I hope you’ve been enjoying our special programming for Christmas In July. If you missed it, starting on the first of July, we’ve been playing the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z - almost every song in our library in alphabetical order, by song title, going from Faith Hill’s “A Baby Changes Everything” to Lunch At Allen’s “Zuzu’s Petals”, which we should get to on Tuesday just before 1pm (Eastern).
I had thought about replaying the entire block, but instead of doing that, I thought I’d give you a sequel!
As soon as “Zuzu’s Petals” finishes on Tuesday, we’ll begin the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z Part Two - the artists edition! This time, we’ll be playing most of our library in alphabetical order again, but this time, it will be alphabetical by the singer or band who recorded the song.
As with the first one, I’m skipping all the Halloween and Thanksgiving songs, but leaving in Hanukah, Kwanza and New Years. And this will be alphabetical by the first letter of the artist’s or band’s name. Like the first A to Z, I simply put our library into a Google spreadsheet and sorted it alphabetically by artist. And for artists who name begins with a number, I just spelled out the number, so we’ll get to 3 Doors Down when we get into the T’s.
Lots of artists have recorded lots of Christmas songs, so I’ll be picking one song for each of them to represent them. In some cases, that will be pretty easy. In others, a lot more difficult. I’m still not sure what I’ll pick for Frank Sinatra (among many, many others). Duets will be treated differently, so some artists may actually appear several times. For example, Bing Crosby recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and David Bowie. Maybe it’s cheating, but I’ll be including those.
There aren’t really hard and fast rules with this. At best, there are guidelines. I just hope you enjoy listening. You’ll be sure to hear lots of your favorites, alongside singers and bands you may never have heard of! That’s kind of what the Sounds of Christmas is all about.
So this Tuesday, right after Lunch At Allen’s “Zuzu’s Petals”, you’ll hear from A Boy Band Christmas, and then the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z Part Two - the Artists Edition will continue until we get to the Zoo Human Project.
I’m still putting this together, so I don’t really have an idea of how long this will go. In some ways, it should be a lot longer, since some artists only released one song, and that was a cover that I didn’t use in the first A to Z.
For example, Dan Ashley did a really good cover of “My Favorite Time of Year” but I played the original version by the Florin Street Band. I’ll get to play both in this next A to Z.
On the other hand, many artists have released lots of Christmas music, and I’ll only be playing one song from each of them.
So you and I may both find out together just how long this one will last.
Note - I may have made some mistakes. Like the first A to Z, this was a much bigger undertaking than I originally thought it would be. So some artists might come up in the wrong place. Some songs might play more than once. And some might not show up at all. None of that is on purpose. Just human error. My apologies if there’s an artist you want to hear and somehow they don’t show up.
I also get that you may not agree with the choices I make as far as which song gets picked to represent a particular artist. In most cases, I picked the more obvious choice, but a couple times I shook things up a little to pick something you might not expect.
I know that this isn’t for everybody. When some people listen to Christmas music, they want “White Christmas”. They want “The Christmas Song’. Others want “All I Want For Christmas Is You” or “Underneath The Tree”. And while all of those songs will appear, some more than once, in the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z Part 2, you may not get to hear them as often as you like. In fact, right now as I’m still putting it all together, I can’t even tell you how many days it will take until we get to Bing Crosby.
But, if you love Christmas music, all kinds of Christmas music, you’ll get a real taste of what I mean when I say the Sounds of Christmas plays the best variety of Christmas music. You’ll hear from lots of singers and bands that you may never have heard before, and you’ll probably hear a lot of songs you’ve never heard before, either. But I think you’re going to like it (at least I hope you do)!
Once again, I’ll send periodic updates through social media to let you know where we are as the month of July continues to roll along. The Sounds of Christmas is on Facebook and Twitter, and we’re dipping our toes into Bluesky, Post and Threads, but Facebook and Twitter are where we’re most active, at least as I’m recording this.
Anyway, despite all the caveats and possible mistakes, I hope the whole thing is fun, and that, if you do tune in, you like what you hear.
I had thought about replaying the entire block, but instead of doing that, I thought I’d give you a sequel!
As soon as “Zuzu’s Petals” finishes on Tuesday, we’ll begin the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z Part Two - the artists edition! This time, we’ll be playing most of our library in alphabetical order again, but this time, it will be alphabetical by the singer or band who recorded the song.
As with the first one, I’m skipping all the Halloween and Thanksgiving songs, but leaving in Hanukah, Kwanza and New Years. And this will be alphabetical by the first letter of the artist’s or band’s name. Like the first A to Z, I simply put our library into a Google spreadsheet and sorted it alphabetically by artist. And for artists who name begins with a number, I just spelled out the number, so we’ll get to 3 Doors Down when we get into the T’s.
Lots of artists have recorded lots of Christmas songs, so I’ll be picking one song for each of them to represent them. In some cases, that will be pretty easy. In others, a lot more difficult. I’m still not sure what I’ll pick for Frank Sinatra (among many, many others). Duets will be treated differently, so some artists may actually appear several times. For example, Bing Crosby recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and David Bowie. Maybe it’s cheating, but I’ll be including those.
There aren’t really hard and fast rules with this. At best, there are guidelines. I just hope you enjoy listening. You’ll be sure to hear lots of your favorites, alongside singers and bands you may never have heard of! That’s kind of what the Sounds of Christmas is all about.
So this Tuesday, right after Lunch At Allen’s “Zuzu’s Petals”, you’ll hear from A Boy Band Christmas, and then the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z Part Two - the Artists Edition will continue until we get to the Zoo Human Project.
I’m still putting this together, so I don’t really have an idea of how long this will go. In some ways, it should be a lot longer, since some artists only released one song, and that was a cover that I didn’t use in the first A to Z.
For example, Dan Ashley did a really good cover of “My Favorite Time of Year” but I played the original version by the Florin Street Band. I’ll get to play both in this next A to Z.
On the other hand, many artists have released lots of Christmas music, and I’ll only be playing one song from each of them.
So you and I may both find out together just how long this one will last.
Note - I may have made some mistakes. Like the first A to Z, this was a much bigger undertaking than I originally thought it would be. So some artists might come up in the wrong place. Some songs might play more than once. And some might not show up at all. None of that is on purpose. Just human error. My apologies if there’s an artist you want to hear and somehow they don’t show up.
I also get that you may not agree with the choices I make as far as which song gets picked to represent a particular artist. In most cases, I picked the more obvious choice, but a couple times I shook things up a little to pick something you might not expect.
I know that this isn’t for everybody. When some people listen to Christmas music, they want “White Christmas”. They want “The Christmas Song’. Others want “All I Want For Christmas Is You” or “Underneath The Tree”. And while all of those songs will appear, some more than once, in the Sounds of Christmas from A to Z Part 2, you may not get to hear them as often as you like. In fact, right now as I’m still putting it all together, I can’t even tell you how many days it will take until we get to Bing Crosby.
But, if you love Christmas music, all kinds of Christmas music, you’ll get a real taste of what I mean when I say the Sounds of Christmas plays the best variety of Christmas music. You’ll hear from lots of singers and bands that you may never have heard before, and you’ll probably hear a lot of songs you’ve never heard before, either. But I think you’re going to like it (at least I hope you do)!
Once again, I’ll send periodic updates through social media to let you know where we are as the month of July continues to roll along. The Sounds of Christmas is on Facebook and Twitter, and we’re dipping our toes into Bluesky, Post and Threads, but Facebook and Twitter are where we’re most active, at least as I’m recording this.
Anyway, despite all the caveats and possible mistakes, I hope the whole thing is fun, and that, if you do tune in, you like what you hear.
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