Sick of Slade? Made miserable by Mariah Carey? We've got your back with a suitably seasonal and yet alternative playlist of the best Christmas songs of all time, from Stormzy's "Xmas Shut up" to Frank Sinatra's “Whatever Happened To Christmas?”, as chosen by the Editors of GQ. Work your way through this today and concentrate on eating and drinking yourself into a merry slumber and save the family arguments for something other than the soundtrack...
"The Road To Hell" by Chris Rea
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"I always play this on my way to visit my step family. First song on the M4 playlist. Volume 30, fan on for dramatic effect." Grace Gilfeather, Fashion Editor
"Merry Christmas Baby" by Otis Redding
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"No one sings like Otis, with just the right shade of sad and happy at the same time. Pour a port (or Bellini in the morning) and put this on on the 25th. You won't regret it." Paul Henderson, Associate Editor
"Xmas Shut Up" by Stormzy
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"Stormzy's special Christmas mash up for BBC Radio 1Xtra from 2015 is without a doubt the seasonal song that's brought the most cheer to GQ HQ this year. His repeated references to "my young Elves" and the line "where do you know me from? North Pole" are particularly memorable." Eleanor Halls, Staff Writer
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“Whatever Happened To Christmas?” by Frank Sinatra
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"The best Christmas song ever is “Whatever Happened To Christmas?” Written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Frank Sinatra, it is unusually both a torch song dedicated to the season of good cheer and a reflective meditation on the emotional aftermath of all that festive fun. Save it up for Boxing Day and crack open a box of Kleenex." Bill Prince, Deputy Editor
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl
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"This song manages to seem uplifting despite the fact that if you actually listen to the lyrics, it's the most depressing song ever written. It starts off with a man in a drunk tank saying he won't live to see another Christmas!" Stuart McGurk, Senior Commissioning Editor
Why Christmas songs are the best part of the festive season Christmas Why Christmas songs are the best part of the festive season
"Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day
"Best Christmas song hands down, always a winning choice to get the party started." Carlotta Constant, Junior Fashion Editor
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"8 Days Of Christmas" by Destiny's Child
"While this does admittedly err dangerously close to Mariah Carey territory, Destiny's Child's rendition of the classic song never fails to get everyone up and dancing on Christmas evening." Kathleen Johnston, Social Content Editor
"New Year's Resolution" by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
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"Two amazing voices, simple but stirring lyrics: a moment of calm in the festive insanity before you move on to yet another year. “Let’s turn over a new leaf, and baby let’s make promises that we can keep, and call it a New Year’s Resolution.” Spin and savour." Becky Lucas, Insight and Strategy Editor
"Blue Christmas" by Bright Eyes
"Not the cheeriest, but there's something quite comforting about playing a song about a broken heart on Christmas day, between all the Mariah and Slade." Anna Conrad, News and Features Editor
"Keeping the Dream Alive" by Münchener Freiheit
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"Keeping the Dream Alive by Münchener Freiheit, or just Freiheit as they were known in Britain, was a sleeper hit in the UK in 1988. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but is now widely regarded as a de facto Christmas song. It’s a sickly Euro synth-pop dollop of nonsense, but oddly uplifting. They had massive hair and hoped for a better tomorrow. You had to be there, I guess…" George Chesterton, Managing Editor
"My Only Wish (This Year)" by Britney Spears
"A early 00s bubblegum teen bop from the princess of pop- what’s not to love?"Angelo Mitakos, Fashion Assistant at GQ Style
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"A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" by Glasvegas
"With sleigh bells on every track and gems including "Please Come Back Home", this entire EP is properly Christmassy." Aaron Callow, Chief Sub Editor
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Updated | President Donald Trump is taking credit this season for saving Christmas (or not), but it was a handful of Jews who wrote some of the greatest Yuletide songs in American history.
Certainly everyone knows that "White Christmas" was written by Irving Berlin (also known as the Russian-born Israel Isidore Beilin), who also wrote "God Bless America." Berlin's 1942 dream of snow on Christmas morning defines the holiday for many Americans—and made a fortune for Bing Crosby—but it doesn't even make the top five of greatest Christmas songs written by non-Christians.
Henry Guttmann/Getty Images
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Here's our top six:
Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer by Johnny Marks
Marks, born John David Marks in Mount Vernon, N.Y., based his song on a short story written by his brother-in-law Robert May, who had gotten an assignment in 1939 by Montgomery Ward to write a “cheery” Christmas book for shoppers.
The song, which put the flying reindeer myth into the American consciousness, became a hit for Gene Autry in 1949.
Marks also wrote such classics as "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "A Holly Jolly Christmas," "Silver and Gold" and "Run Rudolph Run."
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé
Long before he was The Velvet Fog, singer Torme was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants with the surname Torma. In 1945, he teamed up with longtime collaborator Wells, also Jewish, for this classic tune inspired, Torme once said in an interview, by a desire to think of cold thoughts during a particularly hot summer.
Jack Frost nipping at your nose, indeed.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
One of the bounciest Christmas numbers, Cahn (born Samuel Cohen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Galician Jews Abraham and Elka Cohen), also said he wrote the song during that 1945 heatwave, albeit in Hollywood, not Chicago. Styne, who wrote the music, was born Julius Kerwin Stein in England to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.
Dean Martin's version is still the standard (corn for popping, indeed!):
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Edward Pola and George Wyle
Andy Williams—not Jewish—got a huge hit in 1963 with this classic by Pola, a Hungarian Jew born Sidney Edward Pollacsek, and Wyle, born Bernard Weissman.
The lyrics allude to the strangeness of two Jews writing a Christmas classic, evoking, "scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of the Christmases long, long ago." And the orchestration makes it sound a bit like a Broadway overture, but who cares?
Santa Baby by Joan Javits and Philip Springer
Eartha Kitt scored a hit with this 1953 cheeky materialistic take on Father Christmas's annual gift-giving spree, also written by two non-Christians. Fun fact: Javits was the neice of legendary New York Senator Jacob K. Javits.
She's been a good girl, so hurry down the chimney, Nick.
Silver Bells by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
This big 1950 hit was first recorded by Bob Hope, but became a mega-hit for Bing Crosby—and it was almost known as "Tinkle Bells," until Livingston's wife told him and Evans that "tinkle" was another word for urination.
Livingston, born Jacob Harold Levison, said the song was inspired by sidewalk Santa Claus bells, but Evans, the son of Philip and Frances Lipsitz Evans, told NPR that the song was inspired by a bell on an office desk. The lyrics suggest that Livingston had the sharper memory of the song's origins:
Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
The song was yet another Christmas hit for Deano—and again features him just sober enough to sing, but slurring the words just enough so you know what holiday cheer really is.
Honorable mention: "Winter Wonderland" was composed by Felix Bernard, but the lyrics were by an Irish-American, Richard B. Smith; and "I'll be Home For Christmas" was composed by Walter Kent, but its lyrics were also of Irish origin, having been written by Kim Gannon.
Story was updated to include a sixth Yuletide classic.
