It’s that time again, and this is down to the wire due to an overly busy December, and the fact that I thought the Annual Playlist may be over now that Cher released the ultimate Christmas album to just play over and over again. But this year bounced back, after being pretty brutal on most other fronts and I was able to mine a decent playlist for all your holiday parties or gifts by the fire for another year.
I’d also like to take a minute to boo the Grammy Awards after a year of teasing that Cher’s landmark Christmas was a big contender to be the first holiday album ever considered for major awards. And, as usual, after naming it a strong contender for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Vocalist, and Best Dance Song, they pulled the carpet out from under everything and Cher’s absolutely best effort in this millennium was totally ignored. And Grammys, that’s why I gave up watching you in the 90s when you ceased to be relevant and became self-promoting. Another reasons the Marco Awards are more realistic than most other “professional” ones…..
And as a milestone, the 2024 playlist is the 4th Anniversary of MarkOnTheArts.com, when Jeff Harrison encouraged me to move all my FB notes to a permanent site and expand from there. Thanks to Jeff, to my talented daughter Hayley, who took over managing this site last year, and all my faithful followers who seem to really care what I think about Christmas music, theatre, and entertainment in general. Here’s to continuing to grow the website in the new year!! Thanks for staying involved.
So Happy Holidays as we commence the annual analysis and review of the current year’s holiday albums. The nominees:
Jennifer Hudson, The Gift of Love
Jennifer Hudson brings out an anticipated collection of traditional, contemporary, and a few swings at getting a new entry some radio play in the modern canon. Hudson moderates her powerful voice and succeeds on all attempts. Why should Kelly Clarkson have all the attention? It’s a solid enough collection, with original takes on “The Little Drummer Boy”, “Jingle Bells”, and “The Christmas Song”. She also has a catchy original track, “Santa for Someone”, that makes a solid bid to enter the radio playlists, at least by next year. She goes the expected high gospel on “O Holy Night” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, succeeding more with the former than the latter which goes on longer than Midnight Mass. While not as coherent as her competitor Clarkson, it’s a great debut and a voice that needs to be heard more from.
Grade: A+
Kelly Clarkson, When Christmas Comes Round….Again
Kelly Clarkson has become the present day savior of Christmas Music, today’s Perri Como if you will. Since her dynamic Debut Christmas Album in 2013, she has released a second collection in2021 but given us a bonus single or three most years in between, and all of them are catchy, enthusiastic, and playlist worthy. This album is a deluxe style re-release of her 2021 When Christmas Comes Around with a few extra additions, most the expectedly infectious “You for Christmas”.
Original Grade: A+
Deluxe Grade: A+ It’s Clarkson, She’s the most dependable name in Christmas music today.
Lea Salonga, Sounding Joy:The Holiday Album
Twenty-five years ago, the young Filipino songstress took the world by storm when she crossed the Atlantic and won the Best Actress in a Musical Tony for her heartwrenching performance in megamusical Miss Saigon. When Disney snatched her up to be the silver-toned singing voice for Princess Jasmine and Mulan, her status as millenial legend was cemented. Salonga does what she does best here, tackling traditional carols and standards with her unique, soaring vocals. Great takes on standards “What Child Is This?”, “Angels We Have Heard on HIgh” (with Clay Aiken), “Silent NIght”, and, surprisingly, decent takes on three banned songs: “Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time”, “This” and “Last Christmas”, and even includes a mistake with why-do-they-do it ballad version of the Mariah song. But it’s Salonga, and she can sing the phonebook and be heavenly. It’s a voice that was designed to sing Christmas carols. If the old Time/Life collections are your jam, this is one of the best albums in years to add to the collections
Grade: A+
Clay Aiken, Christmas Bells Are Ringing
The season 2 American Idol winner’s second holiday release is a bit of a disappointment. We know what a stunning voice he can wrap around a song, but this selection of tracks and arrangements are lackluster and do nothing to show off his many vocal gifts. Before one just tracks it up to the 20+ years that have passed, not that his duet with Lea Salonga on her album to Angels We Have Heard on High is one of the best he’s ever covered. Pop idol to Broadway star to would-be congressman has given us a new collection that just pales to his in -his-prime 20004 offering Merry Christmas With Love. This one just sounds a little forced and desperate.
Grade: B-
Tyler Shaw, A Tyler Shaw Christmas
The Canadian singer actor has been, like Kelly Clarkson, releasing a great holiday single here and there over the last decade, and finally, like the Star of the East, called them all together in one place to celebrate the holidays and his mainstream American debut. He does about everything right here, nice mix of traditional and original, great voice and all in a style comfortable for him. Of course he’s stronger on the fun pop stuff, with great takes on “What Christmas Means to Me”, “Christmas All Over Again”, and “Santa Claus in Coming to Town”, but lovely takes on “Silent NIght” and “O Holy Night” (exceptional performing with the Three Tenors), and a sweet original duet “Christmas In Your Eyes” with his daughter Everly. This unassuming collection was pieced together with love, and slowly grows on you with repeated listening.
