The folksy edge in Bert Jansch’s voice turns this song into something completely different from other, more traditional, versions of it. Which is not to say I don’t like the traditional versions just as much, but this is a pop advent calendar, approximately, so it suits our purposes better. And I do like a bit of guitar on a bluey-grey Monday.
Category: Music
Advent song for December 13
Time for some rock’n’roll Christmas angst. This is a great song, with the added bonus for me that it conjures up memories of Bernard and the Genie, a superb Christmas film which, unfathomably, remains unavailable on DVD, but which you can watch if you come to my house. Shall we say Christmas Eve, around 7pm? I’ll make mince pies. Bring gin.
Advent song for December 12
I love the Beach Boys and, for a sunshine and surfing band, they have quite a lot of Christmas songs. However, there are good reasons why you don’t know most of them. This one, though, is properly great. I especially love the solemn refrain of “Christmas comes this time each year” – which is perfectly true, whichever way you look at it.
Advent song for December 11
I’m late! WordPress is clever enough to let me post in advance and specify a later publication time, but not the reverse. I blame working from home: my routine was all shot.
Anyway, we’re going to stick with my far-off university days (Essex, in case you were wondering) and have the Spice Girls’ rendition of Christmas Wrapping, which if memory serves correctly was the b-side of one of their Christmas singles. I would have liked to include one of the singles themselves, but they are not particularly Christmassy, and anyway this is fun, with its updated references to Tesco and cling film. Good old The Spice Girls. There doesn’t seem to be a real video, but this is the weirdest liveliest of the fan-created offerings on YouTube.
Advent song for December 10
This song came out in my first term at university in 1994, so it holds fond memories for me of my first year living away from home. I heard the single on the radio and immediately went out and bought it (I’d like to say on 7″, but although it would still have been possible to buy the vinyl version, I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a record player by then) and played it to death that Christmas.
I remember reading an interview with Tony Mortimer shortly afterwards in which he admitted that the bells at the end were added in a cynical – and successful – attempt to make the record Christmas number one. I love that they backed that up with a special Christmas version of the video, and don’t they look darling in their fluffy hoods?
Advent song for December 9
I love Eartha Kitt’s voice. It’s little-girlish and gritty all at once. She reminds me a little bit of Mrs Banks from Mary Poppins, though I don’t know how flattered either of them would be at the comparison.
(I was going to add “…if either of them were still alive, that is” at the end there, but I thought I’d check and though Eartha did indeed leave us last Christmas Day, Glynis Johns is still going strong at 86. So a happy Christmas to her, too, and any other surviving members of the Banks family.)
Advent song for December 8
Why do none of these songs have proper videos? This is another hand-crafted effort by a dedicated YouTube user, but it’s less horrible than some. It was this or a live version, which would have been much less fun. This is a good singalong number for your office Christmas party, should your office Christmas party be featuring music, which mine won’t. Although if you listen closely, it sounds as though Chris has a bit of a sore throat. Get well soon, Chris!
Advent song for December 7
This lovely song is for anyone who’s feeling sad this Christmas-time.
Advent song for December 6
I had a short internal struggle over whether or not to give you the Kim Wilde and Mel Smith version of this song, but the Gladallover advent calendar is, when it comes down to it, all about the music, and Brenda Lee sings it much more prettily (sorry, Kim, I still think you’re lovely).
However, if you find you’re in the mood for a spot of Mel and Kim, you’ll find them here.
Advent song for December 5
I thought you might be in the mood for something partyish on the first Saturday of the month, so here are Kirsty and the Pogues doing their thing. True story: two Christmasses ago my friend S managed, accidentally, to invoke a setting on her phone which played “A Fairytale of New York” over the top of her recorded answerphone message, so that anyone who tried to call her had to listen to Shane wailing in the background while they waited to leave voicemail. It was all very odd.
Glad All Over 