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The Great Christmas Carol Challenge

This week we pit musical legends against upstarts and imitators.

You be the judge and jury…

Let’s start with the best selling single of all time, Christmas or not…50 million copies of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” have been sold. Here’s the crooner singing "White Christmas":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSUT8Inl14

Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying later that "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully."

Lady Gaga couldn’t resist the challenge. Here’s her “White Christmas”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0nyU3P_kg

One of the most loved seasonal songs is this chestnut (sorry) from Nat King Cole, “The Christmas Song”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbjqU76PU8Y

Who but a teenage upstart would dare to challenge the supremacy of Nat Cole? Why none other but young human Justin Bieber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EqEP6oyy2w

To hear more shocking audio, listen to the episode. We pit Burl Ives against Michael Buble, The Harry Simeone Chorale against The 3 Tenors, and Frank Sinatra against Frankie Valli. No contest!

John has worked as a professional bassist for 20 years, including a 15 year stint as Musical Director of the Mountain Stage radio program. John has been at KNKX since 1999 where he hosts “All Blues”, is producer of the BirdNote radio program, and co-hosts “Record Bin Roulette”. John is also the recording engineer for KNKX “In-Studio Performances”. Not surprisingly, John's main musical interests are jazz and blues, and he is still performing around Seattle.
John Maynard started working in radio in the seventies as a DJ at Seattle’s KJR AM which at the time was the dominant AM station in the Seattle market. After a brief stint as a restaurateur and night club owner, Maynard returned to radio with Robin Erickson, creating the hugely popular “Robin and Maynard Show.” In the more than 20 years under that marquee, Maynard flew with the Blue Angels, piloted the Goodyear Blimp, sang with Donny Osmond and hung out in a Universal Studios bar with Kojak (Telly Savalas).