Holiday Music, Classic Rock Style

Most of the songs are traditional carols, but the style is pure Canned Heat. It's Christmas, blues rock style. Listen to a sample of "Christmas Blues".

Blackmore's Night, the progressive/folk rock band featuring Candice Night as lead vocalist and lyricist, and former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore on anything with strings. Their holiday music is rock, minstrel style. Listen to some samples.

The Moody Blues' orchestral backup is well suited to the sounds of the season. Songs range from traditional ("White Christmas") to original ("Don't Need a Reindeer") to a cover of John Lennon/Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Listen to a sample of "December Snow".

Jethro Tull's patented blend of rock and Renaissance lends itself equally well to traditional tunes like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Bouree" and less conventional fare such as "First Snow On Brooklyn" and "A Winter Snowscape." Listen to a sample of "Christmas Song".

This five song maxi-single wasn't intended as a Christmas record. It is the result of Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsies fooling around as they rehearsed for concerts at Filmore East during the 1969 holiday season. This probably won't be the first CD you run for when it's time to cue up the holiday music, but it is definitely worth having for its historical and entertainment value.

There's plenty of typical Lynyrd Skynyrd here -- "Run Run Rudolph" and "Skynyrd Family" -- but there are also a couple of surprises, like the sensitive, acoustic instrumental treatments of "Greensleeves" and "Classical Christmas." Listen to a sample of "Skynyrd Family".

Christmas on a surf board? Well, not really, but done with the The Ventures' signature slide guitars, prominent percussion, and lots of reverb. Arrangements of traditional carols are pretty faithful to the originals, with a liberal amount of '60s surf rock flavoring. Listen to samples.

Steve Lukather gives new meaning to the concept for Christmas music for strings. This 10-track compilation also features Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Steve Vai, and Edgar Winter lending their rock guitar virtuosity -- and on some tracks, their voices -- to traditional Christmas carols.

Artists who didn't release Christmas albums did occasionally record holiday singles that wound up on compilations like this one. The Kinks, Pat Benatar, Christine McVie, and The Pretenders are among the rockers who tip a hat to the holiday season in this collection.

This is the second in a series of definitive rock guitar Christmas albums. Neal Schon, Robin Trower, Ted Nugent and Zakk Wylde (among others) turn in some innovative and sometimes surprising arrangements of traditional Christmas carols. Listen to samples.

Elton John, Ray Davies, Bon Jovi, Greg Lake, and George Thorogood are examples of the eclectic mix of artists represented on this CD. The result is a well rounded sampling of virtually every Classic Rock sub-genre.

The roster on this one includes Brian May, Brian Wilson, and Cheech & Chong. This album isn't exactly mellow, but it has a softer edge than you might expect given the artists involved.