Each December we’re confronted with a continuous barrage of vacation music. Positive, there are many songs about Christmas from right now’s greatest stars, however for individuals who have a good time Hanukkah, the choices appear sorely missing. Adam Sandler made a stable try and rectify that in 1994, and, since then, a gentle trickle of pop tunes has been added to the canon of Hanukkah music. Although Christmas songs nonetheless rule the airwaves, there are some fairly nice songs that pay tribute to the Competition Of Lights, and we’ve collected 25 of the best. From conventional tunes to offbeat comedy numbers, the 25 finest Hanukkah songs will gentle up all eight nights of your celebrations.
Hearken to the Hanukkah compilation Hanukkah+ now.
25: Klezmer Conservatory Band: Oy Chanukah, Oy Chanukah!
The Yiddish “Oy Chanukah, Oy Channukah!” is a standard vacation track that chronicles all of the enjoyable and scrumptious actions that happen through the eight nights of Hanukkah, together with making latkes, spinning the dreidel, dancing the hora and, in fact, lighting the candles of the menorah. Although the English model of the track (“Oh Hanukkah”) is heard most often today (see No.3), it is a basic rendition in Yiddish by Boston’s famend Klezmer Conservatory Band.
24: Don McClean: Dreidel
No, this 1973 single from the “American Pie” singer-songwriter isn’t a Hanukkah track, per se – however it is among the few charting pop tracks that references the seasonal spinning high. “Dreidel,” from McClean’s self-titled third album, is a poignant tune in regards to the rollercoaster of life. Through the years, there was hypothesis about the place McClean received the inspiration for the lyrics, although phrase has it that the artist spent a while dwelling on an Israeli kibbutz. No matter McClean’s connection may be, this early 70s folk-pop gem is a thought-provoking addition to the most effective Hanukkah songs on the market.
23: Buzzy Lee: Give You Every thing
Most Christmas songs usually focus on themes of affection, but few Hanukkah songs ship the identical sentiments. All of that modified with this 2019 synth-pop tune from Buzzy Lee, aka Sasha Spielberg. On this candy monitor, the actress and songwriter professes her like to a major different, promising items of apple sauce and diamond rings.
22: Barenaked Girls: Hanukkah Blessings
The Canadian rockers, who introduced us tongue-in-cheek hits like “One Week,” “If I Had $1000000’ and “It’s All Been Done,” eschew their signature humor on this honest ode to the Competition Of Lights. Impressed by his youngsters, frontman Steven Web page got down to write a Hanukkah track that mirrored the true which means of the vacation. The monitor options top-notch vocal harmonies, a catchy acoustic melody, and a recitation of the Hebrew blessing for the menorah candles, besides.
21: Béla Fleck & The Flecktones: The Hanukkah Waltz
Progressive banjoist Béla Fleck and his band current this authentic composition, which feels each conventional and fashionable on the identical time. Treading the stylistic line between bluegrass, jazz, and klezmer music, the instrumental piece is a spotlight on The Flecktones’ Grammy Award-winning vacation album, Jingle All The Means. As a particular deal with, visitor musician Andy Statman shines with a hypnotic clarinet efficiency, making for among the best Hanukkah songs.
20: Woody Guthrie: Hanukkah Dance
Impressed by his spouse’s Jewish heritage, folks legend Woody Guthrie penned a handful of Hanukkah songs within the fall of 1949. Probably written to carry out for kids at Jewish group facilities, nearly all of these compositions have been by no means recorded, and a few have been by no means even set to music. “Hanukkah Dance,” nonetheless, is a uncommon exception. The remainder of the songs have been set to music a half a century later, on the behest of Guthrie’s daughter Nora, by fashionable klezmer band The Klezmatics.
19: The Dwelling Sisters: Hanukkah
This charming tune from indie-folk supergroup The Dwelling Sisters presents simply the correct quantity of mid-century vacation kitsch. Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond), Eleni Mandell, Alex Lilly, and Inara George (The Fowl And The Bee) sing spectacular four-part harmonies as they marvel on the endurance of a tenuous relationship. It’s a Hanukkah miracle!
18: Alex Frankel: Hanukkah In ’96
Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost! will get reflective on his synth-pop monitor “Hanukkah In ’96.” Wishing that “the holidays were shorter,” Frankel’s seemingly autobiographical tune remembers bittersweet adolescent reminiscences. Enjoyable reality: other than being one half of Holy Ghost!, Alex (alongside together with his brother, Zach) can be the proud proprietor of Frankel’s Delicatessen in Brooklyn, making him the creator of each among the best Hanukkah songs and a few of the finest pastrami sandwiches.
