The Most Donkey Non-Christmas Christmas Music Ever

There is a Christmas tree lot not a Donkey-trot from my front door. It’s been there, and, apparently doing vigorous business, since the week before Thanksgiving. So, you people who think a Christmas tree will last more than a solid month, enjoy a dead, brown, shedding, brittle fire-hazard of a tree on Christmas morning.

But now it is officially time to give into Christmas. And that means Christmas music. Think this through and do not cringe. Elvis and “Blue Christmas.” Chuck Berry (or Keith Richards) and “Run, Run, Rudolph.” The Ronettes and “Baby, Please Come Home” (best Christmas pop song ever?) Charles Brown and “Merry Christmas, Baby.” James Brown and “Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto.” Charlie Parker and “White Christmas.” Johnny Guarnieri and “Santa’s Secret” (a/k/a, “Santa Claus is Smokin’ Reefer”).

So there’s a bunch of good Christmas music out there. Check out the Brown-Eyed Southern Girl’s recent post on Christmas music (link to the right) for five sides of jive that will get you swingin’ through the season.

There is, however, a whole other genre of Christmas music, and that’s the non-Christmas Christmas music. These are tunes that just fit the season, that get your holiday spirit right, that, if you will, set the chestnuts roastin’ proper. Consider, for example, that the song “Winter Wonderland” was written in the dead of summer and actually makes no lyrical reference to Christmas. But is it anything but a Christmas song? And once you’ve heard Brother Ray or Ella tackle it…yes, that is a fork in you, and yes, it is Christmas and yes, you are done.

So here it is: the most Donkey non-Christmas Christmas music of all time was recorded in 1957 and can currently be found spread across two albums and three CDs – Ella & Louis, and Ella & Louis Again. Louis already has a cornerstone of the Christmas cannon, “’Zat You, Santa Claus?” and Ella has the fabulous “Ella Wishes You a Swingin’ Christmas,” but these two records are nothing short of perfect. They contain the only version, in my book, of “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”; “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” “I Won’t Dance,” and “Cheek to Cheek” are pure egg nog and firelight; and standards like “These Foolish Things,” “Moonlight in Vermont,” and “Stars Fell on Alabama” will actually bring tears of joy to your eyes. Hand me the holly, because I am seriously ready to deck some halls.

I’m not shitting you.

The best thing is, you can put Ella & Louis Again on for a springtime bar-b-que, or a summer sunset dinner at the gulf and it won’t feel like Christmas. But right now, today, December 1, this is what the Donkey is digging and let me tell you – the Donkey is in the mood for Christmas. Get Donkey. Stay Donkey.