"Jingle Bells" - Part 100 - Stray Tracks!

Wow, I can't believe this is the 100th post about "Jingle Bells!"

We are still more-or-less in contemporary times with my vote for the current King of Christmas - Brian Setzer!

Since the first release by the Brian Setzer Orchestra in 1994, the ex-Stray Cats frontman has released three Christmas studio albums, plus various live albums and DVDs and compilations. He obviously loves Christmas music!

It all got started when the BSO recorded "Jingle Bells" for the soundtrack of the 1996 movie "Jingle All the Way":

That's just a blast!

I didn't see the movie back in  the day (still haven't) and didn't pick up the soundtrack album, but I thought I got the soundtrack version on the "Merry Axemas" compilation from 1997:

Obviously it's not the same recording as this one's an instrumental, although the arrangement is very similar.

Brian then re-recorded the vocal version for his first Christmas album "Boogie Woogie Christmas" in 2002:

That sounds a lot like the soundtrack recording, but it has a few differences.

So, for quite some time, I thought that the 2002 recording was the first with a vocal and that the instrumental was on the movie soundtrack.

Luckily, I wasn't particularly hindered as I went through life under that delusion!

I think I eventually caught on when I came across Brian's 1996 video of the soundtrack recording:

That made me research the situation!

I'm guessing he cut the soundtrack vocal version and the instrumental version at the same sessions back in 1996, as both recordings have the same credits, including producer Phil Ramone.

Here's a more recent clip from 2016:

Always sounds great!

In any event, now that I've reached 100 "Jingle Bells" posts with I-don't-even-know-how many-versions in lots of genres, I'm going to branch out a bit!

But, do you have a favorite version of "Jingle Bells" that I may have omitted?

"Jingle Bells" - Part 98 - Gone Country!

We move into the (relatively) contemporary Country Music field with "Jingle Bells," stopping in 1997 with the cassette-only release "Wrangler Cowboy Christmas Volume V" from Universal Music Special Markets.

It's hard for me to believe that 1997 was 25 years ago, but the math doesn't lie! I guess the fact that cassettes were still being issued at that time also tells the tale!

That was also early in the whole Internet deal, with most people still not having home computers, but it was all growing fast!

1997 saw the fifth volume of the "Wrangler Cowboy Christmas" series, which were promo cassettes sponsored by the famous jeans (dungarees?) company. I don't really know how they were originally issued, but I hadn't come across any of the series before Volume V, which I was able to purchase online!

This had me thinking that the Internet was the greatest thing ever! And I stand by that statement!

The Wrangler series rounded up (cowboy talk!) various tracks from prior releases from the MCA family of labels and Volume V featured a version of "Jingle Bells" by Tracy Byrd, the popular neo-Western Swing singer, who had recorded it as a one-off for MCA for a previous compilation:

I like that a lot! You can never go wrong with a Western Swing beat!

Tracy also had another Christmas single with an even more pronounced Western Swing arrangement with 1999's "Merry Christmas from Texas Y'all" on MCA:

That one's been on my Country Christmas playlist since it came out!

Tracy Byrd's most obvious influence is George Strait - my favorite - who has cast a large shadow on the Country Music scene since the early 1980s.

The Wrangler series always had a cut from George (naturally) and Volume V featured the great swing number "When It's Christmas Time in Texas":

That was originally featured on George's 1986 MCA release "Merry Christmas Strait to You!" which was his first Christmas album and holds up well!

Mr. Strait cut his version of "Jingle Bells" for his third Christmas album, "Fresh Cut Christmas" in 2006:

We could be here all day listening to great George Strait Christmas records!

Another county superstar, Alan Jackson, was featured on Volume V with his terrific version of "A Holly Jolly Christmas":

I think that record is absolutely brilliant! It's one of my favorite holiday records of all time!

It was first released as part of the soundtrack for 1992's "Home Alone 2" and I bought a cassette of that soundtrack just to have this cut!

Alan has also released a lot of great Christmas music and he recorded his version of "Jingle Bells" for his 2002 album "Let It Be Christmas" (his second Christmas album) on Arista Nashville:

That's another fun swingy arrangement, with some horns added in!

Christmas and Country Music have always seemed to work well together and these artists with their traditional roots keep it going!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 96 - Jazzy!

We continue with some "modern" (to me, anything past 1980!) renditions of "Jingle Bells" from a couple of jazz (or jazz-influenced) singer/pianists!

First is Diana Krall, who included a small combo version on her "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" EP from Impulse! in 1998:

That EP also included a great version of "Christmas Time Is Here":

That recording has been on my "modern" Christmas playlist since it first came out!

"Christmas Time Is Here" also appeared on Diana's 2005 "Christmas Songs" from Verve in the same recording, but the full-length album sported a new version of "Jingle Bells" featuring the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Here's the video:

A couple of fun versions! 

