Why Christmas Music Makes Me Sad

I always get upset this time of year. So I decided to investigate if my sadness.

People have been asking for a central place to listen to all the songs I recommend, so I created two playlists to keep track of them. You can listen to all of the new songs here and all of the old songs here. Now, let's talk about how ...

I Get Sad Every Christmas

Nat King Cole is one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. Not only did Cole have dozens of top 40 hits, but he set the standard for what a small jazz ensemble should be. He was also so popular that Capitol Records headquarters became known as "The House that Nat Built."

Despite all of that, the average person interacts with Nat King Cole only when they listen to his Christmas classics each December. That makes me sad. How could such greatness be reduced to just a few holiday tunes? Then again, this newsletter is about music and data, so I should probably check to make sure my sadness is well-founded.

During the majority of this year, Cole does between 2 million to 3 million streams per day on Spotify. During December, that number regularly breaks the 5 million to 7 million mark before peaking near 20 million on Christmas Day. If you do some back-of-the-envelope math, you'll see that at least 75% of Cole's streams are coming outside of December. Because of that, I can't claim that Cole is only remembered for his Christmas music.

Wikipedia page view data confirms this. Only 13% of Wikipedia "Nat King Cole" page views come in December. Even if we say the holiday season goes from November through January, 68% of Cole's page views are coming outside the holiday season.

I'm sure that most of Cole's non-holiday fans are older and that more of his listening will occur during December as time goes on. But even if that's the case, I'm not that upset anymore. The annual nature of Christmas makes it so that at least once a year people of all ages get to enjoy the vocal talents of Nat King Cole, Brenda Lee, and the like. Because of that, maybe they'll go on to discover other classics by those legends.

A New One
"C'est La Vie" by Peach Tree Rascals
2022 - Indie Rock

The Peach Tree Rascals, a group that smoothly combines rap and rock, could only exist right now. Other groups have fused those genres before, like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, but the Peach Tree Rascals' soft, beautiful, rap-infused melodies would not have worked when those heavier rap-rock sounds were popular in the early-2000s.

A few weeks ago, we spoke about how though many popular songs on TikTok contain strange, distorted sounds that there are others that are built upon soft, sweet melodies. The Peach Tree Rascals fall into that latter category. You can hear one of those melodies on "C'est La Vie."

An Old One
"(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" by Nat King Cole
1956 - Swinging Jazz

After going on about Nat King Cole, I felt the need to recommend one of his songs. You've probably heard this one before but not by Cole. The most well-known version was done by Chuck Berry in 1961. Cole first recorded it in 1946, the same year Bobby Troup wrote it about America's most iconic road. But this version comes from his 1956 album After Midnight, a classic that transports you back to a smokey jazz club of that era.

On this track, you can hear the genius of Cole on both the microphone and piano. It also allows you to see how music of this era slowly morphed into the explosive rock n' roll that came to define the second half of the 20th century.

A friend of those in low places,
Chris Dalla Riva

Want to hear the music that I make? Check out my new EP.

Want to listen to more of my recent favorites? Listen to & favorite this playlist.