The Diss List: Christmas Songs ft. Scott Newman (Christmas Morning Podcast)

[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Scott from the Christmas Morning Podcast and I have the list of the 10 best Christmas songs of all time. Hi, I'm Brad and Scott doesn't have the best list. I do!

[00:00:11] I'm Dan and neither of these guys have the best list. I, the Music Man himself, clearly have the best list. And this is The Diss List. Deck The Hallmark, it's this podcast. And Friends Host is podcast. We hope you like this dolly podcast. Wow, ho, ho, ho everybody!

[00:00:38] It feels festive but can I tell you? The stakes feel really high, Brad. They are high. Like sports movies, serial chain restaurants. I feel like Christmas songs can bring out the best and worst in us.

[00:00:52] I feel like, I just, I know we just started here and Diss List is special and it's fun. I just am worried. I'm worried. Can I say that? I'm worried too. I'm worried that Scott's gonna come in here and play games.

[00:01:08] He might come in here and play Dominic the Donkey or some old one. I thought about it. I honestly thought about it. Scott, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

[00:01:17] Well, while we were talking to each other, Dan and I about Diss List for Christmas in July, songs came up and immediately Scott came to mind. No one's more qualified, Scott. I mean, you guys are on the Christmas morning podcast already. You do a music battle every week.

[00:01:32] It's a joy if you need a little taste of Christmas all year long. You even get a joke honk honk. But you also before then had a Christmas song podcast that predates Christmas morning, correct? Two. Two.

[00:01:47] And you said it in the past tense. One was the past tense. I used to have a show called Jingle Jank and then I started doing tinsel tunes with my buddy Dwayne.

[00:01:56] So I still do that one. So yes, I have a lot of, I don't know, Christmas music pedigree. I like that. I like the way you said it with a question mark at the end. You did once gift me a red iPod with only Christmas songs on it.

[00:02:14] Completely legally, of course. All obtained legally. It was a very thoughtful gift. I adore that thing just to have an iPod. Wait till you see my gift that I bring you this year for Bramblefest. Is it an iPad? No. Daniel has seen it.

[00:02:29] It's a Zoom filled with 12 of your favorite Christmas songs. It's a record player. It's going to be hard to bring on the plane. You can do it though. Daniel, you're right. Christmas songs are very personal.

[00:02:41] So unlike something like chain restaurants, everyone likes chilies. If you don't like chilies, I don't know what to tell you. And well, I mean, Brian Harrell was wrong because Dunkin Donuts is trash and their coffee is trash.

[00:02:51] That's something that doesn't matter. You are right that Brian was wrong going on that one. You came in real hot with a chilies. Oh, come on. Everyone likes chilies. The chips and salsa at chilies is why you go, right? These three bucks.

[00:03:04] Well, not for me because I'm diabetic, but I will sit there and have you explain the taste to me. I'll do my best. In the four times, yes, I loved it. But Christmas music is tough. And how do you pick ten?

[00:03:16] I'll be honest with you though. I don't even know how to pick ten. I really, really struggle with this. What was your process? Can I have a few questions? A few clarify questions. These ten are not the songs. It's a specific rendition, yes? I don't know. Yes.

[00:03:31] Okay, good. That's important. Second of all, do these have to have words or is this included? Do we include Trans-Hyperion Orchestra in this mix? Yeah. You can absolutely pick one. Yes. Okay.

[00:03:45] Now, all of mine that I have picked today have words. It just happened to be that way, but that was not an intentional process by any means. Okay. We're going to explain how this works in a second. Brand's getting nervous already.

[00:03:56] I got to pull up a note pad or something. So what I've done here before I explained the rules of the diss list, all of you listening for the first time at home,

[00:04:03] I have called 16 songs and renditions that I would be thrilled if ten of these are on the list. Okay. I feel like you got a really good batting average here for me. It's not going to be hard to make me happy.

[00:04:16] I also have a list of eight no ways. Eight songs that if, and Dominic with Donkey isn't even on the no way list and it should be, if these eight songs are on the list, I'm going to have a hard time sitting still. That's where I am.

[00:04:32] Brand, you have, have you done this before? Have I done, have I had to put together my ten favorite Christmas songs? No. Oh, wow. This is what I, this would keep me up. No one does.

[00:04:44] Well, before we get going, basically what's going to happen is this is Scotty has prepared his ten favorite Christmas songs. We have them on the board, follow dot TV slash DTH. We cut out construction paper to match these exactly Aaron. I like this.

[00:04:55] Aaron Shay did all of it. He's going to go from 10 to one and every time he, he gives us a name on the list. He's going to tell us why it's on there. Right.

[00:05:07] We're going to give our opinions on it and we're going to move at the end of all 10 after Scott gives his entire list.

[00:05:13] Brand gets two flips, two flips, two replaces so he can replace two titles with two of his own and then he can flip two places in the list. He can do that twice. So he gets two flips, two replaces. I also get two flips, two replaces.

[00:05:29] And he's going to present our new list to Scotty. He chooses if he will take Brand's list or my list and that's how he plays. The stakes are very high. The stakes are very high. I'm very excited about this. I'm nervous. Really quickly, what was your process?

[00:05:44] How did you do this? Because I can't even, I don't even know where to start. Okay. So this is not the first time I've done this. Okay. I've been on five or six different podcasts doing almost this exact thing like Christmas Cousins,

[00:05:57] This is a podcast, Christmas Clad are all of these. So I went back to those lists because I keep them all in Google Docs anyway and I'll be honest, they've changed over time.