Dan + Shay, It’s Officially Christmas: The Double Album
The country duet swings big with a first time holiday collection in a double album format. Disc 1 is all traditional, Disc 2, all original music. Disc 1 is a solid if safe compilation of rock-a-billy classics, including expected great takes on “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, plus gentle pleasures with traditionals like “Silent Night” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Disc 2 takes some repeated listens to catch on, but there are some unexpected gems there, like “Take Me Home for Christmas”, “Blame It On Santa”, and “Parson Brown”, a kind of sequel to “Winter Wonderland” (featured on Disc 1). Of course Disc 1 is stronger and the one you’ll play at your holiday events, but let’s be thankful for the gifts given to us with their generous spirit.
Grade Disc 1: A+
Grade Disc 2: A-
Overall Grade: a solid A|
Home Free, Any Kind of Christmas
The good news is perennial favorite a capella guys Home Free, Pentatonix country cousins and the season 4 champions of The Sing Off return with their third holiday album. Their 2016 Deluxe Edition of their 2014 Christmas debut Full of Cheer was that year’s Best CD. And their 2020 follow-up Warmest Winter made them sound entries in the holiday field. The bad news is superior tenor and usual lead Austin Brown has left the group, prefering to get off the touring circuit and spend more holiday time with his familiy. But Brown was a once-in-a-lifetime voice and Home Free , while maintaining their amiable nature and fun guy antics, are struggling to adjust and overcome their loss. Pentatonix has never truly rebounded from bower bass Avi Kaplan’s exit, and Home Free is in a similar state of flux. The sound is still there and with new tenor/lead Adam Bell-Bastian has a solid voice and great range, he just isn’t the golden-voiced Orphean tenor Brown was and the new sound takes getting used to. Solid offerings and arrangements, it’s just another matter of adjusting to Steve’s younger brother Joe on Blues Clues.
Grade: B-
Jimmy Fallon, Holiday Seasoning
Ima say this one more time. I need people to stop pretending that Jimmy Fallon can sing. Fallon made his mark as a young 20-ish comedian on Saturday Night Live during it’s Silver Era that was more famous for cracking up mid-skit than for being genuinely funny. He was in over his head with one of the best replacement casts in the shows 50 year history, but he was basically us on the inside of the skit laughing at his much funnier and more accomplished costars. But he was young and cute and we let him slide. Mid 40’s, he’s still coasting on that congenial fratboy persona and it’s no longer working. NBC wants us to indulge their boy for 90 minutes every night, and it is exhausting. Fallon’s compilation here feeds into that funny fratboy mentality that is also not as cute as he thinks it is. Jimmy, stick to fawning over your late night guests like a new millennium Rosie O’Donnell.
Grade: D
Brett Eldredge. It’s Christmas (Welcome to the Family)
The country singer has become an unlikely dependable source of inspiration for the annual playlist. His initial foray into the field, Glow, was an upset winner for Best New CD of 2016. None of my audience ever anticipated me granting the title to a country singer who wasn’t Dolly Parton. Catchy, seasonal fare dropping his hayseed accent for his day job, Eldredge has shown on his holiday fare to be an engaging and competent big band swing singer. It’s Christmas continues his stint as the male Kelly Clarkson of contemporary Christmas (the two have even collaborated on a great duet entry, “Under the Mistletoe”).
Grade: A
Rocky Paterra, Naughty List
I had an unexpected response to this album which broke my cardinal rule about releasing in album of all original material with no familiar carols or standards. But, similar to the reaction I had to Sia’s surprisingly engaging Everything is Christmas, which even managed to crack the radio play barrier, I found myself giving it a second listen. There’s nothing I’d add to the annual cannon but plenty of catchy songs that are fun, such as a Bruno Mars-like “Better Behave”, “Two Turtle Doves”, and the title song.
Grade: an unexpected B+
Spotify Singles: Holiday
My new host for the all-digital playlist (who even has a CD player anymore?) pitched in like a drunken Santa with a bag of mixed goods. Thanks for introducing me to tracks by Dan + Shay and Tyler Tyler Shaw that led me to their fantastic entries, and there were some other decent tracks from the artists above. But I had to laugh at (with?) Kesha, who once again just baffles all of us. Her offering for the season was a remake of LIndsay Buckinham’s “Holiday Road”. A lesson that sometimes buzzwords make a song sound like it’s a seasonal classic, but it’s not. “Angel” does not always give a holiday ping, as in “Angel of the Morning” or “Undercover Angel”. Not even Jesus Christ himself is a guaranteed, as in “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I listened closely for an updated reference to heading home or to grandmother’s house. Nothing. Just Buckingham’s original. Then I thought maybe it got grandfathered in by Christmas Vacation, then come to find that is the only movie in the franchise or the reboot not to utilize the songs. Then again, I can almost hear Kesha and her warped sense of humor snarking “They want a holiday song, I’ll give them a holiday song.” Truth is it’s a catchy update that does Buckingham proud. It’s just not Christmas Playlist material.
