Time for Christmas music! First up- "Blue Christmas" (Beach Boys, Elvis, etc)

[RockabillyNBlues]

Time for Christmas music!  I'll post some choice rock & roll favs over the next few weeks.  First up....hear "Blue Christmas" by Elvis (of course), Bruce Springsteen, The Beach Boys and Brian Setzer here...http://rockabillynblues.blogspot.com/2011/11/kicking-off-christmas-music-season-blue.html

Who's version do you like the best?  Obviously, many more covered this one too.  It's interesting to see the different takes on it.

[Chris Brown]

Out of those four, for me it's the Beach Boys by a mile - I can't stand Elvis' version, and the others aren't too far from it.  Brian captured the actual feeling of the song - he makes it sound sad, as it should.

To be fair though, there are other versions that I enjoy - one by Vince Gill comes to mind.

[Summertime Blooz]

Easy one- Elvis' version is definitive. The BBs version is over-produced schmaltz.

[RockabillyNBlues]

It's tough for me to choose as well.  Elvis is a classic and I was raised on his music so I have to lean that way.  I love the vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys though so they are a second.  I wanted to post Chris Isaak's cover but couldn't find it on youtube (that wasn't a live audience recorded version).  His is pretty similar to the Elvis version.  Yes, Brian Setzer does really capture the feeling of the song.  I'm always a big fan of anything he does.

[groganb]

One of my absolute favorite Brian vocals. Not even double-tracked. Sigh.

[Rocker]

Both are great and very well performed. Elvis' version is probably more original than the Beach Boys'. The inclusion of a female soprano was very unusual at the time of it's release. Elvis clearly showed a blues influence on his recording.
The Beach Boys took the schmaltzy road (and I mean this in a positive way). Brian's vocal is gorgeous and lets you feel the lonelinesss described in the song in a completely different way than Elvis.
Since both versions are so different, I wouldn't wanna miss any of them and also not call any better than the other one.

[joshferrell]

IMO Elvis' version is better,don't get me wrong Brian sings it beautifully it's just that it's too slow,"Blue Christmas" is more of  "blues" type song so slowing it down takes the Bluesy feeling away from it IMO...