In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column I touch on a seasonal theme. Here’s an excerpt.
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Christmas songs are beloved for all kinds of reasons, only some of which are related to their artistic merit. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” which tops ASCAP’s annual list of the most frequently performed holiday songs, is irresistibly catchy, but it’s still a super-square piece of earwormy tinsel. If you love it, the reason is doubtless because the eupeptic lyrics remind you of the merry Christmases of your childhood (assuming that you had any). If, on the other hand, you’re a musician, your feelings about Christmas songs may reflect other, less immediately obvious priorities. I love “Winter Wonderland” because my mother sang it to me at bedtime, not because it contains a super-cool key change. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I asked her to sing it every night because it changes keys, even though my five-year-old self didn’t yet know what that meant.
This isn’t to say that we aren’t responsive to words. Jazz musicians, for instance, have a special place in their hearts for Dave Frishberg’s “The Difficult Season,” in part because Mr. Frishberg (who is himself a much-admired jazz singer and pianist) captures in his lyrics a feeling that most of us have had at one time or another: “We each have our reason for singing a lonely song/And every December, it seems, the blues is our only song.” But it also has a lovely tune, and the songs that musicians like best are usually the ones in which the music is as memorable and individual as the words.
That’s why so many musicians are partial to a pair of holiday-themed songs that date from the mid-‘40s but remain eternally fresh. Ask a jazzman to play “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and you’re likely to get a freezingly fishy stare in return. But if you ask for “The Christmas Song” or “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” your request will be honored with genuine pleasure. Of all the Christmas songs written in the 20th century, those are the ones that in my experience are most commonly cited as favorites by professional musicians….
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Read the whole thing here.
Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to Margaret O’Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis: