The Edge of Christmas, various artists (Oglio)

Every once in a while, a record label will tiptoe through the vaults looking for a quick cash infusion from some inert stack of tapes or other. In this case, the folks at Oglio struck paydirt with this 1995 collection. The 12 songs are from between 1981 and 1993, featuring everyone from Bing and Bowie to Queen to Cocteau Twins with "Winter Wonderland." Dave Edmunds' faithful cover of "Run Run Rudolph" is paired with the Smithereens' swinging "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in the Cadillacs' arrangement, and the Waitresses' classic "Christmas Wrapping" is here along with the Pretenders, Pat Benatar, the Ramones, Payolas, and the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl. A top-notch collection you can play all the way through. There's an earlier volume called Coolest Christmas from 1994 that fills some of the space with Dean Martin and Guy Lombardo and repeats a few songs here but throws in The Alarm doing the Lennons' "Merry Xmas (War Is Over)," the Cocteaus' "Frosty the Snowman," the Beach Boys, the Temptations, Eartha Kitt and George Thorogood.