Grade: A+ I appreciate any gifts you’ll give me for my work. Thanks Spotify!
BEST ALBUM
I spent the bulk of the time bouncing other collections off of Jennifer Hudson’s, which was poised to be the big event. And Hudson does a great job, and the collection is a happy celebration of the season. But there are a few misfires. So I turned to near perfect Disc 1 of Dan + Shay, which is so much fun but ultimately a little too safe for the “artistic” qualifications for the award. And then I focused on the Canadian guy I barely knew and his album just grew on me. It was reverent when it should be reverent, fun when it should be fun, even playful when it should be playful. I hear his soul in every song, and his style as an artist is consistent throughout. And I’m not gonna kid you, the track with his daughter didn’t hurt my Christmas spirit. I was like, hold her tight and sing with her every day, because one day she’ll be grown and seven hours away in the snow and… I digress. So I surprised myself by going off the board, and the BEST ALBUM of 2024 that I would recommend for all is A Tyler Shaw Christmas.
MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUM
Remember again, this not necessarily the worst album of the year, just the one that didn’t live up to expectations. Now sometimes they are not mutually exclusive, like that bitter garbage Grinch LeAnn Rimes has insisted in spitting out since her career collapsed under her Eddie Ciprian curse, or that hideous faux ghetto garbage Mariah put out 10 years after her landmark album that trashed her Christmas legacy for good. Because this year the easy answer would be Jimmy Fallon, who is just awful on all counts, but I expected that. The MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUM of 2024 was sadly Home Free Any Kind of Christmas. Because I fell in love with Home Free in The Sing Off, and when I thought no one would ever compare to Pentatonix in their prime. I always looked forward to a Home Free holiday album. I just mourn the loss of Austin Brown, and it’s not the same. Maybe it’s just too soon and I have to retune my ear to the new sound. I mean I adjusted to Dick Sargeant, Eartha Kitt, and the second Chris Partidge, maybe I’ll reset and appreciate Home Free 2.0. Time and further holiday albums will tell…
And with that I give you, to be played in this order…..
WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS:
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree 2024
1. SANTA FOR SOMEONE, Jennifer Hudson
The standout from this year’s album is a lively track to jumpstart the list, featuring everything Hudson does best.
2. SANTA TELL ME, Ariana Grande
After a good two decades of bullying and doubters, this was Grande’s year, succeeding in the role of her life in her first movie, and an insta-classic Wicked at that. So a throwback to her 2014 holiday hit, one of the best secular pop additions ever (one of the few to make my 20th Anniversary best of the best Christmas Playlist, was worth honoring her another pass to include her in 2024’s memories.
3. WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME, Tyler Shaw
The Stevie Wonder classic is a perfect match for Shaw’s energy and artistic style. He’s a winner to keep my eye on.
4. DJ PLAY A CHRISTMAS SONG, Cher & Kelly Clarkson
Since last year’s winner (of all time, let’s face it) re-released her 2023 signature Christmas song with superfan Kelly Clarkson harmonizing with her, it technically qualifies for another chance. But who am I kidding? It’s my list and if I wanted to feature Cher prominently on it again, I would have any way.
5. LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, Tiffany
While searching for Belinda Carlisle/Gogos hoiday fare to salute my work directing Head Over Heels summer of ’23, I stumbled across this wonderful time capsule collection, A Very Diva Christmas. Last year I cherry picked the Carlisle tracks, but there were some other very interesting selections, from divas like Jody Whatley. Patti Austin, and Thelma Houston (with a disco “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that I promise you will show up on a slow year in the near future). This cut from underappreciated 80s diva Tiffany was a keeper.
6. ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE, Dan + Shay
This Brenda Lee classic gets the classic treatment from this classy duo. And y’all know I love when a guy covers it so I can sing along to it too.
7. CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME), Jennifer Hudson
This excellent version of the Darlene Love classic was sadly not on this year’s album. It may have boosted her closer to contention. Hudson released this independent track last year, but it lost out to the new iconic duet from Cher and Queen Darlene herself. This year it had to land a spot. And Jennifer, include it on the Deluxe Edition when you release one next year.