[00:06:06] Like if it was the top 20, you're all like there's going to be 10 songs in that top 20 that will always be there. And those are kind of the ones I went with today but I did add a little bit of a twist to it. Okay. Go ahead.

[00:06:20] I added a little bit of flavor to one or two of them because I figured, Bran, if I just pick the top 10 best ones and just for reference too, I went to a few websites and said well what are the top 25? What are the top 15 Christmas songs?

[00:06:36] Kind of use those as a starting point because it's hard to just come up with them off a whole cloth. If I just picked the 10 best and then you guys said yep, those are them, this would be a very short episode. So I added one or two.

[00:06:48] I think we all have some that we are very opinionated of and then I do think in me just doing a little bit of culling of my list, I found that there are going to be some debates over best rendition. Yes.

[00:07:03] That was the hardest part of it because you pick someone like Bing Crosby. Well, I got like three or four songs that you could absolutely pick and nobody would turn their nose up at them. Okay. So now you said three or four Bing Crosby.

[00:07:14] You only have 10 on this list. Are you, is this, you know, we have an ongoing conversation here at the dis list. We say only for the dis list purposes not in real life, but for the dis list purposes best equals favorite or favorite equals best,

[00:07:27] which means, you know, with Ryan Papola or Brian Harrell brings his favorite for him. Those are the best. Did you rely more on these are my 10 favorite or if this is unequivocally these are the best in my opinion, even if I like some other ones more.

[00:07:43] That one is another hard thing because what I think of as a best list also depends on my mood. There are songs like Christmas and Hollis from Run DMC, one of my favorite Christmas songs. But I did not pick that one.

[00:07:57] What I went with this week was a little bit more of like if grandma was in the room, would these please everybody? Oh, I picked would this make more of like the best party all around playlist. That's kind of the way I went.

[00:08:11] I can't say they're my absolute favorite. Okay, fun fact Christmas and Hollis Run DMC one of my 16 on my list. And I wouldn't say no to that. But I also heard that Walmart over the PA system last year. And I was like, that shouldn't be playing.

[00:08:27] Then I realized the song's 30 years old. Wake up old man. That's right. That's right. That's right. Shall we start with number 10? Are you ready? Are you ready? In order to tip the scales a little bit. I brought clips and sound effects here. Of course you did.

[00:08:43] Now, I don't have them for your songs because it's tough to be you guys. But here's the thing, Bran, just to be super, super careful. I'm going to need you to kind of make sure you're talking over the clip so we don't get any copyright. Yeah, of course.

[00:08:55] We got it. So let's start with number 10. Are you ready? Number 10. Here we go. Oh Christmas baby please come home. These clips are about 10 seconds. So, Darlene Love, absolute classic. It is an absolute classic. I adore this song. Would absolutely be on my list.

[00:09:13] What do you think of when you hear that song? A movie, but I don't know which one. Home Alone 2. Yeah, Home Alone 2. That's the one. Okay. Now I didn't think of that. I think of how this song was played for 28 consecutive years on the David Letterman show.

[00:09:27] Every year Letterman had Darlene Love come and perform this song live on his show. It's originally recorded in 1963 and it's from an album called A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, which was a seminal album. Incredibly important. Yeah. And I just love this song.

[00:09:45] It invokes all the Christmas feels when I hear it. I think it's a great play, Scott. I'm interested to see what comes next because I think I might have that higher. So I could potentially do a swap of sorts, but this is just an impossible job.

[00:10:08] And so I love this song in my mind right now. I think it's higher than 10, but we'll see what comes ahead. Yeah, see this at 10 kind of stung. I have it in my list for sure. And I'm starting to realize that this dislist may be less

[00:10:23] of a battle of, this song sucks and more of a battle of why do you have this as high or low as you have it? Because you're going to play a Bing Crosby song. It's going to be the one I think you're going to play.

[00:10:34] And I'm going to say, I might say, okay, yeah, I get it's a classic, but I don't think it should be this high. This song in just doing my list, this feels higher. This feels higher to me than you have it.

[00:10:50] But I'm glad it's here because it is an absolute banger. Great. I don't disagree on the rankings of these. It's really hard. This is like picking your 10 favorite items at Chili's. It's really hard to say, oh, that one's slightly better than this one sponsored by Chili's.

[00:11:06] And I'm not as concerned about that. I wanted to make sure the songs made the list. I think we're going to have some really good conversation about where on the list a lot of these songs go. But I'm going to blow up what you think the Bing Crosby

[00:11:18] one is with my next choice here. This is one brand that I added a little bit of flavor. Here we go. The Drifters version of White Christmas. That does lead me to believe, Scotty, that Bing Crosby's White Christmas is not on here. We're picking the Drifters White Christmas.

[00:11:37] And I don't hate the play. It is a bold play. I want to hear about this. Before you, before we did number nine, I was going to say, hey, Brandon, should we also get a rendition replacement where we get to choose one and switch the rendition out.

[00:11:52] But the reason that I wanted to add that was so I could play this over Bing Crosby's White Christmas. So I'm thrilled that this is here. I want to hear it from you, though. Obviously White Christmas, the Bing Crosby version would have been the obvious play.

[00:12:10] It's the world's best-selling single, at least in terms of physical media. The numbers that I saw are 50 million physical copies sold. And then when you add in digital downloads and other ones, it exceeds 100 million downloads, purchases, sales, whatever you want to call it. But I don't know.

[00:12:28] There are other Bing Crosby songs I like and I just love the Drifters. This was from 1954. The Drifters did songs like Under the Boardwalk and Save the Last Dance for Me, Up on the Roof. I love them. I love Motown and that whole era of singing.

