Tuesday's Top Ten: Greatest, Must-Hear Christmas Songs

This week's Top Ten List is very simple. It's a list of my greatest Christmas songs of the season. It's not going to have a lot of songs that have been done to death over the years or have been rendered bad because department stores have played them out either. So sorry you won't find Boyz II Men on this list and you won't find Donny Hathaway either and you have the commercialization and oversaturation of those songs by the corporate world to blame for it. Now if you can get past that though than this list will be for you. My favorite Christmas songs of the season...

10.) Alvin and the Chipmunks- Christmas Song - I know this is a song from your childhood but if there's every a holiday that is all about you reverting back to that time, this is the one.

9.) Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies - Look I'm a black man who listens to Mobb Deep, Clipse and a gang of other musicians who boast of tales of coke dealing and shootouts but at the same time I'm a college educated man whose confident enough in myown skin to own up to the fact that I also enjoy classical music, have the ability to play the cello and can appreciate some good orchestral pieces as well. If that qualifies me as (insert insult) then so be it. I can live with that. This is classic.

8.) Luther Vandross - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - You just can't deny Luther. Even if you wanted to, the boy had skills. The man one of the best friends song has ever had. He killt this. KILLT IT!

7.) Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis - This one is self-evident. It's as mandatory a part of Christmas as socks are to shoes.

6.) Charles Brown - Merry Christmas Baby - Old classic soul of the kind we're not likely to see again.

5.) Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song - LOL, the song is worth the price of admission in and of itself but the video is just class. Nat was smooth. No lie, he might have been cooler than Obama in his prime. His voice didn't miss a beat and his performance was polished too. Moms always let Nat live during the holidays and this is probably a lot to do with her influence as much as it my taste. Thanks mom!

4.) Frank Sinatra - A Merry Little Christmas - Old blue eyes doing what Old Blue Eyes do!

3.) Vince Guaraldi Trio - O Tannenbaum (A Charlie Brown Christmas) - This is just class personified. It's the living embodiment of the season really. It's what corny guitar riffs are to adult films. Mood setting.

2.) A Charlie Brown Christmas - Christmas Time is Here Song - If you can't appreciate this then something is wrong with you.

1.) Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby It's Cold Outside - Two things, the first being this song is all kinds of genius. The way it's laid out like a conversation is ill. I dig the style on this one. It's just before it's time. Two, LMAO @ Ray trying to get this chick to stay throughout the whole song, Dude is not playing and he's definitely not taking no for an answer. Listening to this song is like watching a cartoon of Pepe LePew. Class.

Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby It's Cold Outside - The funniest movie is here. Find it

In Memoriam: Chris "Slim" Henry

Skip to 26:45 for a lighter more fonder memory from the past involving Chad OchoCinco and Chris Henry discussing whether there was a women in this world they've be willing to stay with because of her beauty if she cheated on them. You'll smile. As I said though just drag the time tracker to the 26:45 minute mark to go immediately to the part I'm talking about.

Anyway, I've avoided speaking on the issue because I wanted to find out some more details before inserting my thoughts on the matter and prematurely being proven an idiot or otherwise after new details began to emerge. So after finding out the particulars concerning the incident I had a feeling it would be something like this in the end but again it was naive to speculate too far into the matter earlier this week.

Chris was young and in love and handled an argument in an immature fashion that ultimately cost him his life. It had nothing to do with thuggery or his past arrests, but rather just a thoughtless moment of passion. He might have been just pulling a stunt like jumping in the back of his girlfriend's truck as a ploy to get her come to a halt so they could talk and just stumbled off the back of the truck accidentally or he might have jumped. Who really knows and at this point what does it matter? From everything I know about him on a local level and from everything the whole country knows he wasn't necessarily a bad guy. I think 'troubled' fits better. Just a talented man who led a troubled life. Not unlike other famous stars in other walks of life who've passed too soon and led troubled lives as in their limited time here. You don't need me to list names as examples as the world has given too many examples of these types unfortunately all too often. The entire situation is unfortunate and to reiterate the obvious, I feel the sorriest for his 10, 3 and 2 year old surviving children. I only hope he had a life insurance plan and they were his main beneficiaries and will be taken care of.

Still no matter what his deficiencies were, what we we feel we know about Chris or what we think we do, a man lost his life to the pain and grief of the people who knew him well and at the very least we ought respect that. R.I.P. to Mr. Henry.

Canabalt - The Game

This is probably the most addicting and fun game I've played all year. If you're trying to pass the time, whether in the short run or in a much larger capacity (trying to kill the clock at work) this is the game you should play and potentially lose your job over. You won't regret it. 

http://adamatomic.com/canabalt/

Barkley: "Tiger Needs To Take My Calls"

I've avoided making comments on the Tiger Woods case because it's a private issue and should be handles privately just like anybody else's hardships and mishaps. I did think what Spike Lee and Charles Barkley say on the matter is very interesting though since they know Tiger and seem to be wanting to circle the wagons around him only they can't seem to get in touch with Tiger because he changed his number.