Flex's Ultimate 25 Days of Christmas (Songs) World Cup: Group B

[Flex]

Here it is folks. The group stages. Excitement. Mayhem. A great chance for some giant-slaying. Out of our 24 song nominations* 16 will go on to fight another day. For the group stage we'll have 4 groups of 6 songs, with the bottom two songs in each group getting eliminated. I've tried to group them so no one has both their nominations in the same group. I'll include music videos and any comments that were provided with the initial nomination in this post below.

Because voting for stuff is fun, each person gets FOUR votes - four get to move on after all - so use them wisely. Voting will continue until the morning (in the United States, anyway) of Saturday, December 10th. Anticipate the Round of 16 polls going up that same day.

*For those keeping close track, I included all FOUR of revbob's suggestions - the scamp - and also LDL's suggestion of Tom Waits' Silent Night so we could have an even number of songs when all was said and done.

Group B

Marlene Dietrich - Still war die Nacht (nominated by Olaf)


James Brown - Santa Claus go Straight To The Ghetto (nominated by revbob)


The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick (nominated by WestwayKid)


The Beatles - Christmas Time (Is Here Again) (nominated by weller259)


"MY all-time favorite Christmas song by the Fab Four. A Must-have."

Tom Waits - Silent Night (nominated by Low Down Low)


David Bowie/Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy (nominated by Flex)


"To me, this one exemplifies Christmas. David's in fine form here and elevates a sweet but musty only chestnut from Bing. The lyrics he comes up with are, in manym ways, capture what's best about the spirit of the season with its themes of universal peace, renewal and hope. A near-perfect blend of the sentimental, the profound and with enough idiosyncratic edge to separate it and elevate it above the rest of the pack."

[Flex]

Whoops, as with group A, just realized the last option - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy - didn't make it onto the poll. Apologies! Looks like we had one voter so far, so make sure to re-vote! Also, as a reminder, you can vote for up to four picks if you like (or you can be all strategic-like and just for your top pick or whatever).

[oliver]

The group of death for me... a tough pick

[Flex]

Argh, didn't have time to get to another group today - will do group b & c tomorrow, hopefully. Dang covid.

[Flex]

Okay, my thoughts on Group B:

-Marlene Dietrich - Still war die Nacht

This was really lovely. I'm honestly mostly familiar with Dietrich from her film career (she appears in at least two of my all-time favorite movies: Destry Rides Again - which of course features her singing - and Touch of Evil). I can see why you'd want to nominate and share this Olaf, and thanks for introducing me to it. For me, I think this would be a wonderful song to put on a playlist for the late hours of Christmas Eve, when my taste turns most reflective and austere. As it is, it might be a little too austere for me to advance further in this exercise, but it's definitely a performance I'll be including in my moodier Christmas playlists in the future. So, it'll be a no vote from me to advance but a heartfelt "thank you" for introducing me to this song.

-James Brown - Santa Claus go Straight To The Ghetto

This is a song I listen to a bunch of times over the holiday season, because James Brown slaps and also this is in the genre of "Santa's gotta get his loot to the less fortunate" - a personal favorite genre. I almost included a James Brown song myself but he has at least half a dozen that I dearly love (plus he put Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) on a Christmas album first! How awesome is that?!) and I couldn't decide. Glad this got nominated. A confident "yes" vote from me.

-The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick

Another one I tend to listen to over and over and over again over the holidays. And for good reason! I love the Beach Boys and this song is a ton of fun. I think the Beach Boys Christmas Album has been sort of unfairly forgotten in the pantheon of both Beach Boys records and Christmas records. Its doesn't have the cachet of an Elvis Christmas Album or the Phil Spector record, but this is actually one of the records where Wilson & co. really seem to start stretching themselves and the production noticeably advances from previous albums. Let's have fun, fun, fun and move Mike & Stamos into the next round.

-The Beatles - Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

This is a funny one. It's basically a Beatles song that has been memory-holed. I don't think it's available on any digital platforms, and it's only officially shown up digitally as the B-side to Free as a Bird. I bought that beatles christmas records 7inch box from a few years ago which has this incorporated as originally released as part of that year's fan club record. This is a more enjoyable way to hear the song. I'm not sure what to do with this, it's fun but it's extremely slight. I listen to it about once a year. At the end of the day, this one is just not quite enough of anything for me, so it'll be a "no" from me despite enjoying the Beatles in pure silly mode.

-Tom Waits - Silent Night

This is a silent night for people who are spending christmas eve in the drunk tank. One of Waits' strength is his ability to capture the low feeling a person gets when they've been trampled on for a time. Honestly, this recording sort of predicts the sound Bob Dylan would give his whole Christmas album with the gruff vocals married to the more angelic backing harmonies. I don't love the backing instrumentation, which feels very 80s - likely due to this being a Tom Waits appearance on a 1989 charity album. I think the instrumentation just makes this lose out for me relative to the other songs. But I like what Waits is doing here too much to vote it down. A "yes" vote from me.

-David Bowie/Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

I nominated this one so I'll obviously be voting for it to advance. Only thing I'll add at the moment to my initial comments is that I think the entire christmas special this is on youtube and it's a trip. They drop Bowie's Heroes music video into the middle of it. Very antiquated and charming otherwise. Fun stuff.

Sorting out, particularly, the Beach Boys, Beatles and Waits was a tough one for me. I'm glad I'm not allowing vote changing because I'll probably be constantly second-guessing myself on this round.

[Low Down Low]

3 new songs on that list for me - top 2 and the Beatles track. Had heard none before and really good to hear them. Another tight call and while I really like the sentiment of the James Brown song, I just didn't like the tune as much as the Marlene offering so that basically nailed the 4th spot as Waits, Bing & Dave and BB were always filling the top 3.

[Flex]

FYI, if anyone hasn't voted yet, there's about 20 minutes left and this group currently will require a runoff to resolve which songs advance. Not that I necessarily endorse strategic voting, but anyone still wanting to participate could potentially get us to the roundnof 16 this weekend rather than early next week!

[Flex]

Congrats to the following songs, which all advance!

-David Bowie/Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy (nominated by Flex) 12 votes
-James Brown - Santa Claus go Straight To The Ghetto (nominated by revbob) 9 votes
-The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick (nominated by WestwayKid) 9 votes

But we have a tie for the 4th slot, which we'll do a sudden death round for, between the following two songs:

-The Beatles - Christmas Time (Is Here Again) (nominated by weller259) 6 votes
-Tom Waits - Silent Night (nominated by Low Down Low) 6 votes