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Christmas music vs. winter music

firepoint525 said:
I may have to get back to you on that. I have not seen it on the menu yet this year, but I have noticed that they don't necessarily discontinue it right after the holiday, maybe more like mid-January or whenever they run out of McRib-related inventory. (Seems like they once discontinued one of their peppermint McCafes for the same reason.) So maybe the McRib is considered winter "comfort food."
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Within hours of posting this, I saw the first McRib commercial of the season! Yay! Looks like we will be going to Mickey D's this weekend! (Now if they will just add those peppermint shakes back to the menu!!!!)

oldies76 said:
Old in terms of origin, but recent contemporary singers like Amy Grant, Steve Green, Twila Paris, Maranatha Singers....etc... have excellent versions that tend to be avoided. Frankly, I really enjoy hearing Amy Grant's version of "Silent Night late on Christmas Eve, originally composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber (acc. to wikipedia)
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I really like the Mannheim Steamroller and (I think) Trans-Siberian Orchestra versions of classic Christmas carols. I even still like the Christmas music (what I still have of it) on those cheap albums that my parents used to buy at stores like Walgreens. One of them even had a Santa Claus on the cover, and a guy who sounded like Burl Ives singing lead on nearly all of the songs! My childlike mind just KNEW that that had to be Santa Claus singing on all those songs! I mean, they even had him photographed on the cover!
 
anotherguy said:
Although I like a lot of pop and rock Christmas music, I'd rather hear secular singers do the secular songs and Christian singers do the Christian songs. I never liked Stevie Nick's version of Silent Night because of the line "Jesus Lord at thy birth" being changed to another line of "Sleep in Heavenly peace". It may have not been intentional to deny the idea of Jesus' diety but to me it comes across that way. There's also the idea of singers who don't even pretend to be Christians any other time doing religious Christmas songs that I'd rather that they just did the secular songs.

I hope I didn't go over the line with the religious comment there. :rolleyes:
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I'll make one change to my comments. There are times that I like versions of secular Christmas songs by CCM artists, which I don't mind as long as they're clean.
 
oldies76 said:
Old in terms of origin, but recent contemporary singers like Amy Grant, Steve Green, Twila Paris, Maranatha Singers....etc... have excellent versions that tend to be avoided. Frankly, I really enjoy hearing Amy Grant's version of "Silent Night late on Christmas Eve, originally composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber (acc. to wikipedia)
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I'm trying to think of more recent songs about Christmas the holiday and Jesus, rather than winter, that have become seasonal standards. There don't seem to be many. "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was written in the early '60s, "Mary's Boy Child" in the mid-'50s. Surely there must be some of more recent vintage,, but I can't come up with them right now.
 
CTListener said:
I'm trying to think of more recent songs about Christmas the holiday and Jesus, rather than winter, that have become seasonal standards. There don't seem to be many. "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was written in the early '60s, "Mary's Boy Child" in the mid-'50s. Surely there must be some of more recent vintage,, but I can't come up with them right now.
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How old is "Mary Did You Know"? I don't recall hearing it before the '90s.
 
anotherguy said:
I'll make one change to my comments. There are times that I like versions of secular Christmas songs by CCM artists, which I don't mind as long as they're clean.
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At my first station, we had secular songs by southern gospel performers, and sacred songs by country performers. (And vice versa.) My regular shift was country, except southern gospel for the last couple of hours. So during Christmas, programming (for me) was a bit of a mess! I played a little bit of everything during Christmas. This was a small, 500-watt AM daytimer.
 
firepoint525 said:
How old is "Mary Did You Know"? I don't recall hearing it before the '90s.
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I believe it was written in the early '90s. According to Wikipedia, CCM artist Michael English cut it first, in 1991. The Kenny Rogers/Wynonna version came out in 1997. I have Kathy Mattea's version, on her "Good News" album, which came out in 1993. I didn't mention it because I didn't realize that it had crossed over to the Christmas formats used by AC stations, thought its exposure might be limited to CCM and country formats.
 
Some AC stations mix in more country music during Christmas, which is probably how Mary Did You Know ended up there. But for the most part I agree that a new Christmas song with a Christian message is more likely to show up on a country station than AC.
 
Christmas music is not unlike any other format. There are well-tested titles that need to be played only because that is what the audience expects. Those who veer off into "unknown land" are vulnerable to big tune-out. This format is not a fluke, it is a scientific formula that tends to work for those who follow it. And not to give anything away here, but it revolves around 35 powers, 40 secondaries, and another 50-60 tertiary titles. Pretty simple formula, but it works.
 
I need to respond to some of the comments on this page.

I don't like hearing CCM artists do Christmas music. I don't want to hear CCM artists at all. Amy Grant has done one or two songs that didn't sound too bad, but Aaron Shust's "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" showed up on America's Best Music. That one will make me change the station. America's Best Music also has played a song by Point of Grace that gets on my nerves.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is an abomination. Their "Canon" with the kids is nice, though.

I don't want to hear Mannheim Steamroller, either, except for their great very traditional "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". On the other hand, "Deck the Halls" has been around so long that their version seems to be a part of the season.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I need to respond to some of the comments on this page.

I don't like hearing CCM artists do Christmas music. I don't want to hear CCM artists at all. Amy Grant has done one or two songs that didn't sound too bad, but Aaron Shust's "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" showed up on America's Best Music. That one will make me change the station. America's Best Music also has played a song by Point of Grace that gets on my nerves.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is an abomination. Their "Canon" with the kids is nice, though.

I don't want to hear Mannheim Steamroller, either, except for their great very traditional "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". On the other hand, "Deck the Halls" has been around so long that their version seems to be a part of the season.
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Of course most of us know your attitude toward CCM. :rolleyes:

Also, I remember now how Mary Did You Know probably crossed over to some AC stations, which was the version by Pentatonix. I'd heard it before and like it, but I just didn't think of it earlier when the topic was brought up.

Also, another song that isn't really Christmas related is What a Wonderful World. The original by Louis Armstrong was made popular again because of being in the movie Good Morning Vietnam but wasn't related to Christmas and definitely not Winter there either, but I like it. I also like the versions by Russ Taff and there's also a live version by Daniel Amos that you can find on You Tube. Yes those are both CCM artists VChimp.
 
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frankberry said:


You're correct. I never even thought about that song. Thanks!
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Andy Williams does a medley with "The Holiday Season" and until I looked it up I didn't realize those were two different songs, so I assumed the song was about Christmas until I heard another version which never mentioned Christmas.
 
Bill Pursell's "Our Winter Love" used to be on Stardust year round, but in recent years I've only heard it at Christmas. It's an instrumental and the version I've heard recently sounds different from the one I used to hear.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Bill Pursell's "Our Winter Love" used to be on Stardust year round, but in recent years I've only heard it at Christmas. It's an instrumental and the version I've heard recently sounds different from the one I used to hear.
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Great song. I have the original version. I've emailed it to you.
 
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