I have Sirius XM Satellite radio and I love it. I have a very long commute and spend a fair amount of time in my car so it’s worth it. No bad DJs, no ads, just all the content that I could ever want including music, comedy, news, you get it.

Well, one of the crazy things about satellite radio is that they change their programming based on subscriber interests and this year just like the Hallmark channel started running Christmas movies on Halloween, that’s also the day that SXM launched their holiday music channels. They have 6 of them. I have adjusted my presets on three because that seems enough – the pop one, the traditional one and the Hallmark one, hosted by Hallmark superstar Candace Cameron Bure. I recently decided that’s too much Christmas music – but I have had a chance to listen a lot and this year decided to compile some top Christmas songs – it’s too much work to go in order or stick to just 10 so I’m just going to give you the best from my perspective:

• O Holy Night by Celine Dion…I mean seriously, CD is annoyingly French Canadian and looks increasingly more bizarre but wow can she sing this song. I cry, I really do, that’s how good it is. All others can just stop because this is the definitive version.
• Santa Claus Is Coming To Town by Bruce Springsteen – I’m a Springsteen fan, it’s live, he asks the audience if they’ve been good and he asks Clarence Clemons if he’s been practicing real hard so Santa will bring him a new saxophone. Classic.
• Christmas Time Is Here by the Vince Guaraldi Trio for the Peanuts Gang – I’m not even a jazz guy but the little kids voices and smooth jazz are so great.
• The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole – I mean wow, I don’t know NKC’s music other than the weird duet on “Unforgettable” with his daughter where he was a poorly designed hologram at the Grammies. I don’t think chestnuts actually roast if he doesn’t sing this song.
• All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey – by far the best “new” Christmas song in like 50 years. I mean seriously, it’s shocking that with her catalog of pointless pop hits, she actually gets writing credit on this song. It’s really awesome and was used in one of the best Christmas movies, “Love Actually.” Michael Buble actually does a great version as well.
• Baby It’s Cold Outside by Dean Martin – now I know there was a dust up over this song but it’s just song about a date and has been done like a hundred times.
• I’ll Be Home By Christmas by the Carpenters – originally recorded by Bing during WWII and banned because so many soldiers weren’t coming home for Christmas, the U.S. War Department later came to their senses and it is an absolute classic. Karen Carpenter’s haunting voice had to make the list and with her sad personal story, this song was perfect for her.
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra, yeah I know the original is from Judy Garland in the classic movie “Meet Me In St. Louis” but I just think Frank’s version is outstanding.
• Two songs from Straight No Chaser. So, I’m a nerd. If I could do it all over, I wish for better vocal skills so I could be in a college a capella group. Straight No Chaser did it, they come out of the University of Indiana and they are the best. Their version of The 12 Days of Christmas is awesome and incorporates Toto’s “Africa” as are their reditions of other classic songs but their original song called “Indiana Christmas” is musically great and lyrically sentimental and I love it.
• River by Joni Mitchell. “I wish I had a river that I could skate away on…” now that’s a sentiment that many of us feel on the holidays right?
• White Christmas by Bing Crosby – there are few songs and performances that are actually so transcendent that they may stand for a season all on their own. It’s not only the best selling Christmas song of all time but it’s the best selling song of all time in excess of 50 million! I know Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, I’m a good Lutheran, but I mean come on. “I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas…” originally written by Irving Berlin and performed by Crosby on “The Kraft Music Hall” radio show on Christmas Day in 1941, it also won an Oscar for best original song in the movie “Holiday Inn” in 1942 and and made the movie “White Christmas” the highest grossing movie of 1954 as well. My family just goes about their business while I cry and watch it, it doesn’t get any better than Bing, Danny F’ing Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and that other lady. Wow.

 Merry Christmas to you and your families and happy 2020.