Category: Music

December 11: Mull Of Kintyre

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

We’ve featured this song before, back in 2010 when the theme was UK Christmas number one singles since 1976 – which, like this year’s, left me very little leeway in terms of the quality of tunes selected. That’s slightly unfair to the song, though, which isn’t as bad as I think it is, even if it’s no Always On My Mind. We had the official video last time, so – in order not to repeat myself six years later – today here’s a live version from the Mike Yarwood Christmas special of 1977, hence added stars, sparkle and general seasonal appeal, and don’t say I never treat you to anything, although I am a bit worried for everyone’s health given the quantity of dry ice being pumped out onto the stage at regular intervals. It can’t be good for the bagpipes either, can it? But then, I can’t think of anything that would necessarily be good for bagpipes, except a very strict set of rules about who is allowed to play them. I digress. Here’s Paul.

December 10: Twin Rudolphs

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer isn’t anyone’s favourite Christmas song, is it? Or is it? If it isn’t your favourite Christmas song neither of these versions is likely to change your mind, but it’s the only Christmas classic that has been recorded by multiple Beatles and so it gets a starring Saturday spot here.

Version 1 is the 1979 b-side to Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime and is optimistically entitled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae, which makes it sound quite good, doesn’t it? It’s really not, although the very last note is quite nice. Version 2 is (of course) from Ringo’s Christmas album, and as well as being definitely better than Paul’s, features a voiceover, a mistake which they just left in, and (of course) a key change. And the backing vocals are really good! The lead vocals still sound like Ringo. Do keep listening to the end, which is everything you are hoping it will be.

December 9: Christmas Message 1965/We Can Work It Out

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

The 1965 Beatles message is one of the best, being just the right side of incomprehensible, and having nearly some actual music on it. If you like the Goons you will enjoy it (I don’t like the Goons, but I enjoyed it anyway).

But if you just want to cut right to the actual tunes, we can skip forward to 1965’s Christmas number one, which was a double A-side of  Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out, the latter of which is one of my favourites to sing along to at any time of day, but especially late at night. See you tomorrow for another festive double-bill, which I think you’ll be especially excited about.

December 8: I Believe In Father Christmas

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Sorry this is late, I have been on the move for 72 hours, for various reasons, and I didn’t have the foresight to advance-schedule more than 48 hours’ worth of songs. It won’t happen again. We have a departure from our regular schedule today, because this isn’t a Beatles song, or a song by an ex-Beatle, or really anything to do with the Beatles at all, except that Greg Lake, whose death was announced today, was a big Beatles fan and cited them as an influence – one that I think you can hear in this song (though it is perhaps more McCartney-ish than it is Beatles-y, but there’s nothing wrong with that).

Anyway since the whole point of this year’s theme is a tribute to lost loved ones, and since this is an actually good, actually Christmas song, it would be rude not to play it today. Normal service resumes tomorrow.

 

December 7: Dear Santa

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Films, Music

So much drumming. I like this one, though, because it sounds ever so slightly like the best song from the second-best* Christmas film of all, Mud’s Lonely This Christmas. This, like last week’s Little Drummer Boy, is from Ringo’s 1999 album I Wanna Be Santa Claus – an album with which I fear we will all be better-acquainted by Christmas Eve.

*The second-best Christmas film of all is of course Bernard and the Genie, which is only slightly easier to find than the best Christmas film of all, Until The Lights Come Back, which you will only be able to watch by coming over to my house on Christmas Eve (or importing it at great expense from Hong Kong).

December 5: Christmas message 1964/I Feel Fine

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

I’m busking this whole affair, as you can no doubt tell, so my apologies for not having realised sooner that the solution to the Christmas message records not having much music on them is to make them share a spot with whatever Beatles song happened to be in the charts that Christmas. So here for your pleasure is the 1964 Christmas message (which is one of the better ones, in that it’s not (a) entirely baffling or (b) full of late-period rage), plus that year’s Christmas number one, I Feel Fine, which is enlivened here by the addition of jaunty Spanish subtitles. Feliz Adviento!

December 4: I Wanna Hold Your Hand

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Not an actual Christmas song, this, but it was Christmas number one in the UK in 1963, so it definitely counts (and wait till you see some of the tenuous stuff I have lined up for you later in the month!). This live recording from The Ed Sullivan Show is more fun if you watch the video, since the audio is slightly shonky but the live aspect makes up for that, especially when the camera pans across to Ringo and the drums suddenly get louder, either because there was a mic attached to the camera or because he noticed they were focusing on him and started to bang harder. I hope it’s the latter.

December 3: Ding Dong Ding Dong

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music2 Comments

“Excellent audio”, says the description of this video, and it’s just as well because the picture quality is pretty dire. Nonetheless, you HAVE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO because it’s AMAZING. Apparently this is the first promo video George made for any of his solo singles, and he puts as much earnest effort into it as he did into everything else, with dazzling, and ocasionally dazzlingly peculiar, results. Released in 1974 this is technically a new year song rather than a Christmas song, but it sounds Christmassy, which is partly because it manages to sound both glam rock-esque and Wall Of Sound-esque, and those are both Christmassy sounds.

I’m not going to tell you what my favourite bit is because the minute you see it, you’ll* know.

I had to work really hard to stop myself from writing “yule know” there, although on further examination I discover I appear to have done it anyway.

December 2: Little Drummer Boy

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music, Uncategorized3 Comments

Like me, you’ll be delighted to discover that of all the Beatles, the one who has recorded the largest number of Christmas songs is Ringo. Some of them are good, some of them are not, some of them are awesome, and then there’s this, which I think is actually the best version ever recorded – sorry, Bing and David – of the Little Drummer Boy, because it has SO MUCH DRUMMING. Like, imagine as much drumming as you can, and then double it, and that’s still not as much drumming as this song has. Make sure to listen all the way through, it would be a tragedy to miss the drum solos (yes, multiple), and the key changes (also multiple), and the bagpipes (just the one, although I suppose bagpipes by definition come in the plural).