My Top 10 Cold Weather Songs, by Rich Paschall

If you live in the northern half of the nation you have probably brought out your sweaters and sweatshirts. You may even have located your winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. So, it seems like a good time to bring on the winter tunes. Songs by any band with “Cold” in their name are not what we mean here. Nor shall we include songs about lovers who are as “Cold As Ice” or running “Against The Wind.” Our tunes are really songs about winter, cold, and snow.  Some are a bit more symbolic than others, but they will do nicely for my purposes.

Let’s be clear, they are not holiday songs, although some of them only get played in the holiday season. Since the Christmas holiday season seems to start around Halloween and go until New Year’s Day, I guess there is already ample opportunity to hear some of them. You will discover that there is no holiday greeting included in the cold and snowy lyrics.  In fact, we will give you some instrumental music just because you can already place it in your winter memory.

Let me start you off with an honorable mention from the movie White Christmas.  No, I am not sneaking in a Christmas song.  This is strictly two minutes of wishing for snow by four big-name performers:

There are a number of other songs about snow that may not be classics but are good nonetheless. Track down “Snow” by Harry Nilsson, for example. Type in “Snow” in a YouTube search and you will certainly see “Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. On second thought, you better type in “snow songs” so you can avoid all those homemade videos of people stuck in a snowdrift.

Here’s our bottom 5 with everything from a Classical sound to rock and a traditional pop wonderland.  There are winter birds of all kinds if you just let it snow:
10. Wizards of Winter – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
9.  Winter – Rolling Stones
8.  Winter Wonderland – Alexander Rybak
7.  Snowbird – Anne Murray
6.  Let It Snow – Frank Sinatra, but there are probably a thousand versions of this by now

The next one earns a place here as much for the back story as anything.  This symbolic “A Winter’s Tale” was written by Freddie Mercury from his hospital room overlooking Lake Geneva, Switzerland.  The visions he describes are what he could see from his room.  He laid down the keyboard tracks and vocals in a Swiss studio two weeks before his death.  Queen later finished the song with their parts.  It was released as the second song on a posthumous album four years later.
5. A Winter’s Tale – Queen

Winter imagery can be found in a lot of songs by Paul Simon, especially from the Simon and Garfunkel years. A Hazy Shade of Winter was certainly one of their biggest hits and earns a spot on my songs of Arctic Weather. You will find an intriguing version by the Bangles from years later, but let’s stick with the original.
4. Hazy Shade of Winter – Simon and Garfunkel

One of the most popular songs of the Christmas season is Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson. Although often played only as an instrumental, the lyrics say nothing of the holidays. There is, however, “a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray.” They are rather seasonal as they “pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie,” but the song really is about a sleigh ride through the snow. Find a version with someone singing, if you must. Nothing says “Sleigh Ride” like the Boston Pops Orchestra:
3. Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson – John Williams & The Boston Pops

Some songs just have the right feel for the theme. That is the case with this tune by singer-songwriter David Archuleta. Can you feel the winter in the air?
2. Winter In The Air – David Archuleta

When I think of cold and snow outside, this is the song. There is nothing that will inspire me to go out in a storm. While I enjoyed seeing Joseph Gordon-Leavitt do this with Lady Gaga, and nothing compares to Ricardo Montalban’s crooning at Esther Williams or Red Skelton at Betty Garrett in the movies, the best version is Dean Martin and anyone. He recorded the song with a number of people over the years. Here’s the original.
1. Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Dean Martin

Click on any title to get the song, or hear them all on my playlist here.

Categories: Music, Rich Paschall, Weather, Winter

Tags: Boston Pops Orchestra, cold, Dean Martin, Eurythmics, favorite songs, Music, Seasons, snow, Weather, winter, winter songs