"Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24," Savatage (Atlantic)

Rewritten entry. This band was not widely known under this name, its original monicker, but this 1995 number, from their Dead World Dead concept album about Bosnia, started the band's evolution into the entity now familiar to listeners as Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The song is a progressive rock take on "Carol of the Bells," which was re-recorded with an orchestra under the TSO name. The success of TSO, obviously, led to the eventual demise of Savatage. By the way, Metallica has no association with either Savatage or TSO; more about this in the TSO listing.