Test yourself! Take this Christmas Music Quiz | Music Mixture

Answer: Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley is often incorrectly credited with penning this traditional holiday favorite, but it was actually written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson well before Elvis was a popular rock and roll artist. In fact, the song was a number one country hit for Ernest Tubbs in January of 1950.
Elvis' version wasn't exactly an immediate hit. He first released the song in 1957 on the album "Elvis' Christmas Album", but it wasn't released as a single for the first time until November of 1964. The song has remained a staple on radio stations around the holidays ever since.

Answer: Rudolph

Originally written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie, the song "Run, Rudolph, Run" bore an amazingly striking resemblance to the Chuck Berry hit "Johnny B. Goode". The song reached number 69 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958 and then became popular in the UK in 1963 when it reached number 36 on the UK Singles chart. Chuck Berry's song has lived on through several cover versions, including Luke Bryan and Justin Moore doing country versions of the song.

The song has also been featured in hit movies such as "Cast Away", "Home Alone" and "The Santa Claus 2".

Answer: David Letterman

Darlene Love was forever known as the most popular back-up singers ever, but she was also a great solo artist, possibly best known for her hit "He's a Rebel", written by Gene Pitney and produced by Phil Spector. This song sparked a very public controversy when it was released in 1962 and credited to The Crystals, a group that Darlene Love had never performed with.

Her Christmas song "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" was originally intended to be performed by Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes, but Love's voice was much better suited for the emotional song, and it was awarded to her to sing by Phil Spector himself.

The song was the highest ranking song on "Rolling Stone" magazines 2010 list of Greatest Christmas songs.

Answer: The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys released several Christmas singles over the years, but my favorite is "Little Saint Nick", originally released as a single in 1963, and then appearing on the 1964 album "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album". If you want to hear an interesting cover of the song, you could always check out the world's best band of Muppets, Dr, Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band, performing the song with the late, great John Denver from 1979.

Answer: John Lennon

John Lennon released "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" on December 1, 1971 in the USA. George Harrison followed with "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" in 1974. Not wanting to be the last Beatle to contribute a holiday song, Paul McCartney released "Wonderful Christmastime" in 1979. Rounding out the Fab Four's Christmas classics is Ringo Starr's "I Wanna be Santa Claus", eventually released in 1999. John Lennon brought in the enigmatic Phil Spector to produce the single.

The song features a counter-melody throughout the chorus that was performed by The Harlem Community Choir, a group of thirty or so children aged between four and 12 years old.

Answer: The Kinks

One of the darker, more disturbing Christmas songs you'll probably hear, "Father Christmas" was written by Ray Davies and released in November of 1977. The song basically describes the ordeal of a shopping mall Santa who gets beaten up by a bunch of children demanding money instead of toys.

The song was the B-side to "Prince of the Punks" and can also be found on the compilation "Come Dancing with The Kinks".

Answer: Hollis

"Christmas in Hollis" is the rap inclusion to this list, but it's fitting since Run DMC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. The premise of the song is that Run DMC stumbles across a certain bearded fellow on Christmas Eve. When he drops his wallet, the guys open it to check for an ID, which announces that the wallet belongs to one Santa Claus. Ordinarily, the Run DMC fellows might have decided to keep the money, but even they knew it would be bad to steal from Santa, so they rush home to mail back the cash.

Instead, they find a letter under the tree from Santa saying that the money was theirs to keep.

Answer: Madonna

Madonna, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, joined a cast of other popular bands and artists to help out the Special Olympics by releasing a series of Christmas albums titled "A Very Special Christmas". On the first album in the series, Madonna recorded a version of "Santa Baby".

Other artists on this album included Bruce Springsteen, The Pretenders, Sting, Run DMC, John Mellencamp, Stevie Nicks and Bob Seger, all of which are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, either as a solo artist or a member of a band. That's one mighty impressive grouping of personnel for a compilation.

Answer: Queen

There were no members of the iconic rock band Queen present during this recording. Adam Clayton and Bono represented U2, Paul McCartney was of course one of The Beatles ..
The song was recorded in an effort to raise funds to help feed the hungry people of Ethiopia, and it did quite a lot to help. Worldwide, the single sold over 11 million copies, with all proceeds going to fight hunger in the impoverished African nation.

Answer: Born in the USA

The song was released in 1984 as the B-side to "My Hometown" which appeared on the album "Born in the USA". This old Christmas standard, written long ago by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, was first performed on the Eddie Cantor radio show in 1934.

The song has been performed or recorded by dozens of artists, but by far, my favorite is the Springsteen version. Remembering Clarence Clemons on stage in his Santa hat with Bruce asking him if he had been practicing so that Santa may bring him a new saxophone really brings back some good memories. All in all, this may be one of only a few songs I really look forward to hearing every year.