"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" 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!

"Jingle Bells" - Part 37 - Cha Cha Cha!

We land in 1959 with "Jingle Bells" and popular entertainer Pearl Bailey with this single on Roulette Records:

Hey, we've had a few Mambos, so why not a Cha Cha Cha?

The flipside of that record is a fun novelty Christmas song:

I think both sides are a lot of fun. Pearl Bailey had a ton of personality and it really shines through on that record!

"Billboard" agrees:

Swinging back around to Dinah Shore, here's a clip of Pearl on Dinah's show from 1960:

We go back a year to 1958 (I think!) for this odd but fun track by the Capitol Studio Orchestra:

I believe that track was first released on the "Christmas Cocktails" CD in 1996. Whatever the case, it's very 1950s hi-fi!

For another Cha Cha take on "Jingle Bells," we jump all the way to 2004 with this instrumental by Big Bad Voodoo Day from their album "Everything You Want for Christmas":

Cool take!

And here's a version from from the David Ricard Big Band's 2015 album "Holiday Swingin'":

Good to know the Cha Cha is still around!