University of North Texas Since we boast one of the best music colleges in the nation, it's only natural that our alumni have produced wonderfully inventive holiday songs. Roy Orbison will make you reach for the tissues, while Brave Combo will get you dancing. Here's a playlist that will keep your holidays merry and bright. Homegrown Holiday Hits playlist.
December 16, 2019
Brave Combo
This 1992 LP, from the Grammy Award-winning polka band that was formed on campus in 1979, features everything from a ranchera to the Hanukkah hora, plus spirited versions of classics like "O Christmas Tree" and "Must Be Santa."
Spotify: "It's Christmas, Man"
Pat Boone
The crooner, who attended North Texas in 1954 and 1955, released this album of contemporary carols in 2007.
Spotify: "An Old-Fashioned Christmas"
Jeff Coffin ('90)
The saxophonist for the Dave Matthews Band and former One O'Clock Lab Band member released the holiday album Sleigh What?!in 2018,which features standards such as "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and this tune that he co-wrote.
Spotify: "Santa Digs Me"
Don Henley (with the Eagles)
Henley, who attended North Texas in the 1960s, is feeling lonesome in this classic recorded in 1978 with The Eagles.
Spotify: "Please Come Home for Christmas"
Sara Hickman ('86)
The singer-songwriter released an album that featured a mix of traditional carols and her own work in 2001.
Norah Jones
The Grammy Award winner, who studied at UNT in the 1990s, gives her own unique interpretation of this classic, which she recorded in 2012. She also performed "It's Not Christmas 'Til You Come Home" in 2017.
Spotify: "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,"
Lecrae ('02)
"Joy to the World" and "We Three Kings" get a rap twist from the Grammy Award winner, performed in 2018 with Abe Parker and Trip Lee.
Spotify: "Joy," "We Three Kings"
Maren Morris with Pentatonix
The Grammy Award-winning country music singer, who studied here in 2010, performed in 2018 with her fellow Texans on this tune
that originated from The Prince of Egypt soundtrack.
Spotify: "When You Believe"
Michael Martin Murphey
Murphey, who attended North Texas in the early 1960s, gives a Western take on the holiday
on this 1991 album, featuring such songs as "The Cowboy Christmas Ball" and "Two Step
'Round the Christmas Tree."
Spotify: Cowboy Christmas
Roy Orbison
This poignant song was recorded in 1963 by the rock legend, a student at North Texas in the 1950s.
Spotify: "Pretty Paper"
Eli Young Band
The classic "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was performed in 2012 by the country band that was formed here on campus in the 2000s. They also recorded their version of
"Wonderful Christmastime" in 2015.
Spotify: "Wonderful Christmastime"
Lab Bands and ensembles
Our college music groups have performed snazzy versions of holiday classics, including the One O'Clock Lab Band's "Sleigh Ride"; its collaboration with the UNT Jazz Singers on "Angels We Have Heard on High"; and the UNT Percussion Ensemble's "The Night Before Christmas" and "Frosty the Snowman."