[00:12:45] So I just wanted to bring some flavor to the list. I think that's the most, like, if I had to pick one that I'd say, oh, I'm not quite sure about it in terms of fitting a best playlist. This would be it.

[00:12:56] But I really wanted this one on here. Man, this is good. I think it's fair. I also think about Home Alone with this one, too. Home Alone. I love this version of the song. And we talked about this a little bit. I think last holiday season, Scotty,

[00:13:09] about how White Christmas is one of the few songs that I can think of that have two, at least two very different versions of the same song. Like, lots of times when you cover it, it's the same basic idea.

[00:13:22] But the Drifters took this song and completely turned it on its head. And, ah, man, I'm already having a... I'm really struggling here. I don't know. I like it. I'm not struggling at all, Scotty. You're making me so happy right now. I love this song.

[00:13:38] I love this rendition. I like it more than being Crosby's. Growing up in a house with mom and dad who were southern, my dad was a huge beach music guy. Like, grew up near the beach. I listened to the Drifters.

[00:13:49] I was required to know how to shag dance as a kid. Like, knew how to do that. And legitimately this song, I remember loving this song so much, and then I heard it in Home Alone, and I was like, this is like my favorite Christmas song ever.

[00:14:04] This was when I was eight or nine years old. It still holds up. I had both versions in my top 16. Personally, I prefer this version, if you want to say Bings is more classic or whatever. You are two for two, man. Just, just great. Fantastic.

[00:14:18] And, Brandon, what you said was really important about this song too, because if you took White Christmas by Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, you could listen to those and say, which one is this? Who's singing this? This one you absolutely know which one it is.

[00:14:34] It has some originality, and that's why I chose it. That's right. Ready, dude, number eight? Let's go. Okay. Number eight is Frank Sinatra. Keep talking. It's a little Christmas. I can tell you from experience, the ghost of copyright future really likes the Frank Sinatra.

[00:14:53] I feel more they litigious. Another song that's in Home Alone, by the way. Yep. You're apparently Scott's a big Home Alone fan. I've seen it once. That's why he's not doing Christmas movies. Somebody else is. He does a Christmas podcast and has only seen Home Alone one time.

[00:15:09] He's not a big movie guy. I get bored sitting still. I love. I gotta keep swimming, Dan. I love this song. I love this version. I need to sit on it a little bit. Scotty, explain. What do you mean you need to sit on it?

[00:15:26] I need to sit on it a little bit longer. What do you mean like you want it higher, lower? Yeah, I want them all higher, Scotty. Danny, so far I want them all higher. That's not how numbers work. Right. They're really your favorite of these three.

[00:15:40] Is this your favorite of these three? Yeah. Scott, go ahead. The reason I picked this one was the tonality of Frank Sinatra's intro there. It starts so incredibly low. I can't remember if there are some, like maybe there's little strings at the beginning

[00:15:56] because I clipped it a little bit so it would hit like a 10 second mark. This is iconic to me. I hear this and it is Christmas. It doesn't matter what time of year it is. There are plenty of versions of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

[00:16:09] I could have picked, you know, well the Judy Garland version. I don't care for it. That's where I wrestle. I really like Judy Garland's version. I wrestle with this. They're both so good. They're so good. When I song rules. When I think of, if you said to me,

[00:16:25] Frank Sinatra Christmas song, this is the song that I think of is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Frank Sinatra, minted classic, definitely on my list. And can I say this? I probably would have it at 6 or 7 or 7 or 7 or 8 about exactly where he has it.

[00:16:42] This song to me, I just think is the, it's a perfect Christmas song. It is a song that I think about listening to on Christmas Eve with just the Christmas lights on by the fire. It's just such a vibe, such an aesthetic. It's a perfect Christmas song.

[00:17:00] Can I tell you what I'm a little worried about, Bran? What's up? No comment from Scotty here. I don't want to spoil anything. The song, we don't have a single song yet from the last 60 years. Yeah. And good music has been made in the last 60 years.

[00:17:17] Quite a bit of it. In fact, my list has stuff from virtually every decade. I think every decade from the 50s onward. Are you concerned, Bran, that we're going to get 10, 50s and 60s songs on here? I don't want, I'm not even looking at Scotty.

[00:17:32] I don't want to see his expression. No, that wouldn't concern me in the least bit. You're okay with it? I would be okay with it. Really? I would be. Yeah. Boy, I wouldn't. I'm not saying it's my list.

[00:17:43] I'm just saying if that's what it comes out to be. So you're the reverse of Christmas songs you are with movies. Yeah. Yeah. Stan, it's a very valid point. And if you asked me, make a top 10 list of songs from the 50s and 60s.

[00:17:55] Do one from the 70s. I could absolutely do those as well. It is very hard to choose. But acting like the 50s and 60s songs all are better than what's come after it is. We don't know. Let's give it some time. No, it's tough. They're minted classics though.

[00:18:10] That's what's hard. That's what's hard. Minted, just older. Your older. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll come back. I think things are already heating up. Things are getting feisty. Exactly how it should be for Christmas. We'll be right back here on the Diss List.

[00:18:22] Diss List, Diss List. Welcome back to Dike the Homework presents Diss List. We're doing top 10 Christmas songs presented by Scotty of the Christmas Morning Podcast. So far we have 10 Christmas, baby please come home, darling love, nine white Christmas by the Driftords

[00:18:44] and eight Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Frank Sinatra which takes us to seven, which is Dan can you get it for me? I got you. Number seven. Number seven. Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful I absolutely love Ella Fitzgerald.

