20 Great Rock and Pop Holiday Songs
A festive yuletide mixtape just for you
It’s that time of year again — when people deck the halls, exchange gifts, drink eggnog and engage in general merriment.
It’s also the time of year when many commercial radio stations play holiday music ad nauseum from the day after Thanksgiving straight through to Christmas. It’s the time of year when everything is magnified — when the good things can seem magical but the bad ones can seem catastrophic and even insurmountable. In the interest of keeping it real, the holiday season is not the most wonderful time of year for many people — especially considering the current state of America.
Nevertheless, it’s still possible to enjoy the holiday season and to appreciate holiday songs — especially the ones we don’t hear every five minutes! With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of 20 essential Christmas songs from rock and pop musicians.
A few disclaimers. First, I’ve arranged these songs alphabetically — partly in an effort to avoid the people who take lists too seriously and who will inevitably say, “How could you put McCartney’s song ahead of Lennon’s?!” (You know the type.) I’m also including no more than one song per artist. And I’ve tried to shoot for diversity here. So you’ll find both well known songs and more obscure ones; songs from the early days of rock and roll and from the new wave era; holiday standards and originals; rockers and ballads.
Hopefully, this list will make your holiday season a little more enjoyable.
1. The Beach Boys “Little Saint Nick” (1963)
Let’s start with one of the oldest songs on our list — The Beach Boys’ evergreen “Little Saint Nick.” This two-minute Christmas tune was produced by Brian Wilson and co-written by Wilson and Mike Love. The single came out in December of 1963 but “Little Saint Nick” also appeared on The Beach Boys Christmas Album in early 1964.
VIDEO: The Beach Boys “Little Saint Nick”
2. Chuck Berry “Run Rudolph Run” (1958)
From The Beach Boys, we go even further back — to 1958 and the oldest song on our list: “Run Rudolph Run” by Chuck Berry. A rockabilly tribute to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the song is sometimes known as “Run Run Rudolph.” It’s been covered numerous times — notable by a Berry disciple named Keith Richards in 1978.
VIDEO: Chuck Berry “Run Rudolph Run”
3. Bing Crosby & David Bowie “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” (1982)
It was an unlikely pairing — grandfatherly crooner Bing Crosby and androgynous rocker David Bowie — but it worked like a charm. The two icons recorded a rather spontaneous cover of the standard “Little Drummer Boy” in 1977 but it was released five years later. This version found the Thin White Duke singing a “Peace on Earth” counterpoint to Crosby’s straighter reading of the somber 1940s holiday song.
Strangely, Bing Crosby died in October of 1977 — barely a month after they recorded this. It remains one of the most successful holiday duets in history.
VIDEO: Bing Crosby and David Bowie “Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy”
4. Eagles “Please Come Home for Christmas” (1978)
“Please Come Home for Christmas” was originally recorded in 1960 by R&B singer Charles Brown. But the Eagles scored a Top 20 hit with their cover of it in 1978. A standalone single featuring Don Henley on lead vocals, “Please Come Home for Christmas” also has the distinction of being the first Eagles song to feature Timothy B. Schmit on bass.
AUDIO: Eagles “Please Come Home For Christmas”
5. Roberta Flack “25th of Last December” (1977)
One of the lesser known songs on the list, “25th of December” was recorded by Roberta Flack — one of the most sublime vocalists in popular music who left us earlier this year. This ballad appeared on her album Blue Lights in the Basement, which was released (appropriately enough) in December of 1977. It was written by one of Flack’s frequent collaborators, Gene McDaniels.
AUDIO: Roberta Flack “25th of Last December”
6. Dan Fogelberg “Same Old Lang Syne” (1980)
“Same Old Lang Syne” — the story of two former lovers who bump into each other on Christmas Eve in the supermarket — was a massive hit for the late singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg in 1980. It was included on his double album The Innocent Age, which spawned three other hits as well. The song may be schmaltzy but it’s also charming.
AUDIO: Dan Fogelberg “Same Old Lang Syne”
7. Elton John “Step Into Christmas” (1973)
Elton John was arguably the biggest artist on the pop charts in 1973 when he took a stab at recording a holiday song. The jaunty “Step Into Christmas” was cowritten by Elton and his ever present lyricist Bernie Taupin and has become a perennial favorite.
VIDEO: Elton John “Step Into Christmas”
8. Greg Lake “I Believe in Father Christmas” (1975)
Greg Lake — best known as one third of Emerson, Lake & Palmer — recorded the baroque holiday song “I Believe in Father Christmas” as his 1975 solo debut. Lake wrote the music for the song while Pete Sinfield penned the lyrics. “Father Christmas” was definitely a bigger hit in the UK than it was here. In fact, it went all the way to No. 2, kept from the top spot by Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody!”
VIDEO: Greg Lake “I Believe in Father Christmas”
9. John Lennon & Yoko Ono “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (1971)
Released in December of 1971 as a standalone single, “Happy Xmas” was both a holiday song and a gentle protest against the Vietnam War. Backed by Yoko Ono’s “Listen, the Snow Is Falling,” it included not only John and Yoko but also the Harlem Community Choir and a band of top session musicians.
