Best and worst Christmas songs

'The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)'

The best: Tony Bennett (from "Snowfall: The Christmas Album")
The crustiest of crusty old holiday classics, “The Christmas Song” was written in 1944 by crooner Mel Tormé, and to this day, it should really only be tackled by fellow crooners like Bennett. Bennett’s 1968 version is so string-laden and syrupy that it should be unbearable—but somehow, it’s the only version that’s ever really captured the song’s shameless sentimentality without feeling forced. No one else can deliver that “tiny tots with their eyes all aglow” line without sounding kinda creepy.

The worst: Stevie Wonder and Indie.Arie (available on some copies of "Voyage to India" and as part of "The Complete Stevie Wonder" from iTunes)
Not to be confused with Stevie’s perfectly acceptable solo version, which appears on his album “Someday at Christmas,” this ridiculous, lounge-act duet was recorded for a Target commercial in 2002. It has the dubious distinction of being the first song created for an advertising campaign to be nominated for a Grammy, but it lost to the Michelle Branch/Santana duet “The Game of Love.” (Keeping a Target commercial from winning a Grammy might go down as Branch’s greatest contribution to popular music.)

Also performed by: The Supremes, the Jackson 5, Andy Williams, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, New Found Glory, Céline Dion, Clay Aiken, Dwight Yoakam, James Taylor, Jessica Simpson, Hootie & the Blowfish, Kenny Loggins, Martina McBride, New Kids on the Block, *NSYNC, Reba McEntire, Mary J. Blige.