Merry Christmas Baby
Words & Music by Lou Baxter & Johnny Moore
John Owen all instruments & drum programming.
Arrangement by Otis Redding

This was originally recorded by Otis Redding. He had the Stax records house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s backing him up. You should check this one out if you really want to put some soul into your Christmas.

Nuttin' For Christmas
Words & Music by S. Tepper & R. Bennett
John Owen all instruments & drum programming
Arrangement by John Owen
(Borrowing heavily from Stan Freeburg)

I had not heard the original version of this song till November of this year. Still I knew almost all the words from singing this as a little kid with my brothers & sisters. There are a couple of versions of this song. The one I like best is
by Stan Freeburg.

Christmas Time Is Here
Words & Music by Lee Mendelson & Vince Guaraldi
John Owen all instruments & drum programming
Arrangement by Vince Guaraldi

This is from a Charlie Brown Christmas T.V. special. The sound track is by The Vince Guaraldi Trio and it's brilliant. It is probably my favorite Christmas record.

Lil' Drummer
Words & Music by K. Davis, H Onorrati & H Simeone
John Owen all instruments & drum programming
Arrangement by John Owen

Of course this is The Little Drummer Boy. Every time I hear this song I always heard a sort of African drum thing. Then I found some samples of African instruments and chants and with some pushing and tweaking there you go.

This Christmas
Words & Music by Donny Hathaway & Nadine McKinnor
John Owen all instruments & drum programming
Arrangement by Donny Hathaway

This is my absolute favorite Christmas song. Donny Hathaway was the most under rated musician, songwriter ever. You might have heard him sing many duets with Roberta Flack.
This was also the most difficult song I've ever learned, and I've learned many song over the years. He could take something really difficult and make it sound so easy.

Sleigh Ride
Music by Leroy Anderson
John Owen all instruments & drum programming
Arrangement by The Ventures

I love the big band version of this song best, but I like this version too. Living in Southern California, I've been surfing but I haven't been on a sleigh ride so that's why I feel this version so well. I really tried to get that crappy surf guitar tone on this one. I might have over did it a bit (a little too crappy). The drums however are the real ones from The Ventures recording.

Me & Mrs. Claus
Words & Music by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff,Cary Gilber
Additional Lyrics by John Owen
John Owen all instruments & drum programming

This is a parody of Me & Mrs Jones of course. Gamble & Huff are incredibly songwriters and producers. They are responsible for the "Philli" sound. You know, bands like The Ojays, Spinners
& 5 Step Stairs. I cheated on this song a bit and used a midi file I found on the net.

Funky Little Christmas
Words & Music by John Owen
John Owen all instruments & drum programming
Arrangement by John Owen

I still love the toys I had as a kid. So writing a song about them was a snap. I used a drum loop by Charlie Morgan a top drummer in the UK. He's played on albums by Elton John, Kate Bush & George Michaels and now by John Owen. Some of the horn parts are from George Clinton's P-Funk horn section "The Horny Horns". I used some straight out loops of songs for the bridge see if you can guess the original songs (Hint there are 4)