Music of the week: Christmas edition :-)
If it’s Christmas, then for many people it means watching Home alone. Related memes have appeared in social media already in the summer: “100 more days before you watch Home Alone again” ;-) Well, I do not recall when I watched it for the last time, so probably not in the past decade…
However, even I know that the most famous song from the movie is Carol of the Bells. I was surprised to hear how many musicians make a cover of a song from a film. Well, if you check out the Wikipedia article above, you will see that this is not a song by John Williams. Long story short: the song originates from Ukraine, and the English version is less than a century old. Let’s start listening to the most famous version:
TIDAL: https://listen.tidal.com/album/52597873/track/52597885
There are many cover versions of this song. Even the Wikipedia article has a long list, but if you search for “Carol of the Bells” on YouTube or TIDAL, you will find many more. Probably the most famous, apart from “Home Alone”, is made by The Piano Guys:
TIDAL: https://listen.tidal.com/album/23004975/track/23004979
Of course, there are also countless metal versions. I listened to a few, and I liked the version by Charlie Parra del Riego the most:
TIDAL: https://listen.tidal.com/album/221145965/track/221145967
You know a song is an integral part of popular culture when it appears in a game soundtrack:
TIDAL: https://listen.tidal.com/album/333849250/track/333849251
And for now, something completely different. One of the most famous Hungarian folk music groups is Kaláka. Every year they hold a Christmas concert, where they sing many Christmas songs, Hungarian folk traditions and others, as well. A couple of times I was lucky enough to participate in these concerts. The following video shows how they walk in to the stage singing:
TIDAL: https://listen.tidal.com/album/162358955