Drinking, Dancing and Crying: 35 Christmas Songs Everyone Needs This (And Every) Holiday Season
Deer Tick — “Christmas All Summer Long”
This song sounds pretty much exactly how you might think an original Christmas song by Deer Tick would sound, which of course is to say loud and rambunctious with one really well-placed “fuck.”
Johnny Cash — “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
There’s really no voice in the history of voices that’s better at capturing the mix of joy and sadness one feels around this time of year. The moment his vocals come in on this song, I am a puddle, and I stay that way pretty much until January.
The Ventures — “Jingle Bell Rock”
One of these days, I’m going to have a Christmas party where all the dudes have to wear blazers and turtlenecks and all the women have to wear fancy mod party dresses. The only drink we’ll serve will be an Old Fashioned, and the only song we’ll play will be “Jingle Bell Rock” by the Ventures. It’s going to be fucking awesome.
Man or Astroman — “Frosty the Snowman”
I take back what I said about the Ventures song: we may play this song at our party too.
Vince Guaraldi Trio — “Linus & Lucy”
You could replace this with any number of the insanely sad sounding songs on this most stellar album, but save that shit for your alone time. This here is a crowd-pleaser.