24 Songs of Christmas, Dec. 1: 'Sleigh Ride' -- The Ronettes

Jing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding!

As I said in Saturday's intro, this list is not a countdown. If it were, you would not be reading about this song until at least Dec. 21.

Since it's not a countdown, I figured, why not kick things off with a bang?

When I conceived of this list, what I was looking for was the definitive version of each of these songs. While I didn't find that at every turn, it's what I found here.

The Ronettes' rendition of "Sleigh Ride" is actually the song that inspired me to do the project -- it's so good as to render all other versions redundant.

Here we have the best of the early-'60s girl groups giving perhaps their best performance on a Christmas album.

What Ronnie Spector, Estelle Bennett and Nedra Talley give us is three minutes of enchanting winter magic.

Of course, much credit goes to Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound. Let's forget for a second that he's a creepy murderer and just enjoy one of his masterpieces.

But of course, what really makes it are the jing-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-dings. Thank you, ladies, for those.

Up for tomorrow: "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

Past Posts

The 24 days of Christmas (songs)