James Brown's beloved Christmas album finds him meeting traditional Yuletide sentiment halfway and making it funky. It's an album that not only references old Saint Nick, but gives him orders, such as in "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto." The album's signature playfulness isn't just veneer, but if you were to scrape it with a fingernail you'd find that for James Brown a Merry Christmas is an act of will.