Harry Connick, Jr. has released three Christmas albums, so you know "Jingle Bells" would be popping up somewhere!

It was first included a a bonus track on the special edition of 2003's Columbia album "Harry for the Holidays" available only at Target stores. I think the only way to hear that still is to get your mitts on the CD!

But another version of "Jingle Bells" surfaced on 2008's "What a Night!" album, also on Columbia:

Harry's Christmas albums are all good, but there's also a fun little nugget on one of his earliest albums. It's from 1989's ""Music From The Motion Picture 'When Harry Met Sally...'":

That album is really solid and was Harry's introduction to a lot of people!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 95 - Tiki!

We stay somewhat in the modern world with some takes on "Jingle Bells" from the exotica/tiki/lounge world!

First up is the Blue Hawaiians with "Jungle Bells" from their 1995 album "Christmas On Big Island" on Restless Records:

The whole album is excellent and I quite like their version "Of Christmas Time is Here," the Vince Guaraldi tune from "A Charlie Brown Christmas":

That is awesome!

We move to 2001 with guitarist Vinnie Zummo for his version of "Jingle Bells" from his extremely descriptively-titled "A Retro Cool Bossa Nova Christmas with Vinnie Zummo" album:

You could definitely play that album at a cool holiday cocktail party!

Apparently no Scrooge, Vinnie has a "Volume 2" in the "Bossa Nova Christmas" series as well as the 2014 "A Retro Cool Mixed Bag Christmas" album on which we find "Jingle Bells Surf Party":

And we hit 2010 with Tiki Joe's Ocean from Double Crown Records' "Seasonal Favorites, Volume 3" album:

That's just a blast!

Tiki Joe's Ocean has a couple of Christmas albums which are really fun. "Vol. 2" contains a great take on another "A Charlie Brown Christmas" song - "Skating" - and both volumes can be purchased as downloads from their online store.

One more fun version of "Jingle Bells" comes from perhaps an unlikely source: the popular TV cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants":

That show features some really cool background music!

Hopefully Santa's somewhere warm with an umbrella in his beverage listening to these tunes after a long holiday season!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 94 - Rockabilly!

Let's jump ahead to the 1990s and beyond with "Jingle Bells" for a handful of latter-day Rockabilly versions!

First up is the Honeydippers from the 1997 "12 Days of Christmas" album on the Shattered Music label:

That's a fun record, taking off from the 1957 Frank Sinatra arrangement by Gordon Jenkins.

I see this track sometimes credited to the Honeydrippers, which was the retro group led by Robert Plant that recorded "Sea of Love" on a memorable EP back in 1984, but this is the Honeydippers, featuring British singer Gary Twinn and American guitarist Danny B. Harvey.

SOme of the songs from "12 Days of Christmas" were included on 2001's "Swing Cats Present A Rockabilly Christmas" on Cleopatra, which also featured the titular Swing Cats with this snappy medley called "Christmas Tree Boogie":

I like that one a lot!

The Swing Cats were former Stray Cats Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom with Danny B. Harvey and they cut some solid instrumentals.

Next is Reverend Horton Heat with their take on "Jingle Bells" from 2005's "We Three Kings" album on Yep Roc Records:

Reverend Horton Heat is one of those acts that's the group name, but the leader, in this case Jim Heath, is also known by the group name.

Here's the title track from that album:

We move to 2009 with Mexico's Rebel Cats version of "Jingle Bells" from their "Navidad Rock-A-Billy" on Grabaxiones Alicia:

That's very fun as well!

I also did "Triste Navidad," their take on "Blue Christmas":

Rockabilly and Christmas go together well!

"Jingle Bells" Bonus - Happy Birthday, Ray Anthony!

Here's a bonus version of "Jingle Bells" to celebrate the 100th birthday of the handsome, trumpet playing bandleader Ray Anthony, who was born on January 20, 2022 and is still around!

Ray cut a ton of records in his day, but didn't get around to recording a Christmas album until 1995 with "Dream Dancing Christmas," which featured this version of "Jingle Bells":

In addition to Ray's trumpet, the album features a couple of his trademarks, the Glenn Miller style arrangements and the "Dream Dancing" title.

19-year-old Ray Anthony (first trumpet on left) with Glenn Miller's band in the 20th Century Fox movie "Sun Valley Serenade" (1941)

One of Ray's earliest jobs was playing trumpet with Glenn Miller's band as a teenager, so when the Miller style had a revival in the 1950s, Ray at least was qualified to use it!

And Ray had a best-selling series of albums on the Capital label back in the day with "Dream Dancing" in the title featuring lush versions of standards, so this treatment of "Jingle Bells" was a nice throwback in 1995 (was that really 27 years ago?)!

Happy birthday, Ray!