Cleveland-based music journalist Annie Zaleski has recently published a delightful book celebrating 100 favorite holiday hits, presented in chronological order, from the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas (covered by everyone from Bob & Doug McKenzie, The Muppets to John Denver and Twisted Sister) and Bing Crosby’s (1942) classic White Christmas, all the way to Someday at Christmas (2015) by Andra Day & Stevie Wonder and Taylor Swift’s (2019) Christmas Tree Farm.
Delving into the back stories and revelatory tales behind each of these hundred holiday hits, Zaleski digs up delicious details that will delight and surprise everyone who simply can’t escape hearing many of these tunes in the background during the holiday season. Classics like Eartha Kitt’s Santa Baby (1953), “jazzy, slow-burning seduction,” Elvis Presley’s Blue Christmas (1957), “an instantly classic slice of holiday heartbreak,” and David Bowie & Bing Crosby’s Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy (1982), a personal favorite that Zaleski calls “head scratching,” sit side by side with deep cuts like Joni Mitchell’s River (1971), not really a Christmas song at all, Prince’s Another Lonely Christmas (1984), lamenting the death of a lover, and Bob Dylan’s Must Be Santa (2009), expressing his sense of humor.
Does the reader end up singing these songs in their head as they read This Is Christmas? Oh yes! In fact, it drove me to create a playlist in TIDAL to listen to these gems in high resolution in the proper and timely order. Is the book educational, exposing the reader to new holiday songs to obliviate the Top-40 overplayed Christmas songs every holiday season. Oh yes, indeed! And does This Is Christmas, Song By Song make a lovely holiday gift for just about anyone? Yes, it surely will. I’m gifting this copy and buying another.
This Is Christmas, Song By Song: The Stories Behind 100 Holiday Hits, by Annie Zaleski, published by Running Press. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/annie-zaleski/this-is-christmas-song-by-song/9780762482726/