2021 New Year’s Playlist

By: Althea Ocomen

1. “New Year’s Resolution” by Camera Obscura

Tired of Belle & Sebastian but still looking for something Scottish and twee? Well, look no further than 4AD’s (a record label) Camera Obscura, who’ve released five lovely indie-pop albums with names like Let’s Get Out of This Country and Underachievers Please Try Harder, and this 2013 tune from Desire Lines.

2. “New Year’s Resolution” by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas

Looking to replicate the success of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell (and Kim Weston and more), Stax Records combined two of their biggest stars to knock an album together. The result, 1967’s minor soul classic King & Queen, was recorded in six days with Thomas and Redding, backed by Isaac Hayes and Booker T & the MGs. The LP helped turn Redding into a major star, a year before his tragic plane crash.

3. “Bringing In A Brand New Year” by Charles Brown

Texas-Blues man Tony "Charles" Brown, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was an apprentice electrician, a high school chemistry teacher, and a mustard gas worker in the 1940s before he was discovered. This is just one of his numerous holiday songs—and over 100 singles on a variety of labels—from a ridiculously prolific career both as a solo artist and a member of the Three Blazers.

4. “Funky New Year” by The Eagles

The song was a non-album nugget from the “L.A.’s 1970s lords of white-funk”, and was the b-side of the band’s “Please Come Home For Christmas.” The band recorded both seasonal tunes during their commercially successful 1979 album The Long Run.

5. “Gonna Make it Through This Year” by Great Lake Swimmers

“Americana for people who hate Americana” is a good way to describe Tony Dekker’s band, Great Lake Swimmers. The ironic part about that is that the decade–running pastoral band is from Canada, and yet here they are showing us the best part of America.

6. “Let’s Start the New Year Right” by Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby—Mr. Holiday himself—sang this Irving Berlin-penned tune in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, co-starring his pal Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds. The film also contained the Academy Award-winning “White Christmas,” for which this song was the b-side to when it was released on vinyl in 78 RPM (RIP).

7. “New Year’s Eve” by Tom Waits

Sounding exactly how you would expect a Tom Waits New Year’s Eve song to sound, this one even incorporates “Auld Lang Syne” into the chorus. Waits have said the song was incredibly long but had to be cut down to “a pony. That's an alcoholic term for a small bottle.” Classic Tom!

8. “Happy New Year” by The McGuire Sisters

Fun fact: Phyllis, Christine, and Dorothy McGuire became massive song and dance stars in the ‘40s with multiple million-selling records, but they permanently retired from public performance in 1968 when rumors of Phyllis’s relationship with famed mobster Sam Giancana got them blacklisted. Luckily for us, they managed to release this tune before then.

9. “In the New Year” by The Walkmen

The indie rockers’ boozy, warbled tales of nostalgia are a perfect match for a holiday that’s about looking forward as much as it is about looking back. The band may have gone on an “extreme hiatus” in 2013, but this track, from 2008’s underrated You & Me, is a gem that easily still stands.

10. “My Dear Acquaintance (Happy New Year)” by Regina Spektor

Classically-trained Russian pianist and professional eccentric Regina Spektor hangs with the Strokes, has performed at the White House for President Obama, and, according to Tom Petty, is one of the most talented musicians alive. Here she makes a gorgeous Peggy Lee classic even more gorgeous.

11. “11:59 (It’s January)” by Scrawl

How come so many New Year’s songs are so damn depressing? Maybe it’s the possibility of looking back at a long year of regrets, maybe it’s the thought of everyone making out at the exact moment when you’re alone, or maybe, as Scrawl put it, “Tonight ‘Auld Lang Syne’ means leave before the kissing starts.” And snag a bottle of champagne on the way out.

12. “New Year’s Eve” (Empty Minds Edit) by MØ

Not many artists can say that they’ve gotten to perform for an audience of Nobel Peace Prize nominees. And even fewer can say that they’ve sung a song about New Year’s Eve to said, nominees. MØ is one of those people though, performing this track at the 2014 award ceremony in Oslo. I wonder how they’ll top that in 2021...

13. “Auld Lang Syne” by Die Toten Hosen

Want to know what One Direction would look like if they were 50-year-old German punk rockers? Well, look no further than Dusseldorf’s Die Toten Hosen, whose name translates to “the Dead Trousers.” Somewhere on Martin Scorsese’s cutting room floor lies a wisely deleted scene from The Departed with the entire cast shouting along to its Boston hardcore version of “Auld Lang Syne” as they all celebrate New Year’s Eve in heaven.

14. “New Year’s Day” by Act As If

When people think of New Year’s tunes, U2’s anthemic 1983 original version comes up before this one. Act Ad If does a complete overhaul of the very recognizable tune, which is about more than just partying—the lyrics were inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement, and the bassline was accidentally written while Adam Clayton was trying to learn the chords to Visage’s “Fade to Grey.”

15. “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” by Ella Fitzgerald

Probably the most covered New Year’s song, Frank Loesser’s 1947 hit has been recorded by artists as varied as Bette Midler, Donny Osmond, Lena Horne, the Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, Harry Connick Jr., and the Stylistics. The Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt video version alone has millions of views on YouTube.

References:

Megan Uy Editorial Assistant Megan is the Editorial Fellow at Cosmo where she covers fashion. (2020, October 30). 43 Songs You Need on Your New Year's Eve Playlist, Even if You Have No Idea What You're Doing Yet. Retrieved from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a30221963/new-years-eve-songs/

Miller, M. (2020, August 21). The 50 Songs to Ensure Your New Year's Eve Party Starts 2020 Off Right. Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/g14510285/new-years-eve-2017-playlist/

Christopher Tarantino and Time Out contributors, & Tarantino, C. (n.d.). Countdown to 2020 with these NYE songs. Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/best-new-years-songs

Kennedy, J. (2016, December 31). 10 Songs For Your New Year's Eve Playlist. Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.iheartradio.ca/news/10-songs-for-your-new-year-s-eve-playlist-1.2301297