Justin Vivian Bond & Kenny Mellman will be spreading good cheer all this month under their cabaret alter egos, Kiki & Herb. Next week, they begin the “O Come Let Us Adore Them” holiday tour. For it they’ve worked up a new setlist featuring covers of Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, and Lou Reed’s “Heroin,” as well as songs by Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Low, Radiohead, Miley Cyrus and more. The tour includes two hometown NYC shows at Town Hall on December 7 & 8.
They’re also reissuing their long-out-of-print 2000 album Do You Hear What We Hear? which features covers of songs by ABBA, Radiohead, Nirvana, Kate Bush, Suede and more, with contributions from Rufus Wainwright, Debbie Harry, Molly Ringwald, Isaac Mizrahi, and more. Originally released just on CD, it gets its first-ever vinyl pressing this Friday, December 1. Order yours and listen to it below.
In the spirit of all this, we asked Kiki & Herb to tell us about their favorite holiday albums. They each picked five ranging from the classics (A Charlie Brown Christmas, Doris Day, Low) to the more obscure (ZE Records, Tracey Thorn). Check out their holiday picks and commentary below.
Kiki & Herb / Justin Vivian Bond & Kenny Mellman – Top 10 Holiday Albums
Mx Justin Vivian Bond:
1) Merry from Lena – Lena Horne
This is hands down my favorite Christmas album. Lena Horne and her fabulous arrangements are classic showbiz glamour, and she seems to be having fun. She goes from cracking jokes about Rudolph’s nose being bright because he might have been drinking too much to a great jazzy spin on Jingle Bells. It’s a mood lifter and it’s effortlessly cool.
2) Tinsel and Lights – Tracey Thorn
In my opinion Tracey Thorn is one of the all-time great vocalists. Mix her beautiful sound with her exquisite taste in music and her great songwriting and you end up with a luminous holiday treat. There are covers of Kate Bush, Low, and Dolly Parton: win, win, win.
3) A Charlie Brown Christmas – Vince Guaraldi Trio
This is the first Christmas album I put on each year. Childhood memories but not nauseating ones. I like to cook when this is playing.
4) The McGarrigle Christmas Hour – Kate & Anna McGarrigle
I was fortunate enough to be a part of the annual McGarrigle Family holiday shows for several of the years preceding Kate’s death. This one will always have a special place in my heart, as does Kate. Her final live performance was of the last song she wrote, “Proserpina.” She premiered it in her last Christmas concert in London. It’s not on this record, but you can hear it on Sing Me The Songs: Celebrating the works of Kate McGarrigle. It’s haunting.
5) The Doris Day Christmas Album – Doris Day
Silver Bells, Toyland… no one can sing me to sleep like Doris Day. Her voice is like moonlight on snow. It seems like it’s coming from a lonely place I find comforting during the holiday season which can be a very isolating time of year.
—
Kenny Mellman:
1) A Christmas Album – ZE Records
I mean any album with The Waitresses (“Christmas Wrapping”) and Suicide (“Hey Lord”) doing Christmas songs has to be on the list. Plus: Cristina’s off kilter single of “Is That All There Is?” A stone cold classic well worth seeking out. Add to your ZE Records order.
2) Tapestry of Carols – Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band
My late friend Gregory got me into this album. Beautiful folk renditions of traditional carols. Makes me think of him every year. Maddy Prior was the singer in Steeleye Span and her records with June Tabor as Silly Sisters are masterpieces.
3) We Three Kings – The Roches
My partner lost his mother this year and this was her favorite Christmas album. He and his sisters heard it every year so I finally tracked down the UK-only vinyl pressing. The vocal arrangements on this record are fire.
4) Christmas – Low
Probably my favorite Christmas album and up there as a favorite regular album of all time. Kiki and Herb cover “If You Were Born Today.” Just truly lovely and enigmatic. Still so sad about Mimi.
5) O Holy Night – Marion Williams
In my opinion, the greatest gospel singer of all time, with the greatest backing vocalists, The Stars Of Faith. You will never hear more stirring renditions of these Christmas songs.
—
KIKI & HERB – 2023 TOUR DATES
DEC 06 WASHINGTON DC – THE HOWARD THEATRE
DEC 07 NEW YORK, NY – THE TOWN HALL
DEC 08 NEW YORK, NY – THE TOWN HALL
DEC 10 CHICAGO, IL – PARK WEST
DEC 12 DALLAS, TX – GRANADA THEATER
DEC 13 AUSTIN, TX – THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE
DEC 15 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – CASTRO THEATRE
DEC 16 LOS ANGELES, CA – THE WILTERN