[00:19:03] She is. Ella Fitzgerald. You know there are so many versions of this song. I could have picked a dozen of them but I had to have Ella Fitzgerald on this list. Not only because female artists, female artists of color, they were underrepresented at the time

[00:19:21] and sometimes they don't make lists because a lot of times they're male oriented or male centric. I want Ella Fitzgerald all the time. I want her on every list of everything I ever make and her album is one of the few that I own on record.

[00:19:36] Like Brand said I gave him an iPod, you know I have the same one obviously. It has like 300 albums on it. I don't have 300 vinyl record albums. This Ella Fitzgerald album is one of the ones

[00:19:48] that I went out of my way to make sure I have on vinyl and I just love Let It Snow as well. Let It Snow is not even really a song that's about Christmas. It doesn't make mention of Christmas. So you know I could have picked Frank Sinatra,

[00:20:02] Bing Crosby and Dee Martin. Nope, went with Ella. It's a good play. I like it a lot. I love this song. I love her and her Christmas tunes. I don't think you like it Dan. You seem to be upset about it. I don't think this song,

[00:20:20] I don't think Let It Snow, the song should be on this list. I know that it's lumped in with Christmas songs. I get it. This song is about snowing. It's what it's about. Snow takes place four or five months of the year

[00:20:32] that aren't Christmas related depending on where you live. I just think there are so many opportunities for songs from all kinds of artists, from Ella Fitzgerald other songs. This song just shouldn't be on this list. It's the first one that I'm like, I don't get it.

[00:20:49] I don't get the play. I do love this rendition of this song. I'm not mad about that. I just think there are so many other songs that we could play. Maybe some that are younger than Alonzo D'Aroldi. Were there any other versions that you were kicking around?

[00:21:07] Let It Snow? Dean Martins is good. You feel like that rat-pack kind of feel. I love Ella Fitzgerald. I'm going to keep it in there. I love Ella Fitzgerald. I'm going to keep it in there. You're right. It's not a Christmas song. Neither is Winter Wonderland,

[00:21:23] which is universally considered a Christmas song. So I'll be fine. This is one that if it fell off, it's okay, but I wouldn't fight as hard for this one as some of the others. But I love Ella. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you standing Ella Fitzgerald.

[00:21:38] We need as much of that as we can handle. I just... Okay. But you're okay with this. I just need to see it all out, how it all shakes up. I'm very stressed out right now. Yeah. This is hard. This is like it's very personal for you, Bram.

[00:21:53] If one of you guys said, hey, I'm going to strike Let It Snow by Ella in favor of Slay Ride by Ella? Oh, now he's just playing. He's just playing. He's just doing stuff now. He's just trying to get her heads. This guy, are we ready?

[00:22:07] He's getting to number five. No, I think it's number six. Sorry, number six. Number six first. Here we go. Number six. Yeah. She's walking around. Rindley. If you guys don't agree with this one, you're just wrong. Yeah. Okay. Why? Okay. So Brenda Lee recorded this in 1958.

[00:22:27] She was 13 years old. That's impressive. That does not sound like a 13-year-old girl singing that. And Daniel, you'll be happy to know that I looked it up. That was during the Eisenhower administration. So fifties. Yeah. Real old. But here's the thing.

[00:22:41] This song did not reach number one until last year. Wow. It's just shocking. That's a fun fact. Yeah. And it was written by Johnny Marks. And I did a whole Tinseltunes episode on Johnny Marks. He wrote songs like Run Rudolph, Run, and Silver and Gold.

[00:22:55] And you name it. I love this song. This is a Christmas party song. It has the energy where something like the Frank Sinatra, Have Yourself Marry a Little Christmas, a little slow. Maybe you wouldn't want to play it at like a party that you wanted to keep going.

[00:23:09] But this one, no way. I will fight to the death for this song. Ryan, is this your top 10? Top 10 Christmas songs of all time. Brenda Lee rocking around the Christmas tree. At the very least, I think it's too high. Yeah.

[00:23:25] At the very least, I think it's too high. I do like the song. It is a, yeah, this is a great Christmas party song. It's high. It's high, Scotty. It's really high. It's okay. It's high for six. It's high for six at least.

[00:23:39] Maybe I did this intentionally so we'd have something to talk about. If I was making a list of the top 30 or 40 Christmas songs, this would be on here. It's not anywhere near the top 10. This is the most egregious pick so far. Wow. You're wrong, but that's okay.

[00:23:55] I just, I just, this song is like the most incredible parts of the song are the fun facts that you just mentioned. 13 when she recorded it, not number one till last year. Just a, this surroundings of the trappings of this song are amazing. The song itself is fine.

[00:24:14] I don't mind the song. I'm fine if I, if it's on the radio, I keep it on during the holidays. But top 10 is rarefied air here and this does not belong in it.

[00:24:24] And I get the feeling that I'm going to lose if I take it off the list based upon what Scott say. Well, this is, if I'm ranking the five up here, it is 10th. It is last for sure.

[00:24:37] It is very difficult for me at least to split a Christmas song from the memories that it invokes. Yeah, fair. I'm sure I have great memories of things I've been doing when this song was playing, you know, Christmas, the activities around Christmas, the cookie baking,

[00:24:55] all that kind of stuff. So I'm sure that's part of it. Fair. Yeah, it's tough. This is, yeah, six seems high, Scott. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it doesn't belong there. I'm going to have to sit with it.

