Diane has dozens of Christmas music CDs, but it seems like each year another couple albums compete to join her core collection. Ultimate Power of a Diva’s Christmas came out in 2002. It contains 24 “Holiday Favorites” sung by a variety of “name” singers. And, as you might expect, the results vary.
I really liked Karla Bonoff’s “First Noel” and “Everybody’s Home Tonight” as well as Linda Elder’s version of “O Holy Night.” I was less enthralled with Debbie Gibson’s version of “Silent Night.”
Some of these Christmas songs were new to me like Everything But The Girl’s “25th December.” Are any of your favorite Christmas songs here? Any of your favorite singers? GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
Track Listing – Disc 1
Heavy on the folkies which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One of the exceptions is probably my favorite performers on this cd-the British duo Everything But the Girl.
Not a fan of Xmas music. I worked retail too many years and had to listen to it for weeks every year to I grew sick of it. Especially hated 12 Days of Xmas, Little Drummer Boy and that horrible Jose Feliciano song Feliz Navidad.
Steve, I feel with you re Xmas music in retail!
Luckily here in Hungary there’s no music played in the Lidl and the Aldi where we went shopping today.
It’s bad enough seeing all that Xmas kitsch and sweets!
Horrible imho how much money people spend here – and don’t even think about the extra calories …
I told my wife clearly:
No sweets for me!
OK, granddaughter gets some …
Wolf, our retail stores and malls break out Christmas stuff right after Halloween. It’s all about marketing.
Steve, some of our local radio stations start playing Christmas music right after Halloween! And it’s 24 hours a day! Way too much! You’re right about “12 Days of Christmas,” “Little Drummer Boy,” and “Feliz Navidad” being songs in Heavy Rotation on those radio stations.
Yeah, Lite-FM is all Christmas music, ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME, from Halloween on. I hate “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas” more than anything, right there with “Little Drummer Boy.” I kind of get a kick out of Gene Autry’s songs, especially as he sings “Here comes Santy Claus.” I haven’t heard “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” even once, by I have heard (and yes, enjoyed) Mariah’s “All I Want for Christmas.” Dislike McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmas Time,” which I believe Deb likes. What’s worse is, you don’t just get the McCartney and Burl Ives and the others, you get the lame remakes too.
As Rick would say, “Bah.”
Diane loathes “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.” She can’t believe they made a movie based on that song!
Lots of women singers (of course), but very few actual divas. I have a couple of these, but surprisingly not too many, considering I have 100 or so Christmas cds. One of the best of these hundred is the Roches’ We Three Kings. Incredible harmonies and arrangements. We had to drive down to Virginia, but we managed to see one of their final Christmas concerts.
I buy a couple of these every year. This year’s purchases were by Keb Mo, and the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles.
Jeff, I think you’re ahead in Christmas CDs over Diane by a couple of dozen! I like Keb Mo. I’ll have to check out the Roches WE THREE KINGS.
My favorite Christmas carol (which is really an Advent hymn) is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Very few pop/folk artists ever cover it on their Christmas albums. It has eight verses; every Sunday in Advent the congregation sings two verses, then on Christmas Eve the congregation singe all eight. But covid has put a stop to my church attendance this year. I’ve pulled out a couple of versions I have on CD, but it’s not quite the same. Alas!
Deb, most of the churches in Western NY are in the Orange Zone which means they can’t go above 25% capacity. No Midnight Mass for us this Christmas. Diane loves Christmas choral music, but this year we’re opting for caution. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Christmas Concert–which we attended regularly–is virtual this year. But, watching and listening to Christmas music on Zoom isn’t quite the same…
My favorite is the Motown album. It’s been around long enough it probably counts as traditional.
Patti, I play Motown Christmas albums every year around this time. The Temptations Christmas album might be my favorite of all the Motown groups. Classic!
I’ll echo Jeff–Divas? This really isn’t a compliment, and if it can be reclaimed as one, I’d say the Roches, Emmylou Harris or even Christine McVie don’t qualify as self-regarding pains in the ass…in some sort of positive spin. (Such as being virtuose, vs. virtuosi…)
All the Roches’ albums are worth at very least the listen. ANOTHER WORLD might be the weakest I recall, and it was good enough.
Todd, the word “Divas” is a hot adjective in the world of Marketing. I suspect none of these artists were consulted on the naming of the album.
The Phil Spector Christmas album – A Christmas Gift for You might be the one Patti means. It has Darlene Love doing “White Christmas,” “Marshmallow World,” “Winter Wonderland” and the great “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which we’ve seen her do live. Also has The Ronettes and The Crystals and others.
Jeff, Phil Spector was a genius…but he turned out to be an Evil Genius later in Life.
Ah, I remember that Phil Spector Xmas album, it was part of a Spector collection.
He must have been a really strange guy, maybe drugs did him in?
Wolf, drugs can cause mental problems…something Phil Spector clearly suffers from.
This is the first time I’ve seen “Diva” and “Debbie Gibson” combined in the same package. When our younger daughter was 11, we surrendered to her wish to see Debbie in concert. When I was a kid in the early ’60s, we could reliably count on new Firestone and Columbia LP Christmas compilations appearing every year.
Fred, I’m guessing the term “Diva” is being used loosely when applied to Debbie Gibson. Yes, I remember those annual Firestone and Columbia LP Christmas compilations, too. Fondly…
Surely the highlight of Debbie Gibson’s career was her appearance opposite former rival Tiffany in the classic MEGA PYTHON VS. GATEROID.
Jeff, MEGA PYTHON VS. GATEROID was a highlight for Bill Crider, too!
BAH. We’re not doing Christmas this year, no tree, decorations, lights on the house, music, etc. We each bought one gift for the other, which we’re not bothering to wrap, to open on the day, and that’s it. Our microwave died last night so we have to buy one today and get it installed (the sooner the better), so that will be the big thing.
Rick, sorry to hear about your microwave. Our new Frigidaire microwave is working well.
Seems these days it’s not so simple. Everything is “pandemic back ordered “. None available in warehouses, so we’re weeks out. We may be able to bring home get a floor model, but the install will be three weeks, during which it sit on the counter. If we do that it’ll be a KitchenAid, which is a little more expensive, but installation is less.
Rick, many of our friends have found that appliances are hard to come by. Shortages everywhere! We lucked out when we replaced all of our kitchen appliances in 2019. No problems back then…
Every chick that hums in the shower is being called a damn diva anymore! Humbug!
Bob, what do they call guys who hum in the shower?