The Twelve Days of Christmas (comedy version)
Christmas Wrapping
Christmas Everyday
Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
2000 Miles
Do They Know It's Christmas?
Last Christmas
The Greatest Gift of All
Thank God It's Christmas
You Make It Feel Like Christmas
Christmas Time
It's Christmas (All Over the World)
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (remake)
Santa Claus (I Still Believe in You)
Driving Home For Christmas
Mistletoe and Wine
All I Want for Christmas Is You
Now the Bells Ring
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" by two Canadian comedians became a hugely popular Christmas song in 1981. It appeared on "The Great White North", a Canadian comedy album by the fictional television characters Bob and Doug McKenzie (portrayed by actors Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas), released by Anthem Records (ANR-1-1036) and distributed in the United States by Mercury Records (SRM-1-4034). The title of the album is a popular nickname for Canada.
At least one million copies of the album were sold within North America, 350,000 of these within Canada alone which earned a triple-platinum certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association. The Great White North entered the RPM Canadian album charts at #3 on 12 December 1981 and rose to the #1 position the following week where it remained until 23 January 1982. The album peaked at number 8 on the American Billboard 200 album chart in 1982.
http://youtu.be/uHbu01tCRQg
"Christmas Wrapping" is a Christmas song by the American post-punk band The Waitresses. It was first released on the compilation album A Christmas Record (1981) on ZE Records, and also appears on the Waitresses' 1982 EP I Could Rule the World if I Could only Get the Parts (1982). It has been included on numerous Christmas holiday compilation albums in the US and UK, including Now That's What I Call Christmas!: The Signature Collection (2003). The song received positive reviews from music critics, and Allmusic described it as "one of the best holiday pop tunes ever recorded."
In 1981 ZE Records asked each of its artists to record a Christmas song for a Christmas compilation album, A Christmas Record. Songwriter Chris Butler wrote the song in August that year, assembling it from assorted unused riffs he had saved "for a rainy day". Some of the lyrics were finished in a taxi cab on the way to the recording studio. Butler explained the lyrics came from "just very much that for years I hated Christmas ... Everybody I knew in New York was running around like a bunch of fiends. It wasn't about joy. It was something to cope with."
Written soon after the birth of rap music, the song is "almost rapped" by Patty Donahue; the title is a pun on "rapping!
The song is told from the perspective of a busy single woman adamant not to participate in the exhausting Christmas period. She has "turned down all her invites" and resolves to "miss this one this year". Earlier in the year, she saw a man in a ski shop and got his telephone number, but had no time to ask him out. Despite the pair's attempts to meet in the following months, a succession of mishaps keeps them apart. Finally, on Christmas Eve, as she is roasting the "world's smallest turkey" (courtesy of A&P) for her dinner alone, she realizes she has forgotten to buy cranberries. She runs to a convenience store and, by coincidence, runs into the man (who has also forgotten cranberries as well), bringing her Christmas "to a very happy ending." In the final chorus, she admits that she "couldn't miss this one this year."
http://youtu.be/ARq6uYSsUq0
"Christmas Everyday" is one of two songs written by Pete McCann especially for Kenny Rogers. It appears on Rogers' first Christmas album released in 1981 by Liberty Records. The album called simply "Christmas" peaked at #10 on the U.S. Country charts and #34 on the overall U.S. charts.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o0rhoqpykzt3krp/04%20Kenny%20Rogers%20-%20Christmas%20Everyday.mp3?dl=0
"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (sometimes titled "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth") is a Christmas song with an added counterpoint performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby. "Little Drummer Boy" is a Christmas song written in 1941, while the "Peace on Earth" tune and lyrics, written by Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording.
The track was recorded on September 11, 1977 for Crosby's then-upcoming television special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged scripted dialogue about what they each do for their family Christmases, before singing "Little Drummer Boy" with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the special, "Peace on Earth".
Bowie's appearance has been described as a "surreal" event, undertaken at a time that he was "actively trying to normalise his career". He has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him". Buz Kohan was not sure that Crosby knew who Bowie was, but Ian Fraser claimed, "I'm pretty sure he did. Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did."
According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little Drummer Boy": "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?", Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote "Peace on Earth" as a counterpoint to "Little Drummer Boy". Crosby performed "Little Drummer Boy", while Bowie sang the new tune "Peace on Earth", which they reportedly performed after less than an hour of rehearsal.
Sadly, Crosby died on October 14, just five weeks after recording the special at Elstree Studios near London. In the U.S., the show was telecast on CBS just over a month later, on November 30, 1977. In the United Kingdom, the special first aired on December 24, 1977 on ITV.
The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes", which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA issued the recording as an official single, complete with the dialogue, arbitrarily placing "Fantastic Voyage" from the Lodger album on the B-side. Bowie was unhappy with this move, which further soured his already strained relationship with RCA, and he left the label soon after. The single debuted on the UK singles chart in November 1982, and climbed to position number three on the chart, boosted by a 12" picture disc release. It has since become a perennial on British Christmas compilation albums, with the TV sequence also a regular on UK nostalgia shows.
