Maybe the cheapest trick in the playlist maker’s book is the rainbow playlist.  It’s a simple concept: find songs that have a connection to the various parts of the spectrum of visible light: red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet.  Maybe start with something in black and end by putting it all together in white.  It takes little creativity and often comes out pretty well.

Here are the ground rules for this year’s list: the color reference (with one exception, sort of) must be in the song title or the performer’s name, no red-nosed reindeer (too easy) and any Blue Christmas must be performed by somebody other than Elvis (again too easy).

Here’s the list:

Black Christmas                                          Emotions
Red Blue Yellow Green                                 Nina Mankin
Santa Claus Blues                                        Red Onion Jazz Babies
Truckin’ Trees For Christmas                      Red Simpson
Rangers’ Christmas Lullabye                       Red Dirt Rangers
Oranges for Christmas                                El Vez
White Christmas                                          Darlene Love
Yellow Snow! Yellow Snow! Yellow Snow!    Bob Rivers
Yellowman Rock (Jingle Bell Rock)               Yellowman
I’ll Be Home For Christmas                          Al Green
Green Christmas                                         Barenaked Ladies
Green Christmas                                         Stan Freberg
Winter Wonderland                                      Pat Green
Blue Christmas                                            Del Mccoury Band, The
Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)         Miles Davis Bob Dorough
Blue Christmas                                            Belton Richard
Blue Christmas                                            The Mediation Singers
River                                                            Indigo Girls
A Violet in the Snow                                    Bill Upper
Rebel Jesus                                                  The Violets
Candy Cane Children                                   White Stripes

Quick Notes: Indigo and Violet were tough.  Thank goodness Indigo Girls recorded one plausibly holiday song.  “A Violet in the Snow” may be the worst song I have ever put on a holiday playlist.  The Violets’ version of “Rebel Jesus” was a late find and I had already purchased the Bill Upper track so you get it too.  Oh, Darlene Love’s “White Christmas” is the rule-breaker.  Listen to the track carefully and see if you can figure out why it’s nect to the great El Vez’s (as close to the King as we will get on this list) Oranges for Christmas.

Here’s the playlist folks.

1. Christmas is a Time to Love–Unknown
2. Holly, Jolly Christmas–Burl Ives
3. The Chipmunk Song–Alvin and the Chipmunks
4. Merry Christmas, Darling–The Carpenters
5. Do They Know It’s Christmas–Band Aid
6. My Christmas Card to You–The Partridge Family
7. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer–Elmo and Patsy
8. Santa Claus Got Stuck (In My Chimney)–Ella Fitzgerald
9. Marshmallow World–Darlene Love
10. Blue Christmas–Elvis Presley
11. Santa Claus is Coming to Town–Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
12. Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth–Bing Crosby and David Bowie
13. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas–Jim Nabors
14. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree–The Partridge Family
15. Joy–George Winston
16. Santa Claus and His Old Lady–Cheech and Chong
17. Christmas in Hollis–Run-D.M.C.
18. Feliz Navidad–Jose Feliciano
19. O Holy Night–*Nsync
20. A Pirate’s 12 Days of Christmas–Gastronomical Unit
21. I Believe in Father Christmas–Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
22. The Christmas Shoes–Newsong
23. Christmas Dragnet–Stan Freberg and Daws Butler

I will be burning CDs soon and sending them out, but in the meantime I thought you might like to get a preview. Over the next three weeks I will be posting individual comments on each track. Happy holidays!