I’ve updated this post Top Ten #Christmas Songs Written by Jews from December 24, 2018 to include a Spotify playlist that you can embed in your website or blog or share it via social media.
Also, I’ve updated the link to the article (which had moved):
Tracy, M., 2012. Christmas songs written by Jews. Tablet Magazine. Available at: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/have-yourself-a-jewish-little-christmas [Accessed December 16, 2021].
I’m thinking back to my December 2018 post featuring the late Nancy LaMott’s All Those #Christmas Cliches.
One of the lines is:
I want the gulp and tear at the moment that I hear Johnny Mathis being played
So what better than a gulp and a tear while listening to Johnny Mathis?
I play Johnny Mathis to irritate my husband. He says that Johnny Mathis is “effeminate” and a “faggot,” terms that you shouldn’t use anymore.
This one’s for you, babe!
Merry Christmas, all!
The two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ—the divinity that’s the very heart of the Jewish rejection of Christianity—and what does Irving Berlin do? He de-Christs them both! Easter, he turns into a fashion show [Easter Parade] and Christmas into a holiday about snow [White Christmas].
That quote from Phillip Roth begins Marc Tracy’s article “From ‘Winter Wonderland’ to ‘White Christmas,’ the Top Ten Christmas Songs Written by Jews” in Tablet magazine and quite frankly, I can’t think of a better way to begin this post.
I’ve assembled a playlist of the de-Christed secularized Christmas songs listed in Tracy’s article:
There’s plenty of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra here, but the one video that catches my eye and ear is the video of Mel Tormé and the one, the only Judy Garland singing The Christmas Song (aka Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), which Tormé co-wrote with Bob Wells. Who knew? I didn’t even know that Mel Tormé was Jewish.
If you want to listen to Nat “King” Cole’s iconic rendition of The Christmas Song, visit #MusicMonday Nat “King” Cole “The #Christmas Song”.
Source:
Tracy, M. (2016, December 09). From ‘Winter Wonderland’ to ‘White Christmas,’ the Top Ten Christmas Songs Written by Jews. Retrieved December 21, 2018, from https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/22910/have-yourself-a-jewish-little-christmas
Nancy LaMott was a cabaret singer who broke out into radio and the national and international scene in the 1990s. Plagued by serious illnesses for much of her life, she died from uterine cancer on December 30, 1995, only 17 days before her 44th birthday. Her priest blessed her union with Peter Zapp, a little more than an hour before she died.
According to her father, she sang along with Barbra Streisand records when she was a girl. It shows. Sometimes my husband and I confuse Nancy LaMott for Barbra Streisand when we hear her recordings on WPFW 89.3 FM’s Sunday afternoon program The American Songbook.
It was through The American Songbook that I discovered All Those Christmas Cliches, as sung by Nancy LaMott. It’s wistful and nostalgic and takes me back to childhood and how special Mom made Christmas for us. Even today Christmas lights fill me with happiness and wonderment.
That’s what I long for: All Those Christmas Cliches.
Coming soon: a video playlist of the top 10 Christmas songs written by Jews.
Over at The Federalist, James B. LaGrand writes:
If your tastes run more to popular, folk, or jazz music, there are still plenty of beautiful, creative, and moving interpretations of classic Christmas songs in a Christian vein to listen to. Here are some favorites that can serve as an antidote for unsatisfying Christmas music concerts (as well as various other sad and troubling things in our world).
Source: Here’s A Christmas Pop Music Playlist That Won’t Drive You Insane With Schmaltz
The article includes videos for James LaGrand’s eight chosen songs, but I put those songs into a Spotify playlist:
In tribute to the holidays, here is Nat “King” Cole singing “The Christmas Song”, better known by its opening lines:
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
via https://www.facebook.com/natkingcole/posts/10155089032158807
The Christmas Song was written by Mel Tormé, a crooner in his own right, and Bob Wells. It is among the Top 10 Christmas songs written by Jews, from ‘Silver Bells’ to ‘Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.”
Cold Cream 'n' Roses 
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