Straight No Chaser – Christmas Cheers

Posted in Music, My Favorite Things by

I know these guys have been around for a little while, but I’ve only recently made them a staple in my Christmas music library. Christmas Cheers doesn’t include my favorite song of theirs, “Nutcracker,” but it does have plenty of other good ones.

The album opens with “Christmas Can-Can,” a song about all of the craziness of Christmastime, set to the melody of the can-can (duh). My favorite part is Straight No Chaser’s token Jewish guy saying, “I’m gonna go get some Chinese food…” right where the big descending scale should be in the can-can. “Dónde Está Santa Claus” is a funny mariachi-style track, and there are a few borrowed songs on here, like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and “Christmastime is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas. The album also includes lots of classic Christmas songs, like “Let it Snow,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “O Holy Night.” The finale, of course, is the Straight No Chaser original arrangement of “The 12 Days of Christmas,” which actually includes snippets of lots of different Christmas carols. How many can you name?

As good as that song is, though, that’s not the one I’d like you to sample. Instead, I give you “We Three Kings” in 5/8. For those of you who have no clue why I just included a fraction in a post about music, it means that SNC has set this holiday favorite in the style of “Mission Impossible.” Enjoy.