A proper Christmas song for you. I'm always slightly surprised this one doesn't get more radio play - it's beautiful, and it's Marvin Gaye for crying out loud.  I think it's simply that the inevitable "why are the snowflakes purple?" question works against it...



Sadly I couldn't find any video of Gaye performing this one, but I could find footage of him singing "Pretty Little Baby".  Same song, different words. (There seems to be a surprising amount of disagreement about which came first but I think Snowflakes was written, shelved, released as Pretty Little Baby, and then resurrected for a Motown Christmas album in the 90s.)

So, here's Pretty Little Baby:

It feels like a fairly knowing nod to Purple Snowflakes, so it seems only right that it comes next. Here's John Legend and Stephen Colbert with "Nutmeg". (Written by the late Adam Schlesinger)

If you want to see it performed it's on Vimeo here.

Or here's the song:



From the same session, here's Colbert and Elvis Costello with the considerably more serious "There are Much Worse Things to Believe In" - which slightly fudges exactly what they're advocating for (Christmas Spirit or, you know, tolerant Christianity?). I recommend taking whichever version suits, and enjoying it anyway.

Performance here.

And here's the song:

...unless you really hate dancing.

When I first assembled my list of stuff to post in here (it's not as haphazard as I make it appear) this next one was on YouTube.  For whatever reason, in the intervening couple of weeks, it's been taken down. Which is...annoying.

Still, I've found a link to it, but apologies that you'll have to click through to Somewhere Else.

Anyway, as an antidote to yesterday's offering, here's something altogether gentler. It's an Oscar nominated dutch short about about an office worker who has two weeks to learn the tango...

Tanghi Argentini (Argentine Tango).  

The cat throw, ha.

Here are some nice ladies singing a Christmas Song:



(Though there's nothing wrong with getting your presents from the Oxfam shop if you ask me - as long as it's stuff the recipient would like.  A far greater offence is to do this:  )