Holiday Music Countdown: Number 16, and I wanna see a lot of snow

Another December day, and we continue to count down my twenty-five favorite holiday songs. (Find previous posts here.) For a gloomy Monday, we bring up a decidely upbeat tune:

16. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Lena Horne)

I mentioned the other day that for a long time I wanted to be Chrissy Hynde. If I could actually sing, though, I’d rather prefer to sing in the style of Lena Horne.

The readers of My Brilliant Mistakes are a sophisticated, learned bunch, but it’s possible a few of you may not know of Ms. Horne. Those who are of a certain age will recall the Christmas ad she did for the Gap a couple of decades ago, back when they still used that "fall into the Gap" tag she sings at the end of the clip.

Here’s a more characteristic video of her. Note how she can barely be contained, and that if she weren’t wearing such a fishtail dress she’d be dancing or rocking or something all over the stage.

The black and white of the video is a bit deceptive. It seems forever ago, and really it was. And Lena Horne is alive today, although no longer performing. But she wasn’t a kid in 1964 — she was forty-six when that was filmed.

I aspire to be that hot, and that cool — at forty-six or at any age.

Anyway, so Ms. Horne has recorded a number of holiday songs, and I flip-flop between two favorites: "Jingle All the Way" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" The fact is I could pick either and not go wrong. So could you. Please listen and choose your favorite.