Old School Christmas

James Brown immortalized an urban Christmas by singing about Santa going straight to the ghetto. The song has been covered a few times since it was first released, but nobody's cover version has been so radically different as Snoop Dogg's version. It's so different, I doubted it could even be a cover version, but people tell me it is. I still say it's an original song that just happens to have the same name as the James Brown classic. Well, you be the judge and feel free to sound off in the comments section.

Snoop Dogg-Santa Claus is Going Straight To The Ghetto

Next up is a real rarity, a true treasure in my collection because, as far as I've been able to uncover, it appeared only on one CD collection, and a regional collection at that. It is from a radio station in Portland, OR, and they released this on their box set Z100 Morning Zoo Yard Sale: 15 Years of Crap!. I also understand there were individual Christmas tapes/CDs released as well, and this song is more than likely on one of those. The CD is long out of print, but used copies of it surface on the Internet from time to time if you're interested. 'Til then...enjoy this sample of the wonderful goodness....

Coolio-Sleigh Ride Drive By

The next track comes from another rarity: WINTER WARNERLAND, a promotional CD sent to radio stations back in 1988 and it featured songs by various Warner Records acts and Christmas greetings and other fun bits. The vinyl record version was split over two discs, one red and one green. The CD, of course, is festive silver, just like the bells.

Cold Chillin' Juice Crew-Cold Chillin' Christmas

The final selection I bring you today showed up on a Kevin and Bean Christmas CD. Kevin and Bean are DJs from Los Angeles, on KROQ, and this song came up on their release Swallow My Eggnog. This is one song that I throw at those hardened hearts we talked about a couple blog posts back and only the most hardened of the hard resist this track. I've had such great responses from both young and old with this song...it's often a real crowd pleaser. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Chillaz-Clint Frostwood