Christmas posts part 25

malcolm-middleton17b

Bloody exhausted.

Two more sleeps to Santa, so here’s a bit of a hotch potch of stuff, if you’re still interested.

First up, that How To Swim Christmas EP is now available:

Meanwhile, my friend JC at the Vinyl Villain did an excellent post on Monday that I thought you should check, if you haven’t already and Aye Tunes continues to be excellent for Christmas-related music. And there’s this over at NME. And this.

A few tracks that have appeared here over the years…just in case you’re interested or missed them in previous years:

Manic Street Preachers -‘Christmas Ghost.’ mp3

Darlene Love -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

The Knife -‘Christmas Reindeer.’ mp3

Tom Lehrer -‘A Christmas Carol.’ mp3

Tom Waits -‘Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis.’ mp3

XTC -‘Thanks For Christmas.’ mp3

A Christmas heart-breaker

darlene-love

I don’t know what the consensus is these days on Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift To You – is he now as vilified as Gary Glitter? I don’t believe so, though I offer no defence for his actions. Whatever the man may have been like, there was some great music and that famous ‘Wall Of Sound.’

One of the best known songs from A Christmas Gift To You is ‘Christmas (Baby Plase Come Home),’ as performed by darlene Love.This has been covered on numerous occasions, some of them almost as old as the original, which is now 46 years old.
Darlene Love is still performing live. Another song recorded in 1992 ‘All Alone On Christmas’ turned up on the soundtrack to both Home Alone 2 and Love, Actually. She is due to be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame next year. About time.

So here are her original, and some notable covers:

Darlene Love -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

U2 -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

Arab Strap -‘Xmas (Baby please Come Home).’ mp3

Death Cab For Cutie -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3

Slow Club -‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ mp3