VIDEO: John Lennon and Yoko Ono “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
10. Paul McCartney “Wonderful Christmastime” (1979)
Lennon’s former bandmate Paul McCartney scored a holiday hit of his own in 1979 with the bouncy “Wonderful Christmastime.” Sir Paul recorded the song during the sessions for his album McCartney II (which arrived in 1980) and played all the instruments on it himself.
VIDEO: Paul McCartney “Wonderful Christmastime”
11. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers “Christmas All Over Again” (1992)
Christmas is a good time to listen to Tom Petty — but is there ever a bad time? Petty and the Heartbreakers finally got around to recording a holiday song in 1992. “Christmas All Over Again” appeared first on the compilation A Very Special Christmas 2. (It later appeared on other compilations as well as the soundtrack to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.) Petty co-produced the song with Mike Campbell, Jeff Lynne and Jimmy Iovine.
AUDIO: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Christmas All Over Again”
12. The Pretenders “2000 Miles” (1983)
The Pretenders released “2000 Miles” in late 1983 as a single but it was also the final track on their Learning To Crawl album two months later. For the most part, Crawl was a rock and roll disc — but “2000 Miles” ended the album on an achingly beautifully note. “In these frozen and silent nights/Sometimes in a dream, you appear/Outside under the purple sky/Diamonds in the snow sparkle,” sang Chrissie Hynde to a lover who was far away.
VIDEO: Pretenders “2000 Miles”
13. Prince and the Revolution “Another Lonely Christmas” (1984)
Though Prince was an A list star, “Another Lonely Christmas” was one of the more obscure songs in his catalog. It was the B-side of “I Would Die 4 U,” one of several hits from the Purple Rain album. Prince reportedly performed this melancholy rocker only once — the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1984 in his native Minnesota.
AUDIO: Prince “Another Lonely Christmas”
14. Queen “Thank God It’s Christmas” (1984)
“Thank God It’s Christmas,” by Queen, was released at the end of 1984 — initially as a standalone single. It was written by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor and sung — in typically dramatic fashion — by the late, great Freddie Mercury.
VIDEO: Queen “Thank God It’s Christmas”
15. The Ramones “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)” (1989)
Who says punk rockers can’t do Christmas songs? For that matter, who says Jewish punk rockers can’t do Christmas songs? Joey Ramone (nee Jeff Hyman) and his bandmates recorded a holiday tune on their 1989 album Brain Drain. It stayed true to the band’s punk rock roots while asking the question we’ve all asked ourselves at some point: “Why is it always this way? Where is Rudolph, where is Blitzen, baby?” Gabba gabba hey ho ho ho!
VIDEO: Ramones “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)”
16. Simon & Garfunkel “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night” (1966)
Simon & Garfunkel’s rendition of the Christmas standard “Silent Night” was the closing track on their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. It’s short (only two minutes) but incredibly powerful. The duo and producer Bob Johnston laid a simulated news bulletin underneath their signature harmonies. So the sentiments of “Silent Night” are juxtaposed with then-current events like the death of Lenny Bruce, the Vietnam War protests, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s open housing march and the trial of Chicago mass murderer Richard Speck. Nearly 60 years later, the song is still timely and haunting.
AUDIO: Simon & Garfunkel “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night”
17. Spinal Tap “Christmas with the Devil” (1984)
“Christmas with the Devil,” from 1984, took a less flattering look at the holiday season than most songs — but what else would you expect from Spinal Tap? “The elves are dressed in leather and the angels are in chains/The sugar plums are rancid and the stockings are in flames,” snarled lead singer David St Hubbins.
As St. Hubbins himself once said, “Great rock and roll should hurt. And it should change your life — not necessarily for the better.”
AUDIO: Spinal Tap “Christmas With The Devil”
18. Bruce Springsteen “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (1981)
Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” has a somewhat confusing history. The Boss actually recorded the song in 1975 at Long Island’s C.W. Post College. But it wasn’t released until 1981 when it appeared on a Sesame Street compilation. Three years after that, it was released again as the B-side to Springsteen’s single “My Hometown” and became a holiday hit in its own right.
AUDIO: Bruce Springsteen “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”
19. The Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping” (1981)
The Waitresses were a two-hit wonder of the new wave era. (Their other well known song was “I Know What Boys Like”). But they’re probably best remembered for “Christmas Wrapping” — which was, in fact, a rap song about Christmas. Over a bass line inspired by Bernard Edwards of Chic, singer Patty Donahue (RIP) told the story of a chance encounter on Christmas Eve with a guy she had been narrowly missing for months.
AUDIO: The Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping”
20. Wham! (George Michael) “Last Christmas” (1984)
“Last Christmas” was written by George Michael and first appeared on the Wham! album Music from the Edge of Heaven in 1984. Its jaunty melody belies a gently sad lyric. The song became a hit many years later and has been covered numerous times — but Wham’s version is still the best. It’s a sad irony that George Michael left us on Christmas Day of 2016.
VIDEO: Wham! “Last Christmas”
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