MUSIC: Celebrating the Season with “The Ultimate Soul Christmas Soundtrack” Playlist (LISTEN)

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

I spotted Christmas decorations in Costco by early October and Hallmark Channel has been airing non-stop holiday movies already for weeks, but like many, our family has always marked Thanksgiving to be the point where we officially kick off the holiday season, including breaking out the yuletide tunes.

With that in mind, Good Black News is happy to offer the “Ultimate Soul of the Season Christmas Soundtrack” as a playlist to guide you through the holidays with ease.

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This is a mega-playlist – 25 hours of music in honor of the 25 days of Christmas leading up to the big day.  It is not meant to be listened to all in one sitting – but rather to be just one-click away as your go-to soundtrack for the month. You can set it and forget it, or hit shuffle and mix it up.

Our inspiration was to capture the mood of those many radio stations around the country that turn to a festive Christmas musical format in the month of December – but with our own specific Good Black News twist.

In our playlist, ALL the songs are by or feature Black artists. Have it on in the background for decorating, cooking, wrapping presents, or just sitting in front of the fire sipping eggnog – and in the process you’ll be supporting Black artists through your streams.

This playlist is intentionally mainstream. We’ve got all the greatest soul holiday classics – from the Temptations epic version of “Silent Night” to Donny Hathaway‘s “This Christmas” to Prince’s modern classic “Another Lonely Christmas.”  

But we’ve also got pop, classic easy listening vocals, gospel, and even a little jazz and hip hop.  Instead of Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra and Andy Williams, the backbones of our playlist are the legendary Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Lou Rawls and Ella Fitzgerald.  Instead of Bobby Helms and Brenda Lee, we’ve got Darlene Love, along with the many terrific Motown Christmas recordings. These are the songs that make up our collective Christmas memories.

By the ’80s and ’90s, many more artists were recording holiday albums – it was simply part of the career path. So we’ve got the next generation of those classic singers – like Nat’s daughter Natalie Cole, Brian McKnight, Vanessa Williams and Luther Vandross.

We’ve also got artists like SWV, Destiny’s Child, Trey Songz, K-Ci & Jo Jo, Tank and Faith Evans that in a different era might not have sung about Christmas. Even as the spate of Christmas releases has slowed down in the last few years, there’s still quite a batch of new music, from Fantasia‘s 2017 Christmas After Midnight to John Legend‘s 2019 release, A Legendary Christmas.

Gospel artists have always performed Christmas music – and our list captures artists from Mahalia Jackson to Kirk Franklin. On the pop front, we’ve included crossover stars like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Chris Brown and TLC – and even current Christmas darlings Pentatonix (when they recorded with Jazmine Sullivan).

We’re also including some newer acts making great contemporary yuletide songs – classics in the making.  In 2020, Leslie Odom of Hamilton fame released his second holiday album, simply titled The Christmas Album, in which he takes on Wham‘s “Last Christmas,” the standard “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and the Hawaiian-themed “Mele Kalikimaka” – all songs not frequently recorded by Black artists.

Also on the list is the a cappella group Naturally 7, which has been around for close to two decades, but in the world of Black a cappella, has often lived in the shadow of the legendary Take 6. This playlist includes innovatively-arranged tracks from both of Naturally 7’s holiday albums, the most recent of which was 2018’s A Christmas Experience.

We’ve also got Andra Day, Ledisi, Rahsaan Patterson, PJ Morton, Kem, and African singer Timi Dakalo for you to check out. And throughout, we’ve mixed in obscure oldies from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s – tracks from The Cadillacs, The Orioles, Fats Waller, The Penguins, Brook Benton, The Mills Brothers, Solomon Burke, Dinah Washington, The Moonglows – and many more.

There are over 400 songs in our list – so we’ve got different versions of some of the same standards, and we’ve got multiple songs by many artists. But there are no exact repeats spread throughout the list, so you’ll not hear the same rendition of the same song by the same artist twice.

There’s a lot to explore, and enough variety to provide you with a playlist you can use all month long.  We hope you enjoy.

And, as the Whispers would say, “Happy Holidays to You”!