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Favorite Christmas songs?
#1
Anyone have some non-TSO faves?  These are my top 10, though the order often changes, and sometimes other faves pop into the list:

1) Run with the Fox - Chris Squire & Alan White
2) I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake
3) Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
4) A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris de Burgh
5) A Christmas Song - Jethro Tull
6) Jolly Old St. Nicholas - Chicago
7) Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
8) The Spirit of Christmas - The Wizards of Winter
9) The Holly and The Ivy - Jon Anderson
10) Father Christmas - The Kinks

A few other seasonal favorites that I always spin this time of the year:

Winter Symphony - Beach Boys
The Winter Song - Angel
Ring Out Solstice Bells - Jethro Tull
River - Joni Mitchell
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#2
Miraculum by Lincoln Brewster is a killer. Very TSO esque
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XxcD402wBrY
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#3
(12-26-2020, 09:27 AM)danfromnj Wrote: Anyone have some non-TSO faves?  These are my top 10, though the order often changes, and sometimes other faves pop into the list:

1) Run with the Fox - Chris Squire & Alan White
2) I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake
3) Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
4) A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris de Burgh
5) A Christmas Song - Jethro Tull
6) Jolly Old St. Nicholas - Chicago
7) Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
8) The Spirit of Christmas - The Wizards of Winter
9) The Holly and The Ivy - Jon Anderson
10) Father Christmas - The Kinks

A few other seasonal favorites that I always spin this time of the year:

Winter Symphony - Beach Boys
The Winter Song - Angel
Ring Out Solstice Bells - Jethro Tull
River - Joni Mitchell


Just saw this thread. I'll play along (late I know). I'll ignore the classics and go with modern music. (Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" is my all time favorite Christmas song).

In alphabetical order:
1) Cheap Trick - "Merry Christmas Darlings"
2) Halford - "I Don't Care"
3) Heart - "Here Is Christmas"
4) Gary Hoey - "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
5) The Kinks - "Father Christmas"
6) The Kings of Christmas - "Christmas Passed"
7) Run - DMC - "Christmas in Hollis"
8) Twisted Sister - "Heavy Metal Christmas"
9) The Waitresses - "Christmas Wrapping"
10) The Wizards of Winter - "The Four Kings"

I was going to put "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)"  by Savatage since TSO didn't record it, but I refrained.
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#4
Probably not a popular opinion here, but I'll say I still like many of Mannheim Steamroller's arrangements, particularly the non-synthesizer stuff.  The synthesizer stuff was fun when it first came out, but I'll admit that much of it did not age so great.  The non-synth stuff, though, like their arrangements of Silent Night, Veni Veni, O Holy Night, and pretty much all their Renaissance-flavored stuff still holds up and really does a good job of capturing the Christmas spirit for me.  Maybe it's partly nostalgia, since I first discovered them in the 80s, so hearing it now takes me back, and it was what first really sparked my interest in writing my own instrumental music.
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#5
Here you go in no particular order;

1. Gary Hoey - Linus and Lucy
2. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
3. Ray Charles - The Spirit of Christmas
4. Queen - Thank God it's Christmas
5. Bruce Springsteen - Merry Christmas Baby (Clemmons on sax was awesome)
6. Bryan Adams - Run Run Rudolph
7. Zach Tison - White Trash Christmas (If you haven't heard it you should...it will make you about wet yourself)
8. Weird Al - Christmas at Ground Zero
9. Sinead O'Connor - Silent Night
10. Eagles - Please Come Home For Christmas

A few more:
Lou Monte - Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey
Aaron Neville - Louisiana Christmas Day
Cheech and Chong - Santa and His Old Lady (not a song but fun to listen to)
Elton John - Step into Christmas
Kenny Loggins - Celebrate Me Home (the old lady loves this one)
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#6
Nice showing for "Christmas Wrapping". I thought I was the only one who liked it!

There is just something great about that tune.
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#7
(01-01-2021, 02:23 AM)Mangar Wrote: Probably not a popular opinion here, but I'll say I still like many of Mannheim Steamroller's arrangements, particularly the non-synthesizer stuff.  The synthesizer stuff was fun when it first came out, but I'll admit that much of it did not age so great.  The non-synth stuff, though, like their arrangements of Silent Night, Veni Veni, O Holy Night, and pretty much all their Renaissance-flavored stuff still holds up and really does a good job of capturing the Christmas spirit for me.  Maybe it's partly nostalgia, since I first discovered them in the 80s, so hearing it now takes me back, and it was what first really sparked my interest in writing my own instrumental music.