17: Indigo Ladies: Pleased Joyous Hanukkah
“Happy Joyous Hanukkah” was one in every of Woody Guthrie’s long-lost Hanukkah compositions, set to music in 2006 by The Klezmatics. A couple of years later, Indigo Ladies recorded their very own interpretation of the track, riffing on the klezmer band’s melody. On this acoustic model, the people duo put a bluegrass spin on the tune, whereas particular friends Janis Ian and Mary Gautier harmonize on backing vocals.
16: The LeeVees: How Do You Spell Channukkahh?
This hilarious indie-rock ditty boldly makes an attempt to reply the age-old query: simply how do you spell “Hanukkah”? The LeeVees, shaped by Guster’s Adam Gardner and Dave Schneider (of the hockey-obsessed band The Zambonis), is a novelty mission that solely performs songs in regards to the Competition Of Lights. The monitor, on their aptly titled album Hanukkah Rocks, additionally boasts a pleasant DIY animated video. After listening, chances are you’ll not have any extra readability on the vacation’s appropriate spelling, however you’ll have among the best Hanukkah songs in your head.
15: Haim: If It Be Your Will
Tapped by famend music supervisor Randall Poster to contribute a monitor for his 2019 compilation, Hanukkah+ , Haim selected to document a charming cowl of Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will.” Sisters Alana, Danielle, and Este Haim convey a solemn magnificence to the track, which Cohen initially launched in 1984. The songwriter was stated to have been impressed by an previous prayer about surrendering to a better energy.
14: Matisyahu: Miracle
In 2010, the “King Without A Crown” rapper launched this infectious ode to Hanukkah, together with a cinematic music video. Entitled Matisyahu’s Miracle On Ice, the allegorical quick movie chronicles a dream-induced collection of wintry adventures for the artist, wherein he escapes imprisonment by a nutcracker and faces off with a Greek god on the hockey rink, amongst different hijinks. Ultimately, all events dance collectively on the ice in a real vacation miracle. This upbeat single, together with Matisyahu’s 2012 follow-up, “Happy Hanukkah,” greater than earns its place among the many finest Hanukkah songs for any vacation playlist.
13: Loudon Wainwright III: Eight Nights A Week
Lots of the best-loved Christmas songs (“White Christmas,” “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire),” and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’ have been written by Jewish artists: Irving Berlin, Mel Tormé and Robert Wells, and Sammy Kahn and Jule Styne, respectively. As a gentile, the elder Wainwright turns the tables on this formulation. His honky-tonk tribute to the Competition Of Lights brings a pleasant contact of satire to the most effective Hanukkah songs.
12: Yo La Tengo: Eight Candles
Since 2001, Yo La Tengo have carried out highly-anticipated, (almost) annual reveals for all eight nights of Hanukkah of their native Hoboken, New Jersey, and, extra not too long ago, at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, so it’s no shock that the group wrote a tasty track in tribute to the vacation. “Eight Candles” harkens again to mid-century surf rock with its dreamy, reverb-soaked melody. It’s the proper accompaniment to heat latkes and an illuminated menorah on a chilly winter’s evening.
11: The Flaming Lips: Sing It Now, Sing It By some means
This authentic monitor from the Grammy Award-winning psych-rock band is among the many stellar Hanukkah songs on the Hanukkah+ compilation. Filled with haunting bells and expansive strings, this attractive track reminds us of the bigger spirit of the vacation season, asking, “What is a life if it’s lived without love?”
10: Sufjan Stevens: Maoz Tzur (Rock Of Ages)
“Ma’oz Tzur” (roughly translating to “rock of ages”) is an historical hymn (or piyyut) historically sung at Hanukkah. Composed within the thirteenth Century, the joyous track recounts key moments in historical past when the Jews overcame challenges, because of divine intervention. Although this instrumental model is simply a brief interlude on Sufjan Stevens’ vacation album, Silver & Gold, it presents magnificence in its simplicity.
9: Adam Inexperienced: Dreidels Of Fireplace
In his authentic track “Dreidels Of Fire,” antifolk hero Adam Inexperienced questions the finer factors of the Hanukkah story: simply how did one evening’s price of oil stretch for eight complete nights? Later, Inexperienced laments his liked one taking all his cash in a contentious sport of dreidel. Lush string preparations, plus a wholesome dose of absurdity, make this monitor among the best fashionable Hanukkah songs on the market.
8: Watkins Household Hour: Hanukkah Dance
Siblings Sara and Sean Watkins breathe new life into this Woody Guthrie rarity (hear the unique model earlier on this listing, at No.20). Working with acclaimed producer Mike Viola (Fall Out Boy, Jenny Lewis, Andrew McMahon), the leaders of the Los Angeles bluegrass collective recorded a spry, instrumental cowl, which feels completely festive.
