12 Overlooked Christmas Songs - and One Bonus
It seems Christmas music has been playing on the radio and in stores since before Halloween. At Agile Video, we LOVE it.
But let’s face it, you can only take Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You and Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime for so long. Now’s the time to dig deep and find those holiday tunes that aren’t played on a loop.
So Agile Video has compiled a list of our favorite Christmas Song videos and ranked them 12 to 1.. We tried to stay away from the really popular tunes. We tried to include as many Minnesota musicians as we could. And, the song had to have some sort of video. It could be a performance video, a music video or something a fan created but it had to have some sort of production behind it. If the video was simply a shot of the album cover the song was disqualified.
We hope at least a few of these songs bring some joy to you this holiday season. Here are our 12 favorite Christmas songs this year!
#12 Cooler Than Santa Claus - Morris Day
Is there anyone cooler in Minnesota than Morris Day. This song actually should be ranked higher but we wanted to start you off with a bang. This song has it all. A fun video. It’s an original (we think) and it’s super funky. Santa is one cool dude but we think Morris Day is even cooler. (An added bonus, Morris claims this was inspired by a true story. He wouldn’t lie!!
#11 Must Be Santa - Bob Dylan
First Morris Day, now Bob Dylan. Minnesota is making its mark early in this top 12 list. Admittedly, the Agile Video team isn’t a huge Bob Dylan fan. It’s not that we don’t like his music, it’s just, well, he mumbles. A lot. For this tune though, we can actually understand this Minnesota icon. This video brings us back to a time that seems so long ago (2019) when we could have joyous holiday parties full of dancing, drink and just plain tomfoolery. Dang we mis those days. Not enough artists sing the song, Must be Santa. It’s catchy.
#10 Never Felt Like Christmas - Lizzo
Minnesota yet again. Lizzo. This is the most modern selection coming in at number 10. The song itself is really catchy. The video is, how do we say it, weird. This is the first non-professional video to make this list. It was produced by a dance company and we’ll say, “Bravo ladies for having the guts to do this!” This video wouldn’t have made the list if it weren’t for the outtakes. Who doesn’t like outtakes?
#9 - A Christmas Storm - ASHBA
Our first non-Minnesotan to make the list. This is also the newest song here, debuting in November of 2020. DJ Ashba is a rock guitarist mostly known for replacing Slash in Guns N Roses. We’ll forgive him for that! Why did this make the list? First, the video is killer. Second, we LOVE electric guitar instrumental Christmas tunes. Third, this song is a mix of several of our favorite holiday classics - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Carol of the Bells, Joy to the World, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It’s a combination of heavy metal and EDM so it gives our list a fresh sound. The best part is, 50% of ASHBA’s proceeds from this song will go to Toys for Tots! How awesome is that? You can purchase this song and help out the kids here!
#8 Barbecue - Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas
Barbecue brings back the most memories for our president, Todd Vaske. Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas was his favorite Christmas special as a kid. He still loves it to this day. Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas was Jim Henson’s trial run to see if he could pull off The Muppet Movie. Two years after Emmet, The Muppet Movie made its debut in 1977. Basically every song from Emmet could have made this list. The Bathing Suit that Grandma Otter Wore, Brothers, and of course the raucous tune River Bottom Nightmare Band are all classics and deserve to be on this list. But we could only choose one.
#7 I Know Christmas Time is Here - Billy Dankert (of the Gear Daddies)
We return to the land of 10,000 frozen lakes for number 7. Billy Dankert is best known for being the drummer in the widely popular (in Minnesota) group, The Gear Daddies. Hailing from Austin, Minnesota, the band has a country rock sound with Minnesota moxie. Here, Billy Dankert goes solo and performs acoustically his ode to the holidays. This is another non-professionally created video. It’s just Billy, his guitar and either a phone or cam-corder. It’s a catchy original song that plays daily in the Agile Video office.
#6 Christmas Time Again - Extreme
At number 6, we head out to Boston for the, ahem, heavy metal group Extreme. Extreme is the band that brought us the sappy yet enjoyable 1990 song More than Words. Like Billy Dankert, Extreme got bonus points for recording an original Christmas song. We have this tune on repeat here as well because we love the line, “You know it comes and goes so let’s pretend it’ll last all year.” We second that. Christmas should last all year. This song almost didn’t make the list because we couldn’t find an official video. Then we stumbled upon a fan-made video and that’s all it took.
#5 Soulful Christmas - James Brown
When we began research for this blog, we all agreed that we had to include a James Brown Christmas tune. James Brown recorded, in our humble opinion, the greatest Christmas album of all-time. We can’t get enough of his funky take on the holidays. Again we had to rely on a fan created video but the song really is the star here. (We almost relaxed our rules for Mr. Brown and used a video that only featured the tune and a shot of his album cover. Luckily we came across this gem. (Yes, we were dancing the whole time we wrote this section.) Try not to smile when listening to this masterpiece.
#4 Merry Christmas Baby - Bruce Springsteen
Number four is the most controversial and most debated at the Agile Video headquarters. Is this one too commercial? Has everyone heard this one? We went back and forth and ultimately decided, this is worthy of #4. Why? First off, it’s just a great tune. And second, this version isn’t overplayed like Bruce’s version of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. This also made the list because we miss live performances. (Thanks Covid and 2020!) So at number 4, we present the Boss and his take on a holiday classic.
#3 I Saw Three Ships - Sting
Spoiler alert, classic rockers round out the top three. We wanted to make sure we included an old school song somewhere on this list. I Saw Three Ships was written by William Sandys back in 1833. This is the closest we get to an actual hymn. It’s a beautiful song and Sting nails it. We love that this is a live performance. We love the huge band and the Christmas Eve night vibe this video gives off. We used the video with the captions so feel free to sing along!
#2 Boogie Woogie Santa Claus - The Brian Setzer Orchestra
One of the best concerts our president, Todd, has ever seen is the Christmas show put on by Brian Setzer. It was pre-determined that the Stray Cats lead singer would fall into the top 5. Brian Setzer has released several Christmas albums and all of them blast through our offices this time of year. As from our #3 choice, it’s obvious we love big bands and we love the old school rockers. Oh, and Brian Setzer lives in Minnesota so that gave him extra points.
#1 - Santa’s Goin’ South for Christmas - Sammy Hagar (and members of The Grateful Dead)
Everyone at Agile Video knew that Todd would ultimately pick the number one song and we all knew it would be from Sammy Hagar. Todd starts singing this song around Labor Day and doesn’t stop until about mid-January. There is no official video release so we had to use a drunken version that included members of the Grateful Dead. We could have gone with the live version Sammy recorded with Heart but the video was 8-minutes long and featured a non-Christmas song so this one won by default. It’s got everything. Santa, Sun and Sammy.
Bonus - Joy to the World - Eddie Van Halen & Steve Lukather
And that’s it! We had a blast putting this list together. We started off with 45 videos and had to make the tough calls. One of the videos we had to cut because it broke the rules was the one and only Eddie Van Halen with Toto’s Steve Lukather performing Joy to the World. If there was a video, this would have been #1 no question. It’s been a tough year with COVID, businesses closing, we can’t see loved ones and we lost one of the greats in Eddie Van Halen. So enjoy and have a FANTASTIC Christmas.
Todd Vaske is the president of Agile Video, a video production company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We love to hear your comments. If you are looking for advice on your next video project, please reach out. If you’re a video production specialist, feel free to connect and talk shop (and Christmas music.)