Make Your Holiday Playlist Go POP!
Seasonal Guitar Pop Songs From Across The Decades
The Beatles did it (several times) so that’s reason enough for any guitar pop band worth their yuletide FireGlo Rickenbackers to record a holiday song.
And plenty of them have gotten into the spirit in one way or another including The Beach Boys (“Little St. Nick”), The Who (“Christmas”), The Kinks (“Father Christmas”), The Waitresses (“Christmas Wrapping”), Dave Edmunds (“Run Rudolph Run”), The Spongetones (“Christmasland”), The Bangles (“Light My Way”), Ramones (“Merry Christmas—I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight”) and countless others.
But this nice list goes beyond even those holiday “hits.” These are original tracks and obscure covers you likely won’t hear while shopping for last minute gifts at the mall.
They were sourced on social media from guitar pop fans around the globe. Below is a selection of songs they recommended, along with a dusting of my personal favorites. (Even my band The Brothers Steve got in on the holiday music action; see “I Love The Christmastime” down near the bottom of the list.)
A few of these songs are more rare than a Santa sighting on Christmas Eve, but there’s definitely something here for even the Scroogiest guitar pop purists.
So click around until you hear something that makes your bells jingle. It only takes a few new discoveries to give your playlists a little more POP this holiday season.
There Are Countless Other Tracks Not Included Here…
Leave A Few Of Your Favorites In The Comments Below!
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Our new semi-annual music journal features some of today's best music writers on guitar pop, and talented modern artists on the music and genres that inspire them.
VOLUME 1—Spring/Summer 2023
James Goodson (of Dazy) on Being Power Pop-Adjacent
Annie Zaleski on the Beths
Mo Troper on Chris Bell's "I Am The Cosmos"
Rob Nesbitt (of the Suitesixteen) on the Exploding Hearts
S.W. Lauden on the Whiffs (Our debut cover models!)
Mary E. Donnelly on Sloan
John M. Borack on Juniper
Paul Myers on Tinted Windows
Mike Randle on Popsicko's Off to a Bad Start
David Laing on Power Pop's Country Roots
PLUS: Custom Cover Art By Brian Walsby
VOLUME 2—Fall/Winter 2023
Ryan Allen on The Ties That Bind Hardcore Punk & Power Pop
Tyler Asay on the Philadelphia Power Pop Scene
Eric Beetner on Kate Clover's Bleed Your Heart Out
John Borack on the Muffs' Legacy
Walter Chaw on the Pretty Flowers
Nadja Dee on Fountains of Wayne
Marko DeSantis on Uni Boys
S.W. Lauden on The Replacements' Lasting Influence
Allen Lulu on Kurt Baker: The Spain Years
Aidil Rusli on Southeast Asian Guitar Pop
SPARKS Thank God It’s Not Christmas from Indiscreet or Propaganda
Here are two of my X-mas guitar pop faves—
1) The Yule Logs "December In Love". They're a now-defunct Chico CA band covering a fairly obscure track, "Falling in Love" by Puerto Rican Beatlesque busker band, Street The Beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIr8wptSeE (Yule Logs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ov-JX9JfiQ (Street the Beat)
2) Reinterpreting "Help!" as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by The Fab Four works waaaaaay better than it should....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJXMKt2UYA4