7: Tom Lehrer: (I’m Spending) Hanukkah In Santa Monica
Musical satirist Tom Lehrer wrote this track about escaping the chilly climate of the Northeast for hotter climates throughout Hanukkah (amongst different Jewish holidays). Lehrer debuted the novelty tune in 1990 on Garrison Keillor’s The American Radio Firm present. Since then, the track has turn into commonplace fare, carried out by everybody from Michael Feinstein at his famed vacation cabaret reveals, to Homosexual Males’s Refrain Of Los Angeles.
6: The Maccabeats: Candlelight
When 14 Orthodox Jewish college students at New York’s Yeshiva College shaped an a cappella group, they’d no concept the place their creativity would take them. In 2010, the all-male ensemble launched a video for his or her track “Candlelight,” which units the story of Hanukkah to the tune of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite.” Although the Maccabeats solely supposed to succeed in their fellow college students with the parody video, the monitor went viral, peaking at No.1 on Billboard’s Digital Comedy Tracks, and incomes the group an invite to carry out on the White Home for President Obama. At the moment, the track boasts almost 15 million views, whereas the group has gone on to have a profitable profession, performing world wide and releasing a number of albums.
5: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: 8 Days (Of Hanukkah)
The late, nice Sharon Jones might do no fallacious, and her soulful ode to Hanukkah, recorded with The Dap-Kings, is not any exception. The funky monitor covers all of the fundamentals of the vacation, from spinning the dreidel to purchasing brisket from the kosher butcher. It additionally features a useful reminder to gentle the menorah from proper to left. As a particular bonus, youngsters (and grown-ups) will love the group’s Schoolhouse Rock!-style lyric video.
4: Peter, Paul & Mary: Mild One Candle
The enduring folks trio’s Peter Yarrow initially wrote this stirring track in assist of Israel’s pacifist motion through the 1982 Lebanon Struggle. The lyrics, nonetheless, reference the traditional Maccabees’ struggle for freedom, as commemorated by Hanukkah. The group premiered the tune throughout a vacation efficiency within the early 80s and, since then, it’s risen by means of the ranks of the most effective Hanukkah songs.
3: Jack Black: Oh Hanukkah
Jack Black places his personal distinctive spin on this conventional Hanukkah track (see No.25 for the basic, Yiddish model), and the result’s epic. The Kung-Fu Panda and College Of Rock actor’s upbeat, a cappella recording options multi-tracked vocal harmonies which are worthy of a Queen track. Might we anticipate something much less from the Tenacious D singer?
2: Erran Baron Cohen (that includes Jules Brookes and Y-Love): Dreidel
Although it goes underneath a number of aliases (“I Have A Little Dreidel,” “The Dreidel Song,” or “Dreidel Dreidel, Dreidel”), this basic youngsters’s track – written within the late 20s in each English and Yiddish – is maybe the best-known Hanukkah track world wide. On this model, composer and multi-instrumentalist Erran Baron Cohen (brother of Sacha) presents a contemporary, fashionable tackle the track, and even enlists hip-hop artist Y-Love for a rap interlude. Irresistibly catchy, the monitor could have you throwing down for a sport of dreidel very quickly.
1: Adam Sandler: The Chanukah Track
When actor and comic Adam Sandler unveiled his ode to Hanukkah on Saturday Night time Stay in 1994, he was introducing the world to a brand new vacation basic. In an effort to assist Jewish youngsters really feel rather less alienated through the holidays, when Christmas is in every single place, Sandler needed to remind them that they have been in nice firm, celebrating “eight crazy nights” together with people like David Lee Roth, Spock (aka Leonard Nimoy), Goldie Hawn, The Fonze himself (Henry Winkler) and, in fact, Tom Cruise’s agent. The track was launched on Sandler’s 1995 comedy album, What The Hell Occurred to Me?, and was up to date each few years to maintain up with well timed cultural references. Nonetheless, this authentic model stays the most well-liked one. It’s simply the most effective Hanukkah track in popular culture historical past.
Honorable Mentions
Peter and Ellen Allard – Judah Maccabee, The Hammer
Michelle Citrin – Cross the Candle (From Left to Proper)
Kenny Ellis – Sevivon Sov Sov Sov
The Jimmies – I Need a Hippopotamus for Hanukkah
Shira Kline – Chanukah Bamba
Six13 – Chanukah (Shake It Off)
Debbie Friedman – The Latke Track