[00:25:08] I'm going to have to live with a little bit. 16 seems high. Oh, Dan, you think 16 doesn't seem high? I bet there's 15 or 16 songs. You'd be like, okay, I bet there are just seeing you stress out about this tells me that there are plenty that you would

[00:25:21] have above it. All right. Why don't we go on to number five? Okay, let's go to number five. Number five. It's beginning to look like a lot of life. This would be the big Crosby one that I picked. Yeah, man. What a voice.

[00:25:38] There are so many big Crosby songs you could pick. Which one do you choose? I picked this one. There's something about it and the way he's singing it. And it's still upbeat without being too fast. Like rocking around the Christmas tree.

[00:25:52] I don't want to, I don't necessarily want to hear that when I'm sitting in that vibe that Brian was talking about by my tree on Christmas Eve. That's one I do. And what a great song. What a great... Recorded in 1951. So yeah, we're still in that era, Daniel.

[00:26:07] That's older than my father. Yeah. Here's one quick interesting fact that I did not know about this. So the song was written in 1951 by Meredith Wilson. Perry Como recorded a version of September 1951. Bing Crosby recorded a version in October of 1951. That's wild to me.

[00:26:26] Like two months apart, two different artists do very classic versions of the song. This is... Listen, the 50s... What year did you say it was? 51. The 50s were like, you know how nowadays Dan in the worship music world everybody's just stealing each other songs?

[00:26:44] That was the 50s but with pop music. Everybody was just doing, hey I like that. Give me that. Give me that. What a time. What a time it was. What do you think about this, Brian? I think this first of all, the song itself belongs on the list.

[00:27:00] I'm thinking through where I'm going to be making some changes. I kind of like Dan. I might do some swaps. I'm going to do two swaps obviously. Two swaps. But I think I might try... I got to see how the rest of this list plays out.

[00:27:15] But my swaps, Dan, I might make it my own personal role to keep the song change the artist. You can only do that once. You can only take one rendition out and put your own rendition in. We get two swaps. No, no, no. Two swaps which is... Right.

[00:27:31] Like oh I'm saying from my own personal... You're going to add that. I'm just going to do that. I think, I don't know because I can think of another version that I like more than bangs. Michael Buble's version of this song slaps. It absolutely slaps.

[00:27:42] It is a good version but I did... This is what's hard about it. I didn't want to pick a modern version amongst a bunch of 50s versions. I don't know why not. Michael Buble's version of this song is amazing. And I... Yeah, just not that into Michael Buble.

[00:27:57] Put him in a car driving to the edge of town, throw him out and drive home. That's what I would do. He's fine. Is he fine or do you want him dead, Scott? Not necessarily dead. I mean that's not cool. Just less of him.

[00:28:15] I could deal with less of him. There are so... Listen, this podcast... I really did filter myself very well. I just want you to think about who Bing Crosby is as a person and you want to throw Michael Buble out on the edge of town,

[00:28:30] do crushes it and he probably was nice to his children. Michael Buble was. I don't know what are we doing right now? Yeah, okay. Point taken, point taken. As long as Mariah Carey doesn't show up on this list, everything's going to be okay. Spoiler alert.

[00:28:47] Why don't we move on to number four? Let's do it. Here we go. Who do you mean, oh boy? That is high! No, it's high because that's where it belongs, Brandon. He's high. This is where this song belongs. If you're not having a holly jolly Christmas,

[00:29:10] you're having a crappy dappy Christmas. I can't believe this. I can't believe what's happening right now. You know what I said about the slops and making it? I've thrown it out. This right here is the most recent song on this list. 19, I believe 65. 64, yeah. Oh, 64.

[00:29:32] So we did just get in the 60 year mark. Yeah, it's practically brand new, Daniel. So Burlives was not the first to record this song, but his version is the most popular. This one was also written by Johnny Marks.

[00:29:46] So as I mentioned, he wrote Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Why don't you just marry Johnny Marks, Scott? Why don't you just marry him? Well, I would because he also did We Are Santa's Elves, The Island of Misfit Toys. I mean, this guy can do no wrong.

[00:30:00] And this is where this song belongs. Oh, no, it doesn't. It just doesn't. Scott, it doesn't. Okay, I don't know what you're going to... You're going to be like, oh, I need to hear Jars of Clay or something like that. No, yeah, Jars of...

[00:30:11] Modern voice of Christmas, Jars of Clay. I do love Jars of Clay. I've never heard it. I've never heard it. That version of Christmas for Cowboys is so good, but... Jars of Clay, that Christmas album slaps. We started off so well with these three.

[00:30:23] And now to the point, there's only three left and there's some big names that haven't appeared on this list. And... They're going to appear. They're going to appear. I don't think they are. I mean, we can't even... If you're under 60 years old, you're literally not represented.

[00:30:39] This is wild. If you're under 60 years old, your opinion does not matter to me. So here's number three. This is wild. Are you ready for number three? I'm ready. Reach that arm up. Hold on. Let's take a break. Let's take a break.

[00:30:50] Let's make Christmas music great again over here. We'll be right back here at Dekalver. Welcome back. Yeah, welcome back. Things were going so well. Scott and I were BFFs. And then... This is why we do the show, though. It is. We could have just stopped at number nine.

[00:31:14] Everything would have been great. What are we doing? Remember back in number nine when you played... Oh, we were so happy with the drifters. Scott Newman gets it. Yeah. All right. Let's do number three. Here we go. Number three.

[00:31:30] Don't tell me that that intro does not invoke Christmas feelings for you. Votes anger now. Oh my God. My goodness. You couldn't be more wrong. The hearted? The song was a binary state. Nope. You're extra wrong. Extra wrong. Why is it on your list at number three?

