Christmas with a leather jacket and more

The passing of Christmas day is accompanied by a soundtrack made up of many songs, which come from history, tradition, market laws and custom. Each of these collections is compiled according to your own style, passions, choices and is dictated by your own taste.

Even rock, which for some may be rough – in contrast to Christmas – does not forget to celebrate the day of the Nativity, but does it in its own way, perhaps replacing the bells with powerful drums, the violins with guitars.

In some cases rock artists have reread tradition, in others they have instead followed their own creative path and often seasoned the songs with a good dose of irony.

Here are some examples, certainly not an exhaustive collection.

The Darkness – Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)
It is a single by Justin Hawkins’ band released in 2003 and is a parody of traditional Christmas songs. The song reached platinum status in England

The Killers – Don’t Shoot Me Santa
Another single released (for download only) in 2007. Check out the video.

Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime
“A Very Special Christmas 3” is the third in the A Very Special Christmas series, a compilation album of Christmas songs released on 23 September 1997. Among the songs there is also one signed by Billy Corgan, performed with the Smashing Pumpkins entitled “Christmastime

Queen – Thank, God It’s Christmas
“Thank, God It’s Christmas” is a ballad by Queen, B-Side of a single released in 1984 and contained in the album “The Works”. The following year it was included in the box set “The Complete Works”. But the song’s notoriety came in 1999 when we found it as a bonus track in the hits compilation “Greatest Hits III”.
“Both Roger and I – Brian May recalled in 2001 – had an idea for a Christmas single around July of that year. We went and made some demos and decided that Roger’s was the best. The other song, mine, became Anita’s Christmas song a couple of years later, entitled “I Dream Of Christmas”.
In 1997 the same guitarist said about writing Christmas songs: “Well, the funny thing is that you have to make Christmas records in the summer, and you don’t feel like it. Because if you start making them at Christmas, obviously it’s all over before you get them out.”

Cheap Trick – Christmas Christmas
The song, signed by the band, is part of an album by the American band entirely dedicated to Christmas songs released in 2017. The album features original compositions and covers of both traditional and more recent Christmas songs by other rock artists. Rick Nielsen’s guitar dictates the line, in perfect style of the band.

Def Leppard We All Need Christmas
In 2018 Def Leppard released their first Christmas song, this “We All Need Christmas”. The song was included as part of the bonus single with the anthology “The Story So Far…The Best Of Def Leppard”, released on November 30, 2018. The song was written by Rick Savage and produced by Ronan McHugh.
“We All Need Christmas” is the demonstration that even the roughest rockers have a delicate heart after all and that the atmosphere of Christmas also passes through the (apparent) hard shells and the permanent grim blondes leave room for melancholy.

AC/DC – Mistress For Christmas
However, Ac/Dc did not let themselves be softened by Christmas and in 1990 they released “Mistress For Christmas” (with Brian Johnson again on vocals), included in the album “The Razors Edge”. The bells (even if they mention them) and the violins of the Christmas tradition are certainly not for them. We realize that it is the celebration (in their own way) of the moment of celebration only because there is the word Christmas in the title and in the text, which is also very “hot” and certainly not in the tradition.

Even black music, with its different rhythms and styles, has expressed itself musically on Christmas. Let’s see some examples.

Run DMC – Christmas In Hollis
In 1987 Run-DMC celebrated Christmas with their artistic vision and transported the stereotype of the holiday into the world of hip hop by telling about Santa Claus and parties in the suburb of Hollis, Queens. And so you can dance at Christmas too.

James Brown – Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto
Unfortunately for James Brown, Christmas 2006 was fatal, it was on that day that he left us. Much earlier, in 1968, he published his “Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto” (contained in the Christmas album “A Soulful Christmas”), a song with a strong funky flavor that conveys a powerful social message, with an invitation to Santa Claus to bring joy and hope to the poorest neighborhoods. In 2002 it was covered by Snoop Dogg.

https://youtu.be/cz48PR__uSo

Rufus Thomas – I’ll Be Your Santa Baby
Another funky and energetic Christmas, with an alternative Santa Claus. This is what Rufus Thomas told in 1973 with the song entitled “I’ll Be Your Santa Baby”, released on the legendary Stax Records label

Keb Mo’ – Merry Merry Christmas

Everything is softer, warmer and more relaxed in the soulful song “Merry Merry Christmas” released in 2019 by Keb’ Mo’. Must see the video

Prince – Another Lonely Christmas

In 1984, Prince explored the dark side of Christmas, that of loneliness, in his “Lonely Christmas,” about a heartbroken widower who wakes up the day after Christmas. The only time Prince performed the song live was on December 26, 1984, the day after Christmas, during a series of benefit performances for a food drive in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“Another Lonely Christmas” was the B-side to the 1984 hit “I Would Die 4 U.”

Stevie Wonder – Someday at Christmas
“Someday at Christmas” is a song by Stevie Wonder, taken from his first Christmas album and eighth studio album of the same title released in 1967. It is a song of hope, one day everything will be okay, and maybe that day will even be Christmas . “Someday at Christmas” achieved success with the version released by the Jackson 5 in 1970 on the Jackson 5 Christmas Album.

These are all original songs. However, there are also some interesting and curious rock reinterpretations of traditional songs or by other bands.

Weezer – O Holy Night
In 2008 the Californian alternative/emo rock band released a Christmas EP entitled “Christmas with Weezer”, a collection of Christmas classics reinterpreted in the group’s style. Among the 6 tracks the band transports us into the Holy Night on the notes of “O Holy night” (there is nothing more classic than this), a song written in 1847 which has evidently resisted the passage of time and which Weezer tackle in their own way.

Khruangbin – Christmas Time Is Here Again!

In 1967 the Beatles released their fifth Christmas album for the fan club entitled “Christmas Time Is Here Again!” which contains the song of the same name, a song that later “disappeared” and reappeared (in a shortened version) in the Fab Four collection published by Apple and in December 1995 as the B-side of the song “Free as a Bird”. The 1967 version was re-released on “The Christmas Records,” a 2017 limited edition box set of the band’s original Christmas records. And that’s where the incredible Texan trio Khruangbin listened to it and made their own version in 2016.