Today we have a nice, well-rounded assortment for you. Like a George Michael-shaped box of chocolate sweets, left on your doorstep in the middle of the night by an admirer unknown, with only a simple note: “Enjoy!”

This first one by Dan Tran might seem like a low-energy a cappella version at first, but don’t be fooled! Once those low-energy electronic beats kick in, and the low-energy synth keyboards start unenthusiastically jamming out, you’ll realize that Dan Tran has produced one of the best low-energy electronica versions of Last Christmas that we’ve ever featured.

Dan Tran – Last Christmas


Hold on to your socks! After Mr. Tran’s milquetoast version, you might be feeling a little drowsy. And then The Maine come along and blow your mind with their incredibly-faithful-to-the-original version. They start off strong, and plateau from there.

The Maine – Last Christmas

You can find the whole Maine holiday EP for download at amazon for a measly $2.98! Go get it!

Time to start classing things up, dear readers. And as we all know, there are 3 pillars to a classy song: 1) Don’t have lyrics. 2) Invest in disco drummer. 3) Tell your piano player to “make it sound like the theme to Wings.” Mission accomplished, Wonder Girls. You’ve classed it up in spades.

Wonder Girls – Last Christmas

The South Korean Wonder Girls look to have had a rough start with members being injured, replaced and then the whole being involved in a van accident while touring. Don’t fret! They have prevailed and are the first South Korean group to enter the Billboard Hot 100 with their single “Nobody.” You can also find that on Amazon.

Right from the start, you can tell Germany’s Amen Am Arsch are going to deliver a special one. Their drummer counts it off on the hi hat, some super-distorted crunchy guitar comes in, and then a tough-sounding dude does a lackluster GM impersonation. I’ll have to admit, it’s not that great. But once the tough-sounding dude starts to do what he does best (sounding tough) things start to get interesting. It quickly becomes a pretty decent hardcore version. They start changing up the tempo, and right around the 2:00 mark, it’s pretty awesome. If only they hadn’t wasted so much time in the beginning. Check out their version of “Rudolph” on their myspace, it’s guaranteed to frighten your friends and loved ones!

Amen Am Arsch – Last Christmas


We’ll wrap things up with this pretty downtempo live version, but why during the first verse do we get a Jamaican accent?

Dale North’s site has a pretty diverse set of music featured. Not only does he write original music, and do his own arrangement’s of classic songs, but he also does a number of interesting video game remixes with the band The OneUps and the studio he co-founded, OneUp Studios. And he offers all this free for download! If you’re a holiday nut (and I know you are), make sure to check out his Super Mario’s Sleigh Ride for a pretty fun, unexpected track. Oh yes, and he also covered “Last Christmas” though it’s nothing like his work with the OneUps. Check out goto80’s cover for a video game-made version.

Dale North – Last Christmas

You can find free downloads on Dale’s site, the OneUp’s site, and Volume 2 on amazon.com

Aspiring artist Brittany Bennett is actually pretty good at what she does. This particular track is a just her and a guitar, but check out her other songs on myspace. They’re more involved, full-band affairs and sound just as good as anything on the radio right now.

Brittany Bennett – Last Christmas


Whoa, this is wild. I guess it’s metal? This would actually be a great “surprise” track on a rather traditional holiday mix because it starts out like the Wham! original and then BAM!

Joep is Evil – Last Grindfast

One little bit of news, it looks like Taylor Swift’s “Last Christmas” is #2 behind Mariah Carey on the iTunes holiday music top songs. Way to go Taylor!

Ok, so if someone were to say to you, “Besides The Beatles, who else would you want to play ‘Last Christmas?’” You would probably answer Guns n’ Roses. But I bet your second choice would be AC/DC, right? Well today’s your lucky day! We don’t have a cover from AC/DC but they’re the next best thing the Aussie rockers, German band Riff Raff, who perform in the style of AC/DC! It’s pretty fantastic and there’s a whole album of songs done as if Brian Johnson and the boys laid waste to baby Jesus hymns. Buy it here.

Riff Raff – Last Christmas


Recently signed Augusta GA band, Say Vandelay, bring us a pop punk-ish version that starts off with hints of late ’90s keyboard rock, like Ozma, and finishes up with what I’ll call post-emo vocals, like Brand New might do. If that didn’t make any sense, then just listen to the song already, wouldja?

This comes from the annnual release “12 Bands of Christmas” produced locally in Augusta. Check it out here.

Say Vandelay – Last Christmas


Next we have two live versions for you, that couldn’t be more different. Alkbottle is a rock band from Vienna, while Caught in the Act were a Dutch boy band. Alkbottle still cause trouble all over Austria while Caught in the Act split up in 1998 after only 3 years of success. I think these two polar opposite groups really show the appeal of “Last Christmas” across musical borders.

Alkbottle – Last Christmas

Caught in the Act – Last Christmas

So we’re past the 200 mark. That should count for something, right? Looking back to when we crossed the 100 track mark, we were right around 7 hours of music. Now, at 200 tracks, we’re at about 14 hours. What does it all mean??

Here’s something nice: Whitney from USA Today’s Pop Candy featured us again this year! And she even supported our long-time dream about a Shatner/Aguilera “Last Christmas” duet! (I know that sounds silly on paper, but seriously can you imagine how awesome that pairing would be?)

And just a quick question for ya’s — Is everyone downloading ok? I mean, we know A LOT of you are, but is this whole download service thing weird? If you’re having trouble, or have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to email us!

OK on to business…