8. YOU FOR CHRISTMAS, Kelly Clarkson
The new Queen of Pop Christmas releases another in a decade-plus long list of fantastic holiday hits. Here’s to another welcome decade from Clarkson, who has been my holiday muse since 2013.
9. RUN RUN RUDOLPH, Cher
Cher can do it all, including rock with the big boys. Again, maybe the best version of the song every recorded. As you would expect me to say. But it’s true. Side Question: who the hell is this Randolph character they sing about who’s almost right behind? He wasn’t in the TV special.
10. CHRISTMAS ALL OVER AGAIN, Tyler Shaw
Shaw is best in this rock boy track of pop hits. Look for some more traditional stuff next year to show off his versatility
11. SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN, Home Free
The best of the new Home Free. They’re still great. I just miss….I’ll shut up.
12. THE NIGHT ST. NICK GOT SICK, Brett Eldredge
Here’s a fun cut from the self-appointed crown prince of Christmas. It’s everything Eldredge does right when he puts his cowboy hat down and picks up his crooner’s mic.
13. JINGLE BELL ROCK, Dan + Shay
Again, this rock-a-billy classic is right in their wheelhouse. Just good solid fun,
14. THIS CHRISTMAS (FEELS LIKE LOVE), Alex Sampson
The golden boy of 2024 America’s Got Talent whee even made Simon Cowell smile almost made me finally believe the title of the show, until I found out he was also Canadian. This year’s indie darling and Instagram/TikTok favorite has been the Matt Rife of pop music this year, endearing himself into an album, a tour, and gave us two independent Christmas songs as a gift of thanks for embracing him. Maybe next year we can get the rest of an album, which I have no doubt will be equally as well-received.
15. MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING, Maxine Nightengale
Another surprise hit from the Diva album, took me Right Back Where We Started From and pays amazing homage to the legendary Karen Carpenter. This track also was destined for last year, but lost to second place album from the First Lady of American Musical Theater Stephanie J. Block’s version.
16. ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD (GLORY BE), Lea Salonga & Clay Aiken
Salonga has been one of the vocal gifts to the world since she wowed London and Broadway in her debut as Miss Saigon, then the rest of the world when she was cast in the landmark 10th and 25th Anniversary Concerts of Les Miserables on PBS (tackling Eponine and Fantine respectively). Her voice continues to show no sign of aging, it’s a supple and elegant as it always was. She pairs here nicely with Aiken on this reverent duet.
17. PLEASE COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, Cher
That’s how amazing last year’s album was, that I can mine a seventh song form it and it’s still one of the best arrangements of the blues rocker ever. Can your grandmother still do that?
18. BETTER BEHAVE, Rocky Paterra
Just something fun and different from the novelty album
19. HALLMARK MOVIE, Jimmy Fallon & Cara Delevigne
This is not here because it’s great, or because he redeems himself. It’s just a personal little salute to the peace I’ve made with my mother’s favorite movie channel after years of watching every Hallmark Christmas movie ever made. He’s still awful, sounding maybe the worst on his album, but the song is funny, makes me think of Christmas with Mom, and is only a fast minute forty-two. He’s in and out before he wears out his holiday welcome.
20. SILENT NIGHT, Home Free & Taylor Davis
I just had to go back and add one last old Home Free track to remember how essential Austin Brown was to their sound. When he takes over for Davis after the key change, he soars, and the entire group seems to brighten their chords backing him up in jubilation. Here’s just one last tribute to go out on. Thank you Austin for all you brought to the holidays for the last decade.
21. I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS/CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA, Constantine Maroulis & Orfeh
This is just a personal salute to the fact that I worked with Maroulis, costuming a local production of Jeckyl & Hyde that he directed. The American Idol and Rock of Ages vet is well matched with Andy Karl’s former better half as two power-belters taking a ballad to another place.
21. O HOLY NIGHT, Girl Named Tom
A solemn offering from the 2022 Best CD winner that sweetly blends the trio in beautiful ways only siblings’ voices can do.
22. HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS, Stephanie J. Block
From last year’s would-be defending champion had not Cher herself dropped the best Christmas album in the last…..maybe ever. I first I saw her on Broadway as Liza Minnelli in The Boy from Oz, but her take on this Judy Garland classic is perfect for Block’s warm, velvety voice. This is why I’ve granted her the title Reigning First Lady of American Musical Theatre.
FOLLOW HERE ON SPOTIFY TO ACCESS THE 2024 PLAYLIST, as well as all Christmas Playlists from 2015 til now, the double 20th Anniversary best of the best Christmas playlists, and all my Best of Broadway playlists from the 70s on. Happy holidays and enjoy my gift of a lifetime of music to you, my faithful folllowers. Here’s to more music, theatre, and entertainment awards in the new year! Link below…..