[00:31:48] Number three as the third best Christmas song of all time, Jingle Bell Rock, Bobby Helms. That is... That's one of the most iconic intros I can think of when it comes to Christmas music. And then the rest of the song happens. Oh, come on. This is from 1957.

[00:32:03] So yeah. Hey. Little bit old. Oh, little bit. But this is Bobby Helms' signature song. Richard Marks have something to do with it. Remember? I love you so much, Scotty. You're such a great dude. You're one of my favorite people in the whole wide world.

[00:32:22] I feel a butt coming on. But I don't love this play at three. Scott. Boo! Buddy. Basically what I've heard you say, Scott, is that the first three seconds of the song is why it's number three. That's exactly what you're saying. You know what?

[00:32:43] I will fight for that. Yes, when I hear it, I'm like, oh yeah, it's Christmas. Bring it on. And also the guitarist who did that little intro there, his name is Hank Garland. He also played on Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree with Brenda Lee, another minted top 10

[00:32:58] classic of all time. Yeah. All right. Similar risks. The reason that Scott just bragged so much about his elephants Gerald Pickett's because he knew his top five was all dead white alcoholics. Oh my... And that's his top five were five clansmen.

[00:33:12] He said, I got to clean this up. I got to make this look better. Give me a little drifters and Ella if I could. No, I don't believe that. All right. How about I save this whole thing with my number two? Oh, please do. Okay.

[00:33:25] This is where things are going to turn around here. Here we go. Number two. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's fine again. We're back on track. Yeah. Absolutely. We're back on everybody. We have righted the ship. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good selection.

[00:33:44] It's the most wonderful time of the year. Andy Williams also in Home Alone. Yeah. Basically, we should have just gone with the top 10 songs from Home Alone. Yeah. Honestly, could have somewhere in my memory. You can make an argument to the score itself. Could be in the top 10.

[00:34:02] I don't care for somewhere in my memory. Thank you. Why is this number two for you, Scotty? This one, okay, I actually know why. This song is often played in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. If you, I'm a parade aficionado. We should pot a parade. Yeah.

[00:34:24] But halfway through the parade, it turns into a Christmas parade. You know, it starts off, people are singing pop music and there's Broadway stuff. I don't want to hear all of that. Then all of a sudden it becomes a Christmas parade.

[00:34:34] Very typically, this song will be played and it's kind of the transition. And the same thing starts happening in commercials on television right around the week before Thanksgiving, where like all of a sudden Christmas is in full effect.

[00:34:50] This song is the one that heralds in Christmas to me. I love this. It's not the song I want to hear on Christmas Eve. It's the one that's starting the season for me. November 1st, yeah. No, no, no. Well, I mean if you're like me, maybe September first.

[00:35:03] October 1st at the latest is when I start really celebrating. I love it. I really love this song and I don't want anybody to miss, understand what I'm saying. It absolutely belongs on this list. I can see it at two.

[00:35:18] The hardest part of this is the constraints that we have given ourselves for two replaces and two swaps because it's just tough. It's tough. This is, I said I don't envy you but I'm having to do it basically.

[00:35:34] The thing that I didn't want to do, I'm having to do and so here we are. This is probably the worst day of my life so far. Wow. Okay.

[00:35:42] So here's the thing is the reason this writes the ship is because of the five picks that came before it. Do I think it's a little too high? Yes, but what I have gathered easily from this list from old Scotty Newman is that during Christmas season,

[00:35:54] Scott gets on his front porch in a rocking chair and he whittles. Oh. And when he hears pop music that's Christmas, he's like, ah, back in my day. Don't tempt me with a good time, Dan. I would love to sit on the porch there with my coffee.

[00:36:07] I just, the fact that not a single song from the last, because I got to be honest, Scott, there is only one number one.

[00:36:15] It's very important to me that, that I have one song that has to be on this list has to be, has to be, has to be. My favorite, my grandfather's favorite. If it's that Bruce Springsteen song, so help me, I will walk out of this interview.

[00:36:26] Absolutely not list for me. There is one song that has to be on this list for me, my grandfather's favorite, my favorite. It is Christmas. If it's not on this list, I just am going to lose it. But. Okay. I wonder if it's my number one?

[00:36:40] I wonder if it is. It has to be. Anything out of the same song. I think it is. I think there's going to be universal agreement here. Let's do number one. Number one. Number one. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. This is the Christmas song. Yeah.

[00:36:55] I think you said that was a little presumptive title when we did this one on Christmas morning, Brann. Yeah. You picked this one as the song we played on Christmas day last year and it was absolutely right. There is no other song I would pick.

[00:37:12] What an iconic song by an iconic artist. And this is another one, Daniel. We know we're talking about the old white guys that are on this list here. Mel Tormey went to bat for Nat King Cole on this one because the record company said, I don't

[00:37:27] think people watch Christmas songs by a black artist. And Mel Tormey said, no, you are doing this one. And what would what would Christmas be without this song? 1946. I mean, obviously a different time of a very tough time in our history. But I love this. This is timeless.

[00:37:46] I understand what you're saying about me. You're really old songs here. No, you're right. I think this is the best Christmas song of all time. And it's well over 60 years old.

[00:37:59] The fact that this list has songs from the 40s and 50s and 60s on it doesn't bother me at all. They belong here. The fact that this list is all songs from before, from nothing for the last 60 years. But I did that intentionally, Dan. Yeah.

[00:38:17] I don't love that. Having said that, let's not talk about what I don't love. Let's talk about what I do love, which is this pick. This pick is Christmas. This song is amazing. Nat King Cole's voice is one of one to sing this song.

