One of my favorite things about Last.FM is that you can pretty much put in any adjective (”tag”) into the radio search bar and it’ll randomly play songs that users have tagged with that word. The more often people have tagged a song, the more likely it is that it’ll be played on that radio station.

The “Holiday Spirit” has hit me and I’m listening to music tagged as “Christmas.” These are the songs that came up on the radio and my impression of them:

1. Chris Rea - “Driving Home For Christmas”

I’ve never heard this song before, although it looks like it’s actually very popular (it was played over 13K times last week.) I must say it’s absolutely terrible. Light rock drivel.

2. Elton John - “Step Into Christmas”

I don’t think I’ve actually heard this one before either? Although it seems like I would have. It was played over 11K times last week. It’s pretty decent. I’d listen to it again.

3. Paul McCartney - “Wonderful Christmastime”

Just over 9K times last week, less than the previous two songs. That’s a travesty because this song is way better than either of them! I love the weird synth sounds and the “ding dong” bit. It’s an absolutely ridiculous song. Just the way it should be.

4. The Waitresses - “Christmas Wrapping”

I think I’ve heard this before but I’m not overly familiar with it. I don’t really know The Waitresses, although looking at their page I see they’re the band that does “I Know What Boys Like.” I do like this song. It’s a good time. I give it 4 Christmas trees and a barrel of eggnog. It had 7K listeners last week. Hmm… Is it a coincidence that each song that comes up had less listeners than the one before?

5. Fiona Apple - “Frosty the Snowman”

Over 4K plays last week. I don’t think I’ve heard this before, it’s a pretty damn swell version of the song. I dig it.

6. Cliff Richard - “Mistletoe and Wine”

I hadn’t heard this one before either. I really haven’t heard much of Cliff Richard. I know that he’s some cheesy UK pop star and this is a good example of that reputation, I suppose because this is a very cheesy song (even for a Christmas song.) And what’s up with the way “christian” is pronounced in this song? “christ-tee-un”? WTF? It has over 4K plays last week.

7. Sarah McLachlan - “Silent Night”

Over 6K plays last week (this breaks the streak of every song having had less plays than the one before it.) This is a very pretty version of a very pretty song. I like it. I’m a sucker for this kind of silky smooth vocal production. Sounds almost like Enya.

8. Michael Buble - “White Christmas”

I’m a big “White Christmas” fan but I think I’ll stick with the Bing Crosby version. Over 4K plays of this version last week. Meanwhile, Bing’s version had over 14K plays last week, so that’s groovy. Bing is a pretty awesome name, isn’t it?

So I was just adding this song to the Amazon mp3 player thing (you’ll see it embedded at the bottom of this post) and another version came up on a compilation called “Sing It Like An Idol” and it says “as made famous by Michael Buble.” WTF?! “White Christmas” was famous before Michael Buble was born. Idiots.

9. Bryan Adams - “Run Rudolph Run”

Over 1K listeners last week (easily the fewest thus far.) This isn’t bad I suppose, but I’m not much of a Bryan Adams fan.

10. Brenda Lee - “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”

Over 12K listeners last week. Now we’re talking! I love this one. Did you know that Brenda Lee was only 13 years old when she recorded this vocal? That blew me away when I found that out.

11. Bobby Helms - “Jingle Bell Rock”

Over 16K listeners last week! Definitely a classic. I’m not sure if Ed Helms (from The Office & The Hangover) is actually related to this guy or not. I can’t find any reference to it on wikipedia. I had heard he is his grandson, but maybe that’s BS.

12. Jose Feliciano - “Feliz Navidad”

Ah yeah… It’s interesting. These guys who are only known for a Christmas song. Over 9K listeners last week. This is one of those songs where it almost doesn’t even seem like it has a performer. It’s in the ether. OK, I think that bit of nonsense is a sign that I’m done with this little exercise.

Christmas, Chris Rea, The Waitresses, Bryan Adams, Brenda Lee

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