Ah yes, Christmas Parties. Sequined gowns and silk ties, dressing up for an evening of high-style celebration. Since it’s Saturday and you’re likely getting ready to hit the company Christmas party at the local up-scale hotel ballroom tonight, I thought I’d get you in the high-style mood.

Want to have some fun? Give a bunch of young kids some chocolate and soda-pop, turn this up loud, and get them to start dancing – even you’ll start bouncing around.

While it’s not uncommon to find multiple versions of popular Christmas recordings done by different artists, I think that Charles Brown holds the all-time record for multiple recordings of the same song, his perennial classic Merry Christmas, Baby.

In the early ’90′s Capitol/EMI released a radio-only CD sampler of Christmas Music, and I managed to get a copy of that limited edition run, which included this Skydiggers track. The song, highly sought out by fans due to it’s rarity, was finally released commercially in 1999 on the album “Still Restless: The Lost Tapes”

Probably one of the more recognizable and mainstream Christmas songs featured in this set, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” really isn’t about Christmas at all – it’s more just a song that has become associated to this time of year.

The first time I heard “Christmas Day” I was floored – a blues/gospel original with a sense of despair, irony and hope, all wrapped up in one gripping blues-story track. (The backing gospel-like vocals and tasteful string solo adds immensely to this track.) Even if you aren’t a big blues fan, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

This is the first of 12 musical entries for your holiday enjoyment. Last year’s offer still stands, but I thought this year I’d highlight some seasonal music that strays from the usual radio bleating and mall mush (yes, for gosh sakes, we do know it’s Christmas, and so do they).