Billy Idol Plans Rebellious Christmas

11/23/06 8:00pm

It's a nice day for a... "White Christmas."

Billy Idol — the man who helped pioneer pop-punk with Generation X and then went on to become a huge MTV-popularized star with a string of '80s hits including "White Wedding," "Dancing With Myself," "Rebel Yell" and "Mony Mony" — is going the Bing Crosby route and releasing a Christmas album.

Idol, who popularized fingerless gloves as an inexplicable fashion accessory, might have to wear mittens when promoting Happy Holidays: A Very Special Christmas Album. The temperature will have dropped and the snow will likely be falling by the time the record arrives on Dec. 4, five days after his 51st birthday.

The guy with perhaps the best rock 'n' roll sneer since Elvis Presley was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident and battled drug addictions in the '90s, and little was seen or heard from him outside of his ill-advised 1993 techno-based Cyberpunk album, VH1: Behind The Music and Storytellers television specials, and movie appearances in The Doors and The Wedding Singer. Last year's Devil's Playground was Idol's first new studio album in 12 years.

Idol joins such acts as Sarah McLachlan, Aimee Mann, Twisted Sister and, of course, Michel Berube, in issuing a themed album for the holiday season.

Let your jingle bells rock to these songs from Happy Holidays: A Very Special Christmas Album:
"Frosty The Snowman”
“Silver Bells”
“Happy Holidays”
“Merry Christmas Baby”
“White Christmas”
“Here Comes Santa Claus”
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
“Santa Claus Is Back In Town”
“Let It Snow”
“Winter Wonderland”
“Run Rudolph Run”
“Blue Christmas”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Christmas Love”
“Oh Christmas Tree”
“Silent Night”
“Auld Lang Syne"