Count me as a Mannheim Steamroller fan. I was a fan of their Fresh Aire album series before they decided to take a chance with a Christmas record (Fresh Aire V is still my fave). To me, those first two Christmas albums they made are fantastic and stand the test of time. I still listen to them every year. Obviously this became their thing and the Christmas records they continued releasing were less and less interesting, IMHO. They are the number 1 Christmas music artist of all time, which is why I guess some TSO fans feel the need to always compare the two. Apples and oranges to me.
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#8
(01-01-2021, 01:00 AM)KISSAlien Wrote: Just saw this thread. I'll play along (late I know). I'll ignore the classics and go with modern music. (Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" is my all time favorite Christmas song).

In alphabetical order:
1) Cheap Trick - "Merry Christmas Darlings"
2) Halford - "I Don't Care"
3) Heart - "Here Is Christmas"
4) Gary Hoey - "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
5) The Kinks - "Father Christmas"
6) The Kings of Christmas - "Christmas Passed"
7) Run - DMC - "Christmas in Hollis"
8) Twisted Sister - "Heavy Metal Christmas"
9) The Waitresses - "Christmas Wrapping"
10) The Wizards of Winter - "The Four Kings"

The Kings of Christmas - "Christmas Passed" is a good one for sure - mainly a Guy LeMonnier song and I always enjoy hearing him sing.  Lots of good tunes on that record.  "Letter to Santa" with the late Maxx Mann on lead vocals is a great one and should have been a marketed-single IMHO.  One that I love is "Henry the Horse" with Tony Gaynor on lead vocals.  Such a fun song and I lose it every time I hear Tommy doing the voice of the horse "Its either run or become glue " lol. 

(01-02-2021, 01:40 AM)TheBigTBone Wrote: Cheech and Chong - Santa and His Old Lady (not a song but fun to listen to)
Kenny Loggins - Celebrate Me Home (the old lady loves this one)

Santa and His Old Lady!  lol yes!  Man that IS a fun listen.  Kenny Loggins' Celebrate Me Home is a good one too.  It is one of the few that was included in our overhead workplace music assortment that I always enjoy.
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#9
(01-03-2021, 02:58 AM)danfromnj Wrote:
(01-01-2021, 02:23 AM)Mangar Wrote: Probably not a popular opinion here, but I'll say I still like many of Mannheim Steamroller's arrangements, particularly the non-synthesizer stuff.  The synthesizer stuff was fun when it first came out, but I'll admit that much of it did not age so great.  The non-synth stuff, though, like their arrangements of Silent Night, Veni Veni, O Holy Night, and pretty much all their Renaissance-flavored stuff still holds up and really does a good job of capturing the Christmas spirit for me.  Maybe it's partly nostalgia, since I first discovered them in the 80s, so hearing it now takes me back, and it was what first really sparked my interest in writing my own instrumental music.

Count me as a Mannheim Steamroller fan.  I was a fan of their Fresh Aire album series before they decided to take a chance with a Christmas record (Fresh Aire V is still my fave).  To me, those first two Christmas albums they made are fantastic and stand the test of time.  I still listen to them every year.  Obviously this became their thing and the Christmas records they continued releasing were less and less interesting, IMHO. They are the number 1 Christmas music artist of all time, which is why I guess some TSO fans feel the need to always compare the two.  Apples and oranges to me.

Fresh Aire 7 is my favorite of the non-Christmas stuff, but yes, Fresh Aire 5 is high on the list, too.

Sadly, it seems like Chip Davis is more interested in marketing than in composing music these days.  The last few albums of new material were pretty uninspired, and most MS releases now are just repackaged compilations of their old material, aimed at making a quick and easy profit, I guess.

Yeah, the TSO vs MS comparisons don't make much sense.  They perform completely different styles, even when they're both doing Christmas music.  But, like you said, the fact that they're both among the top Christmas artists probably accounts for it, and I'm willing to bet the foreign-sounding names add to some confusion (Mannheim, Siberian.)  Plenty of people probably just think, "Oh, that's the band with the odd name that plays Christmas music."
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#10
Before I was turned on to TSO, Mannheim Steamroller was my go to for Christmas music. But once I heard TSO's CEAOS I was hooked and Mannheim was no longer number one for me.  As stated earlier in the thread "Sadly, it seems like Chip Davis is more interested in marketing than in composing music these days.  The last few albums of new material were pretty uninspired, and most MS releases now are just repackaged compilations of their old material, aimed at making a quick and easy profit, I guess." Yes, Mannheim quit producing great stuff and pretty much threw things together which if you listen to everything after their live CD, it went down hill from there. IMHO their live disk is their best and the rest after that are just terrible, like Feliz Navidad, about as bad as they come. I Still like Mannheim's first four Christmas disks, but after that the rest of their stuff is so painful to listen to. You can wreck a good thing and with their attempts at putting out more Christmas stuff they have.
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