Mary Brown Malouf, executive editor
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector Spector used his “Wall of Sound” to recast Christmas classics by the Ronettes, Darlene Love and others. I know, I know, Spector was a creepazoid but even the Grinch managed to produce a beautiful Christmas moment.
Go Tell it on the Mountain from The Blind Boys of Alabama with Richard Thompson and Chrissay Hynde. Until you’ve heard their version of Christina Rosetti’s simple poem, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” you might be missing the point of the whole season.
Nine Lessons and Carols is one of the most beautiful Anglican rituals and as it’s sung by the King’s College Choir of Cambridge, it’s nothing less than angelic, starting with the chillingly perfect boy’s solo of “Once in David’s City.”
Christie Marcy, managing editor
Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris: Yes, it’s technically an audiobook, but if listening to “The Santaland Diaries,” a true story about the winter Sedaris was an elf at the flagship Macy’s store in New York, isn’t one of your holiday traditions, it really ought to be.
A John Prine Christmas, John Prine: Holiday classics like “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” mixed with Prine’s own “Christmas in Prison” is what gets this album heavy-rotation at my house each December.
Ultimate Motown Holiday Collection, various artists: Steve Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson. Jackson 5. The Supremes. Need I say more?
Bonus song we could not get through the holiday without:
“Merry Christmas From the Family” by Robert Earl Keen. It’s the ultimate poking-
fun-at-your-family holiday song.
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