Christmas carols. Whether you love them or hate them, you can't escape them during the holiday season. In what has become an MPR News tradition, VocalEssence Artistic Director Philip Brunelle will bring members of the VocalEssence singers into the studio for a live performance of Christmas Carols — the good, the bad and the ugly. Each year, Brunelle likes to introduce our listeners to carols that aren't well known, mostly because they're horrible.
Today, Brunelle and his singers revisit some familiar carols, like "Silent Night," "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Away in a Manger," as well as some "songs that didn't make it" — such as "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy" and "Pablo, the Reindeer."