Product Description

One of the first, and perhaps one of the best, Holiday-themed, alternative Christmas releases featuring original songs from some great power pop bands. Not just holiday songs, GREAT songs with a holiday theme. 16 songs with seasonal themes featuring Shoes, The Spongetones, Matthew Sweet, Material Issue, Marti Jones & Don Dixon, 92 Degrees, The Critics and more.

Track Listing

1. The Idea - It's About That Time
2. Material Issue - Merry Christmas Will Do
3. Leroy - Santa Stole My Baby
4. Shoes - This Christmas
5. Matthew Sweet - Baby Jesus
6. Spooner - The Saddest Time Of The Year
7. The Cavedogs - Three Wise Men And A Baby
8. The Spongetones - Christmasland
9. 92 Degrees - A God Of My Own
10. Marti Jones & Don Dixon - Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday
11. Bill Lloyd - Underneath The Christmas Tree
12. Kelley Ryan - It's Not Christmas
13. Herb Eimerman - You Gave Me
14. Big People - Piece For Christmas
15. The Critics - She Feels Like Christmas Day
16. The Puddles - The Christmas List

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95951 in Music
• Released on: 1991-12-03
• Number of discs: 1

Review
Original pop/rock songs with a Christmas theme. Melodic, harmony-laden, power-pop Christmas songs from some of the best bands in the genre. A holiday classic. You've probably heard these at the mall over the years and didn't even know it. --CD Baby

Customer Reviews

This one rocks!
I searched everywhere for this CD after hearing the Shoes song "This Christmas" in a store. It is so beautiful and non-christmasy as is the rest of the CD.
I am a big fan of Christmas music, but as another reviewer mentioned, I can't stand anything with sappy kids choruses or gimmicky tricks.
This CD has some of my favorite performers doing interesting songs.
As a side note, it is possible to get this CD new from the label. Its on Black Vinyl records out of Zion Illinois.

Enjoy!!!

Yu'le Love This Cd !
Without a doubt my favorite Christmas CD. I had only known a few of these groups (Shoes, Matthew Sweet, MaterialIssue) when I bought this from a bargain bin. What a bargain! Every song is top notch and original, too, I do believe. An absolute classic for anyone who likes popular music.You may actually want to listen to it long after Christmas season is over. It is that good.

The Only Holiday Album You'll Ever Need
I'm not a big fan of holiday or Christmas music and albums. They tend to be sappy affairs full of renditions of "classics" made worse by somebody's latest "improvements". Not this album. The songs are all originals and hold up quite well as songs, not just "holiday" songs. 'Tis a hard album to find though.

I first heard Material Issue's "Merry Christmas Will Do" whilst I was working out in the gym and recognized Jim Ellison's vocals and thus my quest began. That one song alone would be worth the price of the CD but you get other great songs. Spooner's "The Saddest Time of the Year" is absolutely gorgeous, full of longing and wistfulness. One word of advice to those who would record Christmas songs: listen to this song and if you can't record something as good as this, do us all a favor and don't bother. It just doesn't get any better than this for Christmas tunes.

Other standouts on this album are Shoes' "This Christmas" which features a very active bass line, "It's About Time" by The Idea, and Kelley Ryan's "It's Not Christmas". Really there's not a bad song on this CD although it may take some time to warm up to the Cavedogs' "Three Wise Men and a Baby (Xmas Song)" - I mean I like it 'cause it's offbeat and all but to each his own.

One other thing - the cuteness factor is kept to a minimum so there's not a lot of kids singing badly just to be cute on this CD. That seems to be limited to one song here - The Puddles' "The Christmas List" and it's not even that annoying like most kid songs are. All in all, this is just an excellent collection of tunes that you'll be listening to even when it's not holiday season, like I have been this week. That makes it the only Christmas album you'll ever need.