Besides the fact that, like all the best Christmas songs, Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas” is ridiculously sing-along-able, probably my favorite thing about this song is that fact that it makes little attempt to hide its cynical origins as a seasonal cash-in, opening with the line “Welcome to my Christmas song/I’d like to thank you for the year.” It’s another song that, like yesterday’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day,” is trying to sound like Phil Spector’s A Xmas Gift To You” in many ways, too; listen to the compression and the overkill of various instruments.
Of course, because it’s a good Christmas song, there are covers…
Hop on board the turntable.