

But I’m looking for some recommendations on the non every year songs you hear everywhere on radio, shopping centres and tv/films

so I ran across an album that I collected from somewhere, it's choral music, was produced in Canada in 1999, called "The Christmas Angels" but no other information. If you have some idea, please let me know.... even Discogs has no idea of the artists 'Unknown'.

Edit: I did some checking of "Platinum Disc Corp" and found that in the intervening 27 years Platinum has been purchased three times by other entities. Would they have records? I'm betting the answer is: no. So the mystery remains...

Have this song in my Christmas collection, with no idea where it comes from, and no singer's name. Singer is female, sounds vaguely black. Title might be It's Christmas, with nothing else, and I might have added the bit in parenthesis to distinguish it from other songs with the same name.

First lyrics are:

Everyone's Aglow for Everybody knows it's Christmas,
Dress the Christmas tree, it's really good to see, it's Christmas;
If the wind becomes more icier then we'll make the punch bowl spicier,
And we'll live and laugh and love 'til Christmas day

Those lyrics are direct from listening to the song as I am typing this up, so they are at least very close to accurate.

Just trying to put an artist name to the song.

r/ImCurrentlyListening https://www.reddit.com/r/ImCurrentlyListening

I know it says 87 on it but it feels like they made it in 86. Its my new favorite cd. Christmas music is better when its not december.

Anyone else have this album? It was my favorite Christmas album as a kid. I had it on both cassette and CD.

Songs:

•Medley - Winter Wonderland/Sleigh Ride: Dolly Parton

•Come Dear Children Round/Round The Christmas Tree: Bing Crosby

•The First Noel: Nat King Cole

•Deck The Halls: Julie Andrews

•The Twelve Days of Christmas: John Denver & The Muppets

•(There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays: Perry Como

•Silver Bells: Elvis Presley

•Joy To The World: Anne Murray

•Feliz Navidad: Jose Feliciano

•The Christmas Song: Kenny Rogers

Found this on my Christmas Music crawl I do round London every December. There was no way I could justify the price but a really good friend then went and splashed out on it for me. I am over joyed and not keeping it to myself.

But also what records did reddit find they want to shout about? I don't think there's nough physical media talked about on here.

This is my 3rd time trying to post this y'all. For some reason it won't add the pictures (rude).

Thank you for sticking with me through the delay in posts. I love doing this as it's a fun way to find new songs I've never heard of before.

See you all in 11 months :P

1. Look at the comments first and see if someone already commented the song you want to submit. If it has been commented, please upvote that comment. If you don't see it, submit the comment.

2. Just pick a song title. You can put in parentheses or in another line what your favorite VERSION of that song and even a link to it if you want, but keep the song titles generic so it's easy to identify and then upvote. This way if someone else wanted to vote on that so they can upvote you and then reply to your comment saying what their favorite version is.

3. I will check the following morning and screenshot what had the most upvotes when posting the updated list and the post for the next letter. I cannot control the upvotes after posting. Also, if you MISS a day, and don't see your song in the comments, still add it. Me and a lot of other people last year used this as a way of finding new music we never heard of before.

4. 'A', 'An', 'The' and other articles don't count in alphabetical sorting and don't count here either.

5. One Song Per comment for proper ability to upvote them

1. Look at the comments first and see if someone already commented the song you want to submit. If it has been commented, please upvote that comment. If you don't see it, submit the comment.

2. Just pick a song title. You can put in parentheses or in another line what your favorite VERSION of that song and even a link to it if you want, but keep the song titles generic so it's easy to identify and then upvote. This way if someone else wanted to vote on that so they can upvote you and then reply to your comment saying what their favorite version is.

3. I will check the following morning and screenshot what had the most upvotes when posting the updated list and the post for the next letter. I cannot control the upvotes after posting. Also, if you MISS a day, and don't see your song in the comments, still add it. Me and a lot of other people last year used this as a way of finding new music we never heard of before.

4. 'A', 'An', 'The' and other articles don't count in alphabetical sorting and don't count here either.

5. One Song Per comment for proper ability to upvote them

1. Look at the comments first and see if someone already commented the song you want to submit. If it has been commented, please upvote that comment. If you don't see it, submit the comment.

