Episode notes
The Albums:
Vince Guraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Andy Williams’ The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963)
Stax Records’ Christmas in Soulsville (2007)
Heat Rocks was hyped to have film critic Alonso Duralde (The Wrap), one of the hosts of Maximum Fun’s movie podcast Who Shot Ya? guest with us to talk about our favorite Christmas songs, holiday fare, songs that should play when it’s cold outside, baby.
We visit the canon of Christmas music over the years (Andy Williams 1963 The Christmas Album, Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas and Stax Record’s 2007 compilation Christmas In Soulsville and across genres and styles – crooners, sweeping orchestral cinematic pieces, summer songs vs. winter songs, modern Christmas traditions, etc.
Alonso broke down the power of nostalgia as it relates to Christmas music and how our tastes in music are informed by tradition.
Don’t be a grinch. Listen to this wintery wonderland of an episode about favorite Christmas tracks.
More on Alonso Duralde
Show Tracklisting
- Booker T and the MG’s: Winter Wonderland (Take 2)
- The Waitresses: Wrapping Paper
- Ella Fitzgerald: The Christmas Song
- The Shins: Wonderful Christmastime
- Michael Jackson: Little Christmas Tree
- Wild Man Fischer: I’m A Christmas Tree
- Brian McKnight: Let It Snow
- Frank Sinatra: White
- Andy Williams: Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells
- Andy Williams: Happy Holiday/ The Holiday Season
- Andy Williams: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
- Andy Williams: Sweet Little Jesus Boy
- Mariah Carey: All I Want for Christmas is You
- Vince Guraldi: Christmas Time is Here (Vocal)
- Vince Guraldi: Christmas Time is Here (Instrumental)
- Vince Guraldi: Skating
- Vince Guraldi: O Tannenbaum
- Vince Guraldi: The Christmas Song
- Otis Redding: Merry Christmas, Baby
- The Staple Singers: Who Took the Merry out of Christmas
- Albert King: Santa Claus Wants Some Loving
- The Emotions: Black Christmas
- Isaac Hayes: The Mistletoe and Me
- Booker T and the MG’s: Winter Wonderland (Take 2)
- Nate Dogg: Be Thankful
- Little Johnny Taylor: Please Come Home for Christmas
- Juice Crew: Cold Chillin’ Christmas
- The Free Design: Close Your Mouth It’s Christmas
- Kenny Bobien: Let Us Adore Him (Come O Ye Faithful)
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
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In this episode...
Guests
- Alonso Duralde
About the show
Hosted by Oliver Wang and Morgan Rhodes, every episode of Heat Rocks invites a special guest to talk about a heat rock – a hot album, a scorching record. These are in-depth conversations about the albums that shape our lives.
Our guests include musicians, writers, and scholars and though we don’t exclusively focus on any one genre, expect to hear about albums from the worlds of soul, hip-hop, funk, jazz, Latin, and more.
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