It's that special, joyful time of year once again: GuitarWorld.com readers' poll season!
This year, we've decided to spread some musical holiday cheer in the form of our first-ever "Best Holiday Rock Song" readers' poll.
It's a chance for all those classic-rock holiday favorites (think of the Kinks' "Father Christmas" and/or Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas") to go head to head against each other, not to mention several much more recent—and possibly harder-rocking entries—in a festive, friendly showdown.
With the help of several members of the Guitar World staff, we've selected 32 of our favorite holiday rock songs—and we're asking you to vote for your favorites. You can see the complete 32-song bracket near the bottom of this story.
Songs include Keith Richards' version of "Run Rudolph Run," John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," Billy Squier's "Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You," AC/DC's "Mistress for Christmas," Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song," Queen's "Thank God It’s Christmas," Spinal Tap's "Christmas with the Devil," Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," Pretenders' "2000 Miles," the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Christmas All Over Again," Korn's "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" and many more.
We'll be a sharing a new matchup every day, right into late December, including weekends. so get your voting fingers ready!
Enjoy our first Best Holiday Rock Song readers' poll, which is sponsored by Boss!
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Today's Matchup
“Christmas All Over Again," Tom Petty
This original Christmas tune by a clean-shaved Tom Petty originally aired from the White House in 2000 as part of the A Very Special Christmas TV special.
“Father Christmas," the Kinks
The Kinks were fortunate because they had two "rounds" of fame: first as a British Invasion band during the Sixties and then during the late Seventies and early Eighties as "rock's elder statesmen" who could still kick ass. Their classic late-Seventies Christmas tune, "Father Christmas," is a perfect example of this latter-day ass kicking. It has some of the most clever lyrics in this entire competition.
Vote Now!
The polls are closed! After a recount, it seems Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Christmas All Over Again" has won by a mere TWO VOTES! The final results are "Christmas Time Again" (50.08 percent) over "Father Christmas" (49.92 percent). Sorry for the initial Steve Harvey-esque mistake; we closed down the poll during a late Tom Petty surge, and Petty actually pulled ahead as we were removing the polling function from the story. Thank you for voting, everyone!
Here's how the bracket was—very unscientifically—compiled.
We drew the songs' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Quebec Nordiques baseball cap, which is called a casquette in Quebec) to help us create our bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these songs are ranked or come from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome.
Remember that, as with any poll, genre might occasionally clash against genre, so you'll just need to decide which song has (or has had) the most to offer within its genre.
As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll be posting matchups pretty much every day of the month, sometimes more than once per day, just to give you an early warning. Merci!
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