It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Johnny Mathis

I'm not sure why I have a fondness for cheesy northern hemisphere Christmas music; things couldn't look more different to those snowy chocolate box scenes here in New Zealand at this time of the year. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas is another Christmas offering by Johnny Mathis. Once again, there are many, many versions around and this one was also made famous by a movie sequel - but I won't hold that against it. I actually think it's just Mathis' dulcet tones that could win me over with almost anything he sings - don't you agree?

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

If you Google Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, you will find versions by dozens of artists - just check out this list! One I like (even if it borders on cliché) is by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Again, there are heaps of versions of the band performing this live at Christmas shows, each with its own variation on the ad lib at the start. It picks up near the middle and turns into quite a rocky version, one which even goes well with ukulele backing! What will Santa Claus bring you for Christmas?

Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea

Christmas songs are largely about anticipation and looking forward to something, whether it it's a big meal, a family event, truckloads of presents or the whole holiday being over and done with as soon as possible. I quite like Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea, whose voice and musical sound is not so Christmassy and therefore conveys not only anticipation, but also impatience, tiredness and the feeling that time d r a g s  o u t  so very much at this time of the year - especially for those who have to work through or up until the last minute. Save driving, everyone!

Fairytale of New York - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl

As clichéd as this song has become in bars and Irish pubs around the world, Fairytale of New York by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl is essentially a bittersweet love song with something for everyone: hope, cheap romance and passion, as well as drunkenness, naughty words and insults for the boys to chuckle at. A working class immigrant couple down on their luck are plagued by alcoholism and drug addiction before being swallowed up by the big apple itself ... dreams are crushed and reality bites. All good Christmas themes, right? ;-)

Reckless - Australian Crawl

I might say this a lot, but I really mean it when I say that Reckless by Australian Crawl is one of my favourite songs of all time. The lyrics left me always wanting to catch the Manly Ferry to Circular Quay the next time I was in Sydney, something which is not as glamorous as this song makes it sound.

From its simple start featuring nothing but fretless bass, kick drum and a gated snare, the magic of this song is largely in the gaps between notes ; teasers, if you like, or pregnant pauses filled with anticipation. (Gosh, that's poetic for a Friday!) The bowed cello parts are complemented beautifully by a lightly plucked nylon acoustic guitar, which comes to the fore and steals the scene during the classical style solo and outro. Pure magic.

Mary Had A Little Lamb - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble

I was taught to enjoy Stevie Ray Vaughan by my musician father, who has every one of SRV's albums, copies of which have made it onto both of my iPods over the years. There is almost too much to say about Stevie Ray Vaughan, the roller coaster lifestyle he led and his massive contribution to modern blues guitar playing. Like many, I vividly remember being touched by the news that SRV had met an untimely death in 1990.

The guitarist in my former band was the ultimate SRV fan and it showed in his playing. On the tragic day of SRV's death, his wife set up his guitar in the lounge, arranged candles, flowers and all his SRV albums around it, creating a little shrine for the man. Apparently that was going a step or two too far (the emotions were pretty raw) but it's a story we've all dined out on for years. However, thanks to him and my father, I have an ongoing love of all his music today.

There's another story in our musical circles about the time that SRV played a concert in Wellington several years ago (still the loudest concert my father has ever been to). Another guitarist from our band insists he was jamming in The Rock Shop, or whatever it was called in those days, alongside an American guitarist who had wandered in. It turned out to be SRV himself. How cool is that!

Mary Had A Little Lamb, released in 1983, is not my favourite Stevie Ray Vaughan song but is incredibly memorable for me, my family and our bands. We played this version of Buddy Guy's arrangement as part of our fourth bracket for years for purely indulgent reasons; it was our excuse to play long and loud, with each of us enjoying a solo or two on a simple bed of twelve bar blues. Hearing it again today takes me right back to those late nights and good times. Once again, listen to this one loudly.

There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) - Eurythmics

I've been going through a bit of a pop resurgence lately. There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) from 1985 typefies the 80s sound and presents it in an upbeat, positive package sans cheese. Eurythmics (not The Eurythmics, as they are commonly yet incorrectly called) were far better musicians than their synthesised demeanours suggest. One thing's for certain, no-one else has a voice like Annie Lennox; no-one even comes close, but that's not all there is to this duo. 

There Must Be An Angel is my favourite Eurythmics song (but a few of their other numbers are not far behind). To me, it is a complete package which builds from the instantly identifiable intro right through to when it fades out while still on such a high. Hear how the bridge into the solo builds and builds - more of a stairway to heaven than another cliched songs I could name. I have listened over and over (and over) to the chunky piano octaves leading into the superbly spine chilling harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder, who also jams an amazing outro. *drool*

Hold On Tight - ELO

Hold On Tight was a major single for the band ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) in 1981 but I don't remember being really aware of it until sometime during the 1990s. To me, this is a very different sound to any of their other material. Hold On Tight is the first ELO song that doesn't feature strings, but it's more than that; I love the throwback to rock and roll with a chunky piano part that punctuates each line. Nostalgia kicks in as I hear the guitar during the chorus; for some reason, I can envisage the guitarist from my old band leaning back with his eyes closed and strumming those long chords, even though I don't think he/we ever played this song.

This has to be one of the most uplifting songs EVER, lacking even the tiniest touch of cynicism. The lyrics have got me through some tough times; this song always seems to play at just the right time and place for me. It was several years before I looked up the lyrics for the third verse and discovered that it is the first verse repeated by in French. Très intelligent!