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