Search - Various :: A Rock & Roll Christmas

A small but decent collection of Christmas rock songs

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 11/30/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Rock N' Roll Christmas" is not a bad little collection given the asking price for these eleven songs. As soon as you look over the play list you realize that these are almost all original songs, with The Moody Blues simple version "What Child Is This?" and Elvin Bishop's cover of "Silent Night" as the exceptions. For me the one must have track is "I Believe in Father Christmas" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which is my all time in this particular crossbred category. But Elton John's "Step into Christmas" is another classic well worth the having, and Jon Bon Jovi's "I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas" is almost as good. Beyond that the question is how much tolerance you have for Christmas songs with a rock beat, because that is what you get from Bob Seger, George Thorogood, Chuck Berry, and most of the rest of this crew. The final endorsement I can give for this collection is that except for the ELP song none of the other ten tracks duplicates what I already have in my Christmas music library, which I would have said was rather difficult to do. There is a second volume following this one, but the original is at least a full star better."

Good holiday rock & roll

Brent A. Anthonisen | Alpharetta, GA, USA | 12/21/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, growing up in Atlanta, GA in the 1980's afforded one the opportunity to hear some really cool Christmas tunes on AOR stations. I picked this one mainly for the ELP track "I Believe In Father Christmas" (which is different from the recording that 96 Rock always plays...their version is credited only to Greg Lake and doesn't include the choral arrangement that is found on this CD's version), which I still love even though these days I'm nowhere near as cynical I was when I first heard it.
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But the truth is there are a lot of fun tunes on here...Billy Squier will always be relevant for a few weeks each year when you crank up "Christmas Is The Time To Say 'I Love You'" (remember seeing the video for this? Shot in the original MTV studios, it was...tres festive, mes amis). And Chuck Berry's version of "Merry Christmas Baby" beats Elvis Presley's, I'm sorry to say...though it does have something of a hangover groove to it. The Kinks' "Father Christmas" is both serious and silly at the same time (much like the 80's, though I believe it was recorded a lot earlier), and "Christmas Wrappin'" by The Waitresses gets a little easier to hear everytime I listen to it.
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On the other hand, listening to Bob Seger's poor man's Mitch Ryder/James Brown imitation on "Sock It To Me, Santa" can be a bit of a chore (why couldn't they have put a JB tune on here for the element of realism needed?), and George Thorogood & The Deleware Destroyers "Rock & Roll Christmas" (the video for which was also shot at MTV) isn't exactly "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". The Bon Jovi track I could do without, but then I haven't liked much they've done since "Runaway"...and Elvin Bishop's disco verson of "Silent Night"...well, do I even need to say anything further?
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The price makes this CD a must if you remember at least one of these tunes...buying it with the "Volume 2" CD is recommended, as that compilation includes Bryan Adams' "(There's Something About) Christmas Time" (maybe my 4th-favorite contemporary Christmas tune of all time) and Bob & Doug's excellent beer-saturated version of "The 12 Days of Christmas".
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Merry Christmas!"

Good, but not great.

cdkscully | Buffalo, NY | 11/04/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I have found many other CDs that have a better collection of Rock Christmas songs than this one. There are two songs on this CD that I wanted in my holiday collection: "Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You" and "I Believe in Father Christmas."When I listened to it, the version of "I Believe in Father Christmas" is not the ORIGINAL by Emerson Lake and Palmer I was accustomed to hearing on the oldies stations during the holiday season. It is also not the same version that I have on a CD single that seems to be very difficult to find from the mid-1990s. Did they remake it when this CD was released?Be prepared when listening to this CD, this version is not what you used to hear back in the "old days.""