No Christmas feels right without music.
In offices, in our cars, at home and everywhere your playlist can go, Christmas songs are getting play these days.
Whether it's contemporary tunes like Fiona Apple's "Frosty the Snowman," Michael Bublé's "Jingle Bells" or Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas," or older classics like Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives, Christmas music is rich with nostalgia and emotion for many of us.
Here at the Texarkana Gazette's offices, we're no different than others and we've been cranking up the Christmas melodies to add festive cheer to the day.
We chatted with a few of our staff to find out just what song (or songs) are favorites around here, and here's what they had to say:
- Lori Dunn, newsroom, "Please Come Home for Christmas." Some call it "Bells Will be Ringing." Dunn loves an Eagles version that got a lot of play on the classic rock station while she was growing up. "I always liked Don Henley's voice. I like the song, I like the voice," she said. "It's kind of soulful," she says of the lyrics, which are also a bit melancholy. The song is co-written by blues singer and piano player Charles Brown and by Gene Redd, and for Brown, it became popular on the charts; it was first released in 1960.
- Karl Richter, newsroom, "Blue Xmas." "It was sung by Bob Dorough, whose voice many people would recognize from 'Schoolhouse Rocks' songs," Richter said. Dorough, some jazz fans may know, actually attended school in Texarkana for a spell. "He recorded this sort of strange Christmas song called 'Blue Xmas' with the Miles Davis sextet that was on an album called 'Jingle Bell Jazz' that was released first, I think, in the late 1950s or early 1960s," said Richter. A favorite of his and his friends in college, it has nostalgia value. Plus, he likes the unusual quirkiness of it.
- Jim Williamson, newsroom, "Blue Christmas." An Elvis classic, it's loved by Williamson, a longtime Elvis fan. "Because it reminds me of the '50s and it's just a nice time, and it has a good rhythm to it," Williamson said, noting in the late '60s Elvis said he had to pronounce it CHRISTmas, with the emphasis on the first syllable, to mirror the first syllable emphasis in the word Memphis. The veteran reporter also likes the Elvis song that talks about Santa arriving "in a big black Cadillac"; that's "Santa Claus is Back in Town."
- Earl Gill, newsroom, "St. Brick Intro." Gill loves this Gucci Mane song for several reasons, including the fact it's a Southern Christmas number. "It embellishes my generation of people who listen to urban music. It embellishes how urban people feel in the winter; we're trying to stay inside and stay warm. It embodies how kids in the South feel," Gill said. Although it's warm here, cold days feel really cold. Plus, Gill loves the beat. The song came out about a year ago on Gucci Mane's album "The Return of East Atlanta Santa."
- Brian Tyl, newsroom, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." This 1950s song is performed by Gayla Peevey, who was just a kid when the song was recorded. "It's just like the innocence of a kid and having a big dream of thinking they just might get a hippopotamus for Christmas from Santa somehow, some way. Because you know, Christmas is magical and anything can happen," Tyl said. His daughter loves it and the family can get down and dance to it. "She'll tell me to play the hippopotamus song. She's 6 years old," said Tyl.
- William Shipp, classified sales, "Ave Maria." "Because of my grandfather and grandmother. They came over from Italy and it was sort of a big deal at Christmas," Shipp recalls of this song. They'd always attend midnight mass together. Perry Como sings a memorable rendition of "Ave Maria." "We'd play it every Christmas Eve, still do. Every year," Shipp said. "You get real emotional, I do, when I hear it, especially the first time because it brings me back to when I was a little kid."
- Erica Yeager, retail sales, "O Holy Night." Count Yeager as a fan of the Mariah Carey version. "It just makes me feel real good and Mariah Carey just knocks it out of the park," she said about this beloved Christmas song. Why her version? "Because nobody else sings like Mariah Carey," she said, calling it angelic. "I love it," she said. She and her kids play it at her house every Christmas. Her other favorite is "Mary, Did You Know" by Pentatonix, the cappella group. "It gives you warm fuzzy feelings in your heart," Yeager said.
- Jordan High, creative services, "Jingle Bell Rock." Specifically, High loves Hall and Oates. Asked about her favorite Christmas music, that's who she names right off the bat. "Hall and Oates Christmas gets you in that Christmas spirit," she says. Like many, the music connects to her youth. "I grew up on the classics, so Hall and Oates is where it's at," she said. From soul to Motown, she loves those classics. And the Hall and Oates version of this song is what she grew up hearing, so it's special to her, part of Christmas festivities with cookie baking, doing the tree and making a gingerbread house.
- Amanda Otwell, classified sales, "Silent Night." As it is for many, there's a connection for Otwell to music heard in church when she was younger. "We always listened to it when I was a kid at church. It reminds me of childhood church memories and what Christmas is all about," Otwell said. Beloved versions of this carol, which was written by two Austrian men in the early 1800s, include Bing Crosby's. That's actually one of the top selling singles of all time. Elvis, The Temptations, Kelly Clarkson and even Justin Bieber have all recorded versions of "Silent Night."