[00:38:29] I can still see my grandfather putting in the cassette tape in his Ranchero Squire. I'm just telling you, this is it for me. I'm glad it's on the list. It had to be here. This is this is the version and the placement that I would have this song.

[00:38:44] No question about it. There's something interesting about the version as well, Daniel, because there are like four different versions of Nat King Cole doing this song. This particular one, I think might have been the third and it was re-recorded with like the trio, right? A full orchestra.

[00:38:59] The very first one does not have the strings in it and it feels like a very different song. This is another one where you hear those opening bars and you're like, oh yeah, this is it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now we have a hard job to do.

[00:39:15] What are the rules here, Dan? The rules are this. You can take any two titles out you want and replace them with two of your own. You can switch the placements of two movies twice. Of two songs. Two songs. Of two songs twice, sorry.

[00:39:31] And then also you can do a rendition replacement where you can just take a song and give you a different rendition. Those are the things that you can do. Okay? Man. Boy, oh boy.

[00:39:46] There's so many songs I want included in this list that are not on this list. It's crazy. All right, I'm going to go, I'll go first. Okay? Are you ready? Are you ready for this? I'm listening. All right, here's what we're going to do.

[00:39:57] I just want you to know right off the bat where I'm replacing some things. Okay? Scotty, I'm getting rid of number four and number three. Okay. And that's what? Holly Jolly Christmas and Jingle Bell Rock. That's right. So you hate Christmas. You're an evil person.

[00:40:13] Those are the two that I'm going to get rid of. Well, that makes the level playing feel here. Okay. For I'm getting rid of, let's start with Holly Jolly. I'm getting rid of Holly Jolly Christmas and I am going to replace it with my current

[00:40:27] favorite modern Christmas song underneath the tree by Kelly Clarkson. It's so good. It's so good. I love the song. I love the song. I love Kelly Clarkson. Hey, pal. And I need at least some sort of modernness to it. And so, but I'm doing it at 10. Sorry.

[00:40:50] I'm also, I'm doing a swap there. So Holly Jolly Christmas is out underneath the tree is in, but then I am doing a switch them up and underneath the tree is going to be number 10. Christmas baby please come home is going to be number four. Are you tracking?

[00:41:06] Okay. I'm tracking. I'm tracking. Let's go to number three. I'm getting rid of Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms. I'm replacing it with Slay Ride by the Rinnettes. That was one that I removed from my list. So I'm down with that one. I adore that song.

[00:41:23] I think it's fantastic. I also think it's high for three. So I'm going to do another swap. Three is now going to become eight and have yourself a merry little Christmas is going to go to three. Okay.

[00:41:35] So that leaves me with one version replacement, which I am going to replace. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas been Crosby bings out buble's and yes. Yes. Thank you guys. Thank you. I think I did a really good work here. Give her the circumstances.

[00:41:55] So number 10 underneath the tree, Kelly Clarkson, number nine, white Chris Christmas, the drifters, number eight, Slay Ride the Rinnettes. Number seven, let it snow Ella Fitzgerald. Number six, rock around the Christmas tree, Brenda Lee. Five is beginning to look a lot like Christmas buble.

[00:42:12] Four Christmas baby please come home darling love three. Have yourself a merry little Christmas Frank Sinatra. Two is the most wonderful time of the year. Andy Williams and number one, of course, it's the Christmas song Nat King Cole. That's my 10. That's what I did with your list, Scotty.

[00:42:28] Early thoughts. Early thoughts. I'm not a fan of Kelly Clarkson, but you know, number 10, I could see it in there. Nobody cares about number 10. Wow. Nobody cares about number 10. Thank you. Before I give you my list. I do like the Rinnettes though. It's a great choice.

[00:42:44] Love that version of Slay Ride and also little inside baseball here. If you listen to that song on headphones, you can hear where it's edited. There is an editing flaw in there. Really? Yeah. You can hear it like in your left ear.

[00:42:58] You can hear her singing the next verse as it's clicked out. Interesting. That's very, I just want to say I personally, I could have if I really wanted to be that guy I could have done Slay Ride by Relying K. I also love that version.

[00:43:14] That's a good version. But I couldn't in good conscience do it with the Rinnettes. A couple of absolutely have to be mentioned songs here that aren't on this list and I'm not adding. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays by NSYNC. Oh my God, that song is trash in your trash.

[00:43:31] Has to be mentioned. All I want for Christmas were I carry. Has to be mentioned. These are songs that matter. One of the worst songs in the world. Christmas and Hollis, Run DMC. Okay, that's an awesome song. Has to be mentioned. These songs have to be mentioned.

[00:43:45] But if I was doing a modern list, that would absolutely be on there. And then lastly, I can't believe I'm not adding this. Christmas Eve's Sarajevo Trans-Siberian Orchestra must be mentioned, should be on this list.

[00:43:56] Well the only problem with that song then is it's every Christmas light fight. Like everybody who's ever done a Christmas light to split. It's so overplayed. I understand what you're saying. So the songs that I couldn't have on this list, Bruce Springsteen's Santa Coming

[00:44:10] to Town, Santa Baby, One Hip-A-Potters for Christmas, Christmas Wrapping, War is Over, Do They Know It's Christmas or Melly Kalikimaka? Absolutely not for none of those. Here we go. Number one, Staying with That King Cole. Number two, Sticking with Andy Williams. Number three, Bobby Helms Is Out.

