The top Yuletide songs

The Philippines is known all over the world for having the longest Christmas Season. Stores begin hawking Christmas wares late in August and decorations go up after All Saints’ Day in November. And we keep those up to Jan. 6 which was once the Feast of The Three Kings. The date was moved some years ago to the first Sunday of the year but it is no use telling the Christmas hungry Pinoy that. Hereabouts we cling to Christmas as though for dear life. Then again in these difficult times the promise of hope that Christmas brings might be all that keeps us afloat.

But why dampen the celebration. Today is Christmas Day and you might as well liven things up by listening to Christmas music. Besides, we only have a week or two to enjoy these songs that seem to grow more beautiful each year with the addition of personal memories. Then the albums go back to storage until next year when we take them out again.

Silent Night, O Holy Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem and other traditional carols will always be among our favorites. Recent times though have seen the emergence of Christmas songs composed in the mold of current trends. They alternate between the sublime, White Christmas and the humorous, The Chipmunk Song, but each certainly embodies how listeners regard and value the message of the season.

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), the world’s largest performing rights organization, recently came up with a list of the most performed Christmas songs of the past five years. That means that these are the songs that have been recorded several times over by various artists, are constantly heard in concert and over the radio, TV and the Net and now considered modern classics.

Topping the list is The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) which was written by Robert Wells and the popular crooner Mel Torme. I suppose that it was lyricist Torme who was known as The Velvet Fog for his sexy, smoky tones, who first recorded the song when he was only 19 years old. The guy who made it a hit though was Nat King Cole who released his recording in 1946. As for the song’s current popularity, I think I will give credit for that to Celine Dion who has an excellent version in her These are Special Times album. Celine’s I believe, is also one of the best Christmas albums available in the stores today. If you are interested in the Nat Cole rendition, it is available in the Now! That’s What I Call Christmas! collection.

Here are the rest of the Top 25 songs in the ASCAP list: Santa Claus is Coming to Town; Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas; Winter Wonderland; White Christmas; Let It Snow, Let It Snow; Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer; Jingle Bell Rock; I’ll be Home for Christmas; Little Drummer Boy; Sleigh Ride, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Silver Bells; Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree; Feliz Navidad; Blue Christmas; Frosty the Snowman; A Holly Jolly Christmas; I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus; Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane); It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas; (There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays; Carol of the Bells; Santa Baby and Wonderful Christmastime.

The oldest songs in the list are Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Winter Wonderland which were both composed in 1934. The newest is Wonderful Christmastime, which was written and recorded by Paul McCartney in 1979. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas continues to hold the record as the most recorded Christmas song. There are now over 500 versions in various languages. One of the newest by the operatic boy group Il Divo in The Il Divo Christmas Collection, mixes English and Italian lyrics.

There are so many things that we consider symbolic of Christmas but I think nothing among them captures its meaning the way the music does. This holds true in the soaring Gloria in Excelsis sung by the choir during the Christmas Mass and in the thank you, thank you ang babait ninyo, thank you from children carolers.

Merry Christmas.