The holiday music playlist you need, want and deserve

The “Wicked Game” singer’s “Everybody Knows It’s Christmas” is a terrific evocation of Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley-style vintage rock on Sun Records, full of cleverly crafted originals like this lighthearted exercise in self-pity.

The Gen Z jazz singer with a lustrous voice, who’s nominated for two Grammys, cozies up to Julie London’s 1956 hit.

Keys’ first holiday album, “Santa Baby,” named after the flirtatious Eartha Kitt classic, is an Apple Music exclusive, but this single about a love that spans the seasons is widely available.

Philadelphia rock hero Vile’s first ever Christmas cut is a song first recorded by Mitch Miller in 1960 and made famous by Bob Dylan’s polka version. Recorded at OKV Central studio in Philly, Vile reworks it with a spooky synth vibe, with backup vocals by daughters Delphine and Awilda.

The all-girl Los Angeles pop-punk band, whose members range in age from 12 to 18, released one of the most charming albums of the year with “Growing Up.” This single keeps the fun coming.

The Philly neo-soul singer’s five-song EP revels in multiple holiday traditions, and this is the title track to an EP with four impressive originals.

Nashville singer Rosie Thomas has frequently collaborated with indie Christmas king Sufjan Stevens, and they shine together on this breathy duet.

Live bonus tracks from the new deluxe edition of Jones’ 2021 album “I Dream of Christmas.”

In 1998, guitarist Davis Causey recorded jazz-tinged carols with guitarist Jay Smith and pressed them on a CD for friends. Smith died shortly thereafter. Strolling Bones Records has now released the set as “Pickin’ On Christmas,” the best instrumental album of the season.

Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez, the lead singer for the Los Angeles band La Santa Cecilia, takes the lead on this lively Jose Feliciano cover, on “Holidays Around The World.”

The British pop band’s song could easily become a holiday perennial. It’s about keeping a space for lost loved ones at holiday gatherings.

A bedroom bossa nova holiday charmer from Filipino-Australian YouTube star, Grent Perez.

The country singing son of Rhett Akins does much mistletoe-ing in his cheery take on the song written for “The Andy Williams Show” in 1963.

The 1990s R&B star delivers a sultry understated version of the Charlie Brown mood piece.

Canadian indie band Stars strikes a similar chord to “Blocking It Out For Christmas, Cold Open” from “Saturday Night Live” last weekend. “Let’s pretend we’ll all be friends,” Torquil Campbell sings, “and we’ll have Christmas anyway.”

Roots-rock band Old 97′s have a hit in this delightful rocker for “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” on Disney+. It’s sung from the perspective of aliens trying to make sense of Earthly traditions.

The women of London instrumental quartet Los Bitchos describe their music as “instrumental psychedelic sunshine cumbia.”

Los Angeles alt-R&B guitarist sings a hopeful prayer-like version of Stevie Wonder’s 1967 gem.

Mariah gets a surf rock treatment by the four women of this Toronto instrumental band, on their “Marshmallow World” EP.

“The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” revolves around aliens kidnapping Kevin Bacon. This gives the actor — who recently worked with his brother, Michael, on “It’s A Philly Thing” — an opportunity to sing an Old 97′s Christmas song.

Phoebe Bridgers reliably releases a cover of a sad not-quite-a-Christmas song every year. Here, she wrings the pathos out of The Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine,” a gorgeous, not cheerful song about alcoholism over the holidays.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive linemen do justice to the Darlene Love classic, with an assist from Sun Ra Arkestra’s Marshall Allen on alto sax.

Philadelphia-based, West Virginia native Alexis Cunningham teams with The Hooters’ Eric Bazilian and searches for that special holiday je ne sais quoi.

The Genius of Soul put his stamp on this Brooke Benton holiday song on his “The Spirit of Christmas” album in 1985, reissued this year.

Brooklyn cowboy Dougie Poole follows up last year’s clever “Cancun Christmas Morning” with a touching take on the melancholy classic, sung by Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

A traditional carol rendered with soul and jazz overtones, from the R&B singer’s “My Colorful Christmas.”

The boy band harmonize on the 1934 standard. Richard Bernard Smith wrote the words while being treated for tuberculosis in Scranton. From “A Very Backstreet Christmas.”

A super-sweetened cover of the “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” song that was a hit for Sammy Davis Jr. in 1972. The 1980s teen star’s first holiday album is “Winterlicious.”

The rising star is asking for a new paramour, not a child. Whitters calls the George Jones cover “a honky tonky heartbreak cheating song disguised as a Christmas song.”

This Irving Berlin song on Stone’s “Merry Christmas, Love” will be familiar to White Christmas fans: It’s sung by Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, and Danny Kaye on the train to Vermont.

In the tradition of Natalie Cole singing with Nat King Cole, Lalah Hathaway joins her late father on his 1970 song that’s become a treasured standard.

From the new Armstrong holiday compilation “Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule,” a sentimental New Year’s Eve song Armstrong recorded in 1956. “Summers turn to winter, and the present disappears,” Satchmo sings, bidding farewell to the year gone by. “We’ll have these moments to remember.”