Song Spotlight: "Happy Xmas (War is Over)"

Today is the 31st anniversary of John Lennon's death, so I thought it would be appropriate to post some versions of "Happy Xmas (War is Over)", a song which I believe to be an absolute masterpiece and one of the best modern Christmas songs around.  Surprisingly, I didn't already have any new versions of it this year, so I took a few minutes to search Bandcamp and came up with versions from the following artists:

• Ben Southworth
• Exohxo (w​/​Shenandoah Davis)
• IQYSO
• Joel David
• Itchy Sweaters

I think my favourite of these is the Itchy Sweaters version, which goes all out with a full band arrangement and background choir.  Others, like IQYSO and Joel David's versions, are a little more raw than most versions.  They're all pretty good, though, and worth a listen if you like the song.  Which one of these is your favourite?


What about this song in general - are there any versions you think that people should hear?  Besides Lennon's original, my two favourite versions are an instrumental version by Japanese guitarist Hotei on the first Merry Axemas album, and Sarah McLachlan's version from her Wintersong album.  I can't share those versions for free, although I'm sure there are plenty of places you can stream them online if you really want to.


Happy Xmas, and happy listening!


URLs:
http://bensouthworth.bandcamp.com/track/happy-xmas-john-lennon-cover
http://exohxo.bandcamp.com/track/happy-xmas-war-is-over-w-shenandoah-davis
http://c3studios.bandcamp.com/track/happy-xmas-war-is-over
http://joeldavid.bandcamp.com/track/happy-xmas-2
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2488684634489678756