[00:44:26] What Christmas Means to Me, Stevie Wonder In. Yeah, okay Stevie Wonder. I wanted him on the list too and I was going to do Someday a Christmas because that is one of my favorite songs. I'm going to move him in a second but right now he's three.

[00:44:39] Number four, Burl Ives Out. This Christmas Donnie Hathaway In. This Christmas is a day. This Christmas Donnie Hathaway. What Christmas Means to Me, Stevie Wonder are both absolute necessities. Bangers have to be on here. Number five, Bing Crosby Get Out of Here, Michael Buble.

[00:44:58] Come on in the front door, you're not a criminal. No he's out at the edge of town I left him. Michael Buble, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. Then I'm keeping the rest of the list the same but then I'm going to switch.

[00:45:08] So my final list is this. Here we go. One, That King Cole. Two, Andy Williams. Three, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Four, The Drifters White Christmas. Five, Buble, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. Six, Brindley. Seven, Ella Fitzgerald.

[00:45:25] Eight, What Christmas Means to Me, Stevie Wonder. Nine, This Christmas Donnie Hathaway. Ten, Baby Please Come Home. Darling Love. All in all done. That's the list. There's no Kelly Clarkson in there. That's the list, Scotty. It is. It is. That felt like he's trying to sell you.

[00:45:43] You didn't boo a single one of my songs that made the list. I'm just saying. No and if this was a top 25 list almost everything you said Daniel I would have included. With the addition of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by the Jackson Five.

[00:45:57] Not because I love that song. It's just so Christmasy. It is very Christmasy. Yep, it is. It is. And I love Stevie Wonder's Christmas music. The Jackson Five versions of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus is like the exception to the rule of that song. That song. Correct.

[00:46:16] Yeah. Something about the Jackson Five version that still works. Yeah. All right, Scott. Right now. Now's the time. It's at Brands list here on the disc list. It would be Daniel's list. Yeah. Yeah. It was Kelly Clarkson that did it. Kelly Clarkson.

[00:46:32] I gotta be honest, Kelly Clarkson was in my top 16 too. She was. But it's a great song. I actually would. What was the second change that you made, Brandon? What was the other song? Slay Ride by the Renex.

[00:46:42] See I would Mr. Potato Head and I would take that one and I would put it into Dan's list and I would drop Boublé and I think I'd be a pretty happy guy. Yeah.

[00:46:51] Oh, I always wanted to put Kelly Clarkson on the list because I think she belongs there now. I think she's now kind of this granted, you know, honestly, Mariah belongs on the list but what can you do? Yes. Kelly Clarkson to me, she has so many Christmas hits.

[00:47:08] Her Christmas albums are so good. I needed her to be on the list but I put her at ten. Say what about that In Sync song dude? That song's a bomb. The song's fine. I'm just not a fan of In Sync or boy bands in general.

[00:47:18] No, you want to sit on your phone porch and think about how life was when just white dudes were in charge. Well, yeah, that's right. That's right. When the golf course was only represented by one class of people.

[00:47:28] No, I wasn't, I was probably too old for the In Sync one to really have like childhood memories but I think you were right in the slot, Daniel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This was fun. I like this Christmas and Slay Ride where I'm dueling it out.

[00:47:44] So I'm glad we tried this version. That way is great. What a, what a, that's a really good choice. I love that one. I don't know if there is a... Sunday at Christmas is probably one of, we should have been in my top five.

[00:47:52] Now that I'm thinking about it, I should have brought more flavor to the list and represented myself a little better because I was trying to make the every person's list. And Scotty, you know I'm giving you a hard time. Oh yeah. You're wonderful.

[00:48:04] I can't wait to see you next week. I think this Christmas is like the modern song that's been covered the most at this point. I feel like everybody has covered this Christmas. So it's a great point. It's good. Should be on the list. Great job, everybody.

[00:48:17] A great list by I think all of us. Yeah man. I think we all did a great job. Scotty, what do you want to tell the people to listen to maybe in their spare time? Well they should come and listen to Christmas morning with, with Brandon Scott because

[00:48:31] we do that every week. And you know it's one of Daniel's favorite shows. I don't know. I freaking love it. Every single week he's like, you know I could use a little dose of Christmas. I'm going to hear from him. Which is a huge lie. He never listens.

[00:48:44] No. Lying liar if he ever says he listens to it. 406 days no Christmas. Not possible. Next year. Like, bang, honk, honk. It is a Christmas morning show. It's the morning zoo and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's the morning zoo of Christmas shows.

[00:48:58] Play, play, play, play them. Exactly. We do need more of those. And come listen to Tinseltoons as well. We go into the history of a lot of these songs a little bit more and just we'd

[00:49:06] love to have you but Christmas morning you know it's me and you Brandon. I missed it. I was gone for two weeks and I sorely missed it. We got a live Christmas morning coming up at Bramble Fest in just a couple, just a week and a half.

[00:49:20] A week and a half. A week from today. So it's going to be very exciting. Scotty thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me guys. We're going to be back next week with more Christmas in July fun, Dan O. Yeah we are.

[00:49:31] Until then we wish you a merry Christmas. Deck the Hallmark the Bramble Jam podcast is produced by Aaron Shea. For more information on Deck the Hallmark you can go to deckthehallmark.com. For more information on the Deck the Hallmark family you can go to bramblejamplus.com.

[00:49:44] Deck the Hallmark is presented by Philo TV for a free trial of Philo. Go to Philo.tv. You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio. Thanks for listening or don't listen. It's really up to you at this point.

[00:50:07] It's at the end of the show. I mean you're listening to me hi but here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep, here they are. Happy day.