Have Yourself A Bluesy Little Christmas

Here is 2007's second mix. This one focuses on rhythm, blues, and soul with some hints of gospel thrown in. (2008's mixes will be posted on the 21st and the 23rd of the month.)

You'll note that this CD and ...Country Little Christmas both started with variations on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." I actually had another one for the country CD, a Buck Owens tune called "Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy" but it didn't make the cut.

This CD contains two of my favorite Christmas records of all time, "White Christmas" by The Drifters and "Merry Christmas Baby" by Chuck Berry. I like both these songs so much they got their own posts earlier this month.

Tracklist:

01. Mark Anthony - Mama's Twistin' With Santa Claus
02. Lightnin' Hopkins - Santa
03. Canned Heat - Christmas Blues
04. The Drifters - White Christmas
05. Ray Charles - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
06. Elvis Presley - Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)
07. Chuck Berry - Merry Christmas, Baby
08. Ike and Tina Turner - Merry Christmas Baby
09. Champion Jack Dupree - Santa Claus Blues
10. Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa
11. Fat Daddy - Fat Daddy
12. Ron Holden - Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus
13. The Youngsters - Christmas In Jail
14. Seasick Steve And The Level Devils - Xmas Prison Blues
15. Leroy Carr - Christmas In Jail, Ain't That A Pain
16. The Harmony Grits - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
17. Charles Brown - Please Come Home For Christmas
18. Graham Parker and Nona Hendryx - Soul Christmas
19. Harmon Ray - Xmas Blues
20. Martin Sexton - Holly Jolly Christmas
21. The Black Ace - Xmas Time Blues
22. The Orioles - Lonely Christmas
23. Amos Milburn and Charles Brown - Christmas Comes But Once A Year
24. Otis Redding - White Christmas
25. B. B. King - Lonesome Christmas
26. Jimmy Liggins and His Drops Of Joy - I Want My Baby For Christmas
27. Solomon Burke - Presents On Christmas

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Multiple Mondays - Merry Christmas, Baby

I owe Charles Brown an apology. By all rights, and in the tradition of Multiple Mondays, his picture, or one of his album covers, should be over there to the right. (Keep reading to learn why I photoshopped a Santa hat on Chuck instead.)

You see, waaaaay back in 1947, rhythm and blues singer Charles Brown met a songwriter named Lou Baxter, who wanted him to record a song called "Merry Christmas Blues." Brown reworked the song and took it into the studio, where his usual collaborators, Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, provided the backing track. (Apparently it's actually Brown on the celeste, not an instrument you hear often on blues records.) Since then, Charles Brown rerecorded the song at least ten more times for about as many labels. I've included a version he did with Bonnie Raitt down below as a sample.

In 1958, Chuck Berry recorded his
version (the single included his new song "Run Run Rudolph" -- talk about a double A-side!). Chuck's version of this song is prime cover territory -- Johnnie Johnson's tinkly piano stands in for the celeste, while Chuck's almost-mournful guitar chills the happiness of the lyrics, showcasing the mellowness of this song. Also, Chuck doesn't include Brown's lyric "all lit up like a Christmas tree" -- this is a mellow version for cuddling by the fire with your baby, not rocking out or even swaying in time to the music. My good friend Steven Rusling suggested this song as his guest-post, and also sent along that alternate take down below, which just got released ten months ago in a massive box set I'm drooling over.

This post contains eight versions out of literally dozens and dozens that've been recorded. You get to hear B. B. King blast through the song, Ike and Tina rave it up, and Elvis starts out slow then builds to a rocking climax. Otis Redding's version is probably the happiest record he ever made. Next year I'll probably post a part two, and I'll inflict Mae West's version on you then. (I have a lot of good versions too, but hers will burn into your brain, like the rest of her full-length Christmas album.)

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers with Charles Brown
Chuck Berry (released take + alternate version_
Ike and Tina Turner
Elvis Presley
Otis Redding
B. B. King
Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown

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Stagger Lee Saturdays: Ike and Tina Turner

Hi, folks. I saw Hayden live on Wednesday, but just haven't gotten around to posting anything about it. Stay tuned for that report.

This week's Stagger Lee post is also two songs, though they're both from Ike and Tina Turner.

In 1965, Ike and Tina released "Stagger Lee and Billy" as a single, though it didn't come out on any album I can find till a greatest hits collection. This version of Stag is... well, it's not really a version of Stag. It has virtually nothing to do with the song or the story or the tradition. With that said, I love the hell out of it. Here, Stag isn't a particularly bad man, and there are no guns fired. There are some chairs thrown, and Stag gets such a bad whuppin' his head "look[s] like a watermelon's overcoat."

It's virtually impossible to consider the lyrics of this song without considering Ike and Tina's disastrous marriage -- think of the rowdy bar as a metaphor for it, Tina trying frantically to hide and escape...

Ike and Tina also recorded a more traditional version of Stag, which as far as I can tell went unreleased until 1976, on a DIFFERENT greatest hits album. It's okay, I guess, but the 1965 recording is so far superior I don't listen to this one much at all. Just to keep us on our toes, Ike and Tina also released at least one live version, which I don't have and therefore am not uploading. (There's no one collection of their work which includes both versions, so the buy link goes to one with the far superior "...and Billy" song.)

Ike and Tina Turner - Stagger Lee and Billy
Ike and Tina Turner - Stagger Lee
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