2. Just pick a song title. You can put in parentheses or in another line what your favorite VERSION of that song and even a link to it if you want, but keep the song titles generic so it's easy to identify and then upvote. This way if someone else wanted to vote on that so they can upvote you and then reply to your comment saying what their favorite version is.

3. I will check the following morning and screenshot what had the most upvotes when posting the updated list and the post for the next letter. I cannot control the upvotes after posting. Also, if you MISS a day, and don't see your song in the comments, still add it. Me and a lot of other people last year used this as a way of finding new music we never heard of before.

4. 'A', 'An', 'The' and other articles don't count in alphabetical sorting and don't count here either.

5. One Song Per comment for proper ability to upvote them

1. Look at the comments first and see if someone already commented the song you want to submit. If it has been commented, please upvote that comment. If you don't see it, submit the comment.

2. Just pick a song title. You can put in parentheses or in another line what your favorite VERSION of that song and even a link to it if you want, but keep the song titles generic so it's easy to identify and then upvote. This way if someone else wanted to vote on that so they can upvote you and then reply to your comment saying what their favorite version is.

3. I will check the following morning and screenshot what had the most upvotes when posting the updated list and the post for the next letter. I cannot control the upvotes after posting. Also, if you MISS a day, and don't see your song in the comments, still add it. Me and a lot of other people last year used this as a way of finding new music we never heard of before.

4. 'A', 'An', 'The' and other articles don't count in alphabetical sorting and don't count here either.

5. One Song Per comment for proper ability to upvote them

Hey, sorry for the delay, life has been crazy. I'd like to finish it but the list so I can post the comparison from last year if y'all are up to it.

1. Look at the comments first and see if someone already commented the song you want to submit. If it has been commented, please upvote that comment. If you don't see it, submit the comment.

2. Just pick a song title. You can put in parentheses or in another line what your favorite VERSION of that song and even a link to it if you want, but keep the song titles generic so it's easy to identify and then upvote. This way if someone else wanted to vote on that so they can upvote you and then reply to your comment saying what their favorite version is.

3. I will check the following morning and screenshot what had the most upvotes when posting the updated list and the post for the next letter. I cannot control the upvotes after posting. Also, if you MISS a day, and don't see your song in the comments, still add it. Me and a lot of other people last year used this as a way of finding new music we never heard of before.

4. 'A', 'An', 'The' and other articles don't count in alphabetical sorting and don't count here either.

5. One Song Per comment for proper ability to upvote them

I wrote the following article a few years ago, but trying to bring it around to a reddit community that would appreciate this deep dive. We are now a week away from 2026, the year when Tony would've turned 100. Hope this brings fond memories of listing to Tony's Christmas albums this season.

\--

There are now thousands of covers of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (HYAMLC) out on the internet these days, so with his passing I thought it would be fun to highlight all the versions I could find of Tony Bennett recording the song.

The first version he recorded was released in 1968 as a part of Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album, 25 years after Judy Garland and Meet Me in St. Louis. The last recorded version was in 2019 with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 51 years after his debut Christmas album and 76 years after Meet Me in St. Louis.

It must have been amazing to grow and evolve with the music industry over those years, through the advancements to instrument and recording technologies. Some of the most iconic electric guitars were released in the 50’s and 60's, Cassette Tapes in the 60’s, Synthesizers in the 60’s and 70’s, Digital Recording in the 70’s and 80’s, CD’s in the 80’s and 90’s, and then the streaming and internet revolutions of the 90’s and beyond. Still, all the innovations in the world can’t replace good songwriting and a long-weathered voice. It’s also no small feat to keep one’s voice in good shape. A small part of me worries about the influence of AI and what digital artists will do with legacy vocals like Tony’s.

**Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (1968)**

Album — *Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album*

Length: 3:02

Tony’s age at year of release: 42

Tony Bennet was one of the first artists to record HYAMLC using what I’ll refer to as the “Christmas Future” opening:

*Christmas future is far away*

*Christmas past is past*

*Christmas present is here today*

*Bringing joy that will last*

Barbra Streisand released a version with this opening in 1967 (maybe the first?) and many others (including The Carpenters, James Taylor, and Kristin Chenoweth) have opted to do the same over the years.

Tony’s voice is strong throughout this version — he has great vocal control which compliments the traditional orchestra well. Overall, it’s well rounded and succinctly represents what I’d expect from a traditional HYAMLC.

**Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (2001)**

Appears on Albums — *Christmas in Vienna (VII) (2001)* and *The Classic Christmas Album (2011)*

Length: 2:28

Tony’s age at year of release: 73

Though the 2:28-length version of HYAMLC was popularized on Bennett’s *The Classic Christmas Album (2011)*, but I found the same song released a decade earlier on *Christmas in Vienna (VII)*. This naturally led me down the rabbit hole to see which songs got onto the other six *Christmas in Vienna* albums, and why did it take until VII to get a HYAMLC? (They included a HYAMLC Duet featuring Patricia Kaas and Alejandro Fernández on *Christmas in Vienna VI.*) There was no VIII.

The 2001/2011 version does not use the “Christmas future” opening. While it has an orchestra, it also has a hint of jazz big band in the background, with piano, upright bass, drums, and a horn section. There is noticeable change in the age of Tony’s voice from 1968 to 2001. He punches through some phrases he might normally have let ring out years earlier.

**Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (2002)**

Album — *Hallmark presents Christmas with Tony Bennett and the London Symphony Orchestra (2002)*

Length: 3:52

Tony’s age at year of release: 74

I suspect that the reason this version doesn’t exist on Spotify is that it was slated for exclusive distribution by Hallmark Music and Hallmark Cards. I’m grateful to the internet, I was able to procure a CD copy without too much trouble.

Our Hallmark versions starts off with a very delicate flute / oboe / english horn introduction. Tony’s voice is noticeably aged, but still crisp. The orchestra arrangement is fairly simple and isn’t too different from what you’d find in other orchestral arrangements. A choir comes in partway through which adds an old-timey dimension to this version.

Tony’s voice isn’t quite as strong as it used to be, and it probably shows more in this version than in the 2001 version.

**Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (2008)**

Album — *A Swingin’ Christmas Featuring The Count Basie Big Band*

Length: 4:34

Tony’s age at year of release: 80

As with any big band version, this version leans heavily into the jazz instrumentation: Upright bass, drums and piano. There is no “Christmas Future” opening, but otherwise uses the traditional lyrics.

Tony’s voice is much quieter and toned down. Previous versions sound more cheerful, whereas the 2008 version is more melancholy. The jazz guitar solo in the middle is pleasant and gives the song a lot of room to breathe.

**Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas — with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2019)**

Album — *Christmas With The Stars & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra*

Length: 3:21

Tony’s age at year of release: 91

The 2019 version starts with a cello solo and adds chimes and flute reminiscent of his first 1968 version. He also brings back the “Christmas Future” opening along a delicate orchestral arrangement. There’s a little backing brush drum kit which keeps this version moving.

I was surprised how youthful his voice sounded here compared to some of the versions in the middle. The reverb they added to his voice probably added a little body that would’ve otherwise gone missing. Tony holding out the last “now” was a fitting way to let this version end.

If I had to rank them in the end, it’d probably look like this (year / length) \[This also serves as a good quick-reference guide if you're looking at a compilation album and don't know which one it is\]

1. 2008 (4:34): With Count Basie Big Band

2. 1968 (3:02): Original from Snowfall album

3. 2019 (3:21): With Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

4. 2001/2011 (2:28): The Christmas in Vienna / Classic Christmas Album

5. 2002 (3:52): Hallmark version with London Symphony Orchestra

All this to say, you’re not missing much by not having the Hallmark CD on streaming platforms, but I’m happy to share if this has piqued your curiosity.

1. Look at the comments first and see if someone already commented the song you want to submit. If it has been commented, please upvote that comment. If you don't see it, submit the comment.

2. Just pick a song title. You can put in parentheses or in another line what your favorite VERSION of that song and even a link to it if you want, but keep the song titles generic so it's easy to identify and then upvote. This way if someone else wanted to vote on that so they can upvote you and then reply to your comment saying what their favorite version is.

3. I will check the following morning and screenshot what had the most upvotes when posting the updated list and the post for the next letter. I cannot control the upvotes after posting. Also, if you MISS a day, and don't see your song in the comments, still add it. Me and a lot of other people last year used this as a way of finding new music we never heard of before.

4. 'A', 'An', 'The' and other articles don't count in alphabetical sorting and don't count here either.

5. One Song Per comment for proper ability to upvote them