Rate-O-Rama: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Welcome to Rate-O-Rama

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Rate-O-Rama : Songmania is a reader participation game.

Every Saturday evening I will publish a Rate-O-Rama article which will feature three versions of a popular song.

The object is to listen to each of the music videos provided within the post.

After listening to each video you can rate each song in the comments section below.

(You must be a member to comment. If you are not a member you can join Vocal Media for FREE. You don’t ever have to pay for membership unless you choose to upgrade your membership)

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The rating method is easy. Simply give each song a rating of 1 to 100.

(The more you like the song the higher the rating).

If possible, please provide a brief comment explaination of the reasoning behind your ratings for each song.

After a week (Saturday evening) I will tally the ratings and in the next Rate-O-Rama post I will announce the average rating each song received from the previous post.

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The Raffle!!!

I am taking the Rate-O-Rama series to the next level. At the end of each month I will do a raffle in which the winner will win a $5.00 tip.

To enter all you have to do is participate in playing the Rate-O-Rama game. Since R-O-R is updated every Sunday night in order to qualify you must play the game during it's initial seven day period with Sunday evening being the cutoff period.

For each game you play you will receive a ticket for the raffle. Therefore if you play all four games in the month you will have four chances to win.

The winner will not only win the $5 prize but I will feature your Vocal Profile on Vocal + Assist on both Facebook and Discord and you will be featured in the first R-O-R game of the month after your win.

The November 2023 Rate-O-Rama Raffle Winner:

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Last week we featured the Post Punk classic: "New Dawn Fades" as recorded by Joy Division (1979), Moby (1994), and Eden & Noelle (2020).

The following are the average ratings for each song as resulted from the votes:

🥇 Eden & Noelle: 85.7

🥈 Joy Division: 85.1

🥉 Moby: 82.6

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The Sixteenth Edition of Rate-O-Rama features three renditions of the Christmas classic: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."

Thank you to Scott Christenson for suggesting this song!!!

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Darlene Love (1963)

In the 1960s Darlene Love was a highly sought-after session singer and worked with many legendary performers. Her biggest claim to fame is singing lead vocals on “He's a Rebel” and “He's Sure the Boy I Love” Both songs were credited to The Crystals, a band with which Darlene never sang.

Every year David Letterman invited Love to sing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on his television show Late Show with David Letterman. He dubbed her the "Christmas Queen.”

Love took "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” to #15 in the US, #22 in the UK, and #36 in Canada, as well as charting in many other parts of the world. The song was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector. Spector produced Love's recording.

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Mariah Carey (1994)

Mariah included the song on her worldwide multi-platinum album Merry Christmas.

Mariah's cover of the song reached the top twenty on the US Holiday 100 chart, and the top forty in Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the Netherlands; and was certified Platinum in the United States and Canada, Gold in Australia, and Silver in the United Kingdom.

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Michael Buble (2011)

Released on Michael Buble's platinum selling album Christmas. Bublé took the song to #24 on the US Holiday 100. He also charted all throughout Europe with the song doing the best in Sweden and the UK.

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My Thoughts

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Darlene Love: I love Darlene's soulful Vocal performance. She gives the song a Motown sort of vibe. The sax solo is a nice added touch. I especially like the joyful Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” production. I give this rendition a 96.

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Mariah Carey: Up front, I am going to acknowledge that Mariah Carey is one of the most popular female vocalists of all time and overall she is one of the most popular musicians of all time. I am also going to acknowledge that she is regarded as one of the greatest singers of all time. I will add that yes technically Mariah Carey is an outstanding singer. That being said, I have never been a big fan of hers.

While her vocal performance of the song is executed to exceptional results, her vocal acrobatics are a bit much for me. I feel it takes away from the purity of the song. The musical production is done professionally and with top-notch musicians but does not add much more to the original by Darlene Love. I'll give Mariah's version an 85.

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Michael Buble:I like how Michael Buble's rendition opens with a sort of big band style then his jazz toned and clean and crisp lead vocals come in. I like Michael Buble's voice, he's a good singer. Instead of the saxophone solo, he opts for an electric guitar solo. I am a big fan of the guitar so I loved this. The song going forth takes on a rock and roll vibe as does Michael Buble's lead vocal. The song gets smoking to the end. I liked this rendition quite a bit. I give it a 95.

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I will be back next week with the results of this Rate-O-Rama Edition.

Last Week's Rate-O-Rama:

With Love, RHC ❤️