Celebratin'... Yuletide Rock

Two weeks ago, it was the best of Christmas Blues, Soul and Hip-Hop. Last week it was the best of Country Christmas. Now it's time to Rock n' Roll. We're going to stay away from the obvious choices, like Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" or that terribly overplayed, only ironically interesting David Bowie/Bing Crosby duet on "Little Drummer Boy." Check out afew of the lesser-played Christmas nuggets we love:


We kick off with The Ramones and "Merry Christmas, I Don't Want to Fight Tonight"




My Chemical Romance with a post-punk cover of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that has just the right mix of sentimentality and angst.



The underrated "Christmas is a Time to Say 'I Love You'" by the also underrated Billy Squire.



Yeah, we know this one gets some airplay, but it's one of our faves. "Christmas Baby, Please Come Home," originally sung by Darlene Love, here covered by some Irish band from the 80's.



Robert Earl Keene's spot-on and hilarious "Merry Christmas from the Family." Okay, it's more country than rock, but any song whose opening lines is "Mom got drunk and dad got drunk /At our family Christmas party" is alright with us.




We'll finish up with the sappy, but lovely 20th anniversary remake of "Do They Know It's Christmas" A pretty song and sentiment. There are worse things a person can do besides want to feed the world.