Last weekend Jaq and I threw a Christmas party, and of course it was my job to put together some music. I was short on time and most of my Christmas music is on vinyl, so I decided to use my Rhapsody account and slap together a quick Christmas playlist. I picked a few obvious favorites—Dylan’s insane new Christmas album, Phil Spector, Charles Brown, etc—but then I decided it would be fun to put together a jazz playlist. I was happy to discover that there was quite a lot, except, that is, when I did a search for Louis Armstrong. I had assumed that since he recorded in the heyday of classic Christmas pop music, there must be quite a few Armstrong renditions of seasonal favorites. I was wrong. There are plenty of Armstrong Christmas albums, but not a single one that isn’t supplemented with either tracks by other artists or Armstrong cuts that can barely be stretched into the holiday tradition. He just didn’t care for Christmas music, I guess.
My favorite, by far, is Wonderful Christmas, which has both the cheesiest cover and the most bizarre song selection. Its fourteen tracks include three actual Christmas songs, two songs that are often performed as if they were holiday related, even though they’re not (“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “Moonlight In Vermont”), and nine cuts that have no relation to Christmas or wintertime whatsoever. These include “Hello Dolly” (well, it was a hit), “Jeepers Creepers”, “New Orleans Stomp”, and the woeful blues of “St James Infirmary”. The two eyebrow raisers, though, are “Just A Gigolo” (is he a present?) and “I Want A Butter and Egg Man”, which, as you might have guessed, is not about dairy products. It is, however, about a sneaky guy who makes special deliveries. That’s close enough to Christmas, I guess.