In the United States, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" became a staple on radio stations during the Christmas season.
http://youtu.be/ADbJLo4x-tk
"2000 Miles" is a song by The Pretenders that was released in 1983 as the preceding single to their 1984 album, Learning to Crawl. It was most popular in the UK, where it peaked at No. 15 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1983. In the US, it was released as the B-side of both the 7-inch single and 12-inch single remix of the band's hit, "Middle of the Road." Erroneously considered a Christmas song, it has also been released on various compilation albums. While most people believe 2,000 miles is the distance between two long distance lovers who miss each other over the holidays, it is actually meant to be for James Honeyman-Scott, the group's original guitar player, who died the year before the song was released. The official video features lead singer Chrissie Hynde dressed as a member of the Salvation Army in a snowy location.
http://youtu.be/vKgjyutgbwk
http://youtu.be/OxCSo_cJ9mY
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984.
In October 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired in the UK, which highlighted the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof saw the report and wanted to raise money. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?".
Geldof kept a November appointment with BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner to appear on his show, but instead of discussing his new album (the original reason for his booking), he used his airtime to publicise the idea for the charity single, so by the time the musicians were recruited there was intense media interest in the subject. Geldof put together a group called Band Aid, consisting of leading British and Irish musicians who were among the most popular of the era. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released four days later.
The 1984 original became the biggest selling single in UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one, and has sold 3.7 million copies domestically. It remained the highest selling single in UK chart history until 1997, when Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" was released in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, which sold almost 5 million copies in Britain. Worldwide, the single had sold 11.8 million copies by 1989.
Following the release of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984 and record sales in aid of famine relief, Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge concert, 1985's Live Aid, to raise further funds.
The song was re-recorded in 1989 by Band Aid II and in 2004 by Band Aid 20, again raising funds for famine relief. The 2004 version of the song sold 1.17 million copies.
And, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original song's release, 2014 saw a new version by Band Aid 30 to raise awareness and funds for Ebola relief.
The full story about the events surrounding the original recording can be found here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_They_Know_It%27s_Christmas%3F
http://youtu.be/bjQzJAKxTrE
"Last Christmas" is a song by British pop duo Wham! released on Epic Records in 1984, on a double A-side with "Everything She Wants". It was written and produced by George Michael and has been covered by scores of artists since its original release.
Wham! had been a dominant force in the UK Singles Chart in 1984 and news that they were planning a Christmas single meant that a battle for the coveted Christmas #1 spot in the UK seemed set to be between Wham! and the year's other big act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who had achieved a third #1 in early December with "The Power of Love". The Band Aid project helmed by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, however, produced the #1 single "Do They Know It's Christmas?". Wham!'s offering peaked at #2 for much of the period, although George's involvement in Band Aid meant that Wham! still had an input. Wham! subsequently topped the monies raised by Band Aid by donating all of their "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" royalties to the Ethiopian famine appeal!
The single sold well over a million copies and became the biggest selling single in UK chart history not to reach #1. A year later, it was re-issued for Christmas again (this time without a billed flip-side) and got to #6. A second re-issue at Christmas 1986 (by which time Wham! had split) stalled outside the top 40.
"Last Christmas" did make #1 in various other countries. In Germany, the song is the most successful Christmas single of all time, having spent 106 weeks on the German Singles Chart and attained a peak position of No. 4. In January 2008, the song fell from No. 4 to No. 64 there, also making it the biggest fall out of the top ten on the singles chart.
http://youtu.be/E8gmARGvPlI
"The Greatest Gift of All" was a special Christmas song released by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers from the album Once Upon a Christmas in 1984. The album was accompanied by a now classic CBS Christmas television special titled Kenny & Dolly: A Christmas to Remember that originally aired on December 2, 1984 (which has been rerun numerous years), though never issued on home video or DVD despite public demand.
This album became one of the biggest Christmas albums of the 1980s and still sells today, with "A Christmas to Remember" played by U.S. radio stations and satellite radio during the Christmas holiday season. In 1989 it was certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
http://youtu.be/OmIHqbd3FnA
"Thank God It's Christmas" is a Christmas pop single by the British rock band Queen. It was written by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Released on the 26th of November 1984, the song spent six weeks on the UK charts over Christmas 1984 and new year of 1985 and reached number 21.
The song was not originally released on any Queen studio album, appearing only on Queen's Greatest Hits III, released in 1999, and as the B-side of the single "A Winter's Tale" from the 1995 album Made in Heaven. However, the track was finally included on the bonus EP packaged with the deluxe edition of their album The Works, remastered and re-released in 2011.
No promotional video was filmed for the track, hampering its future use on music TV channels. For that reason it is a lesser known Christmas single. It also appears on several Christmas compilation albums. One of them is the original Now That's What I Call Christmas compilation released in 1985 but deleted in 1989.
http://youtu.be/V7dStS8pQHo
"You Make It Feel Like Christmas" by Neil Diamond peaked at No. 28 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart in January 1985. The song originally appeared on Diamond's 1984 album Primitive, but was later re-recorded and included on his 1992 holiday release, The Christmas Album.
Diamond told The Sun in its December 4, 2009 edition about this song: "I wrote it to reflect my feeling that sometimes Christmas is too much about gifts and parties and the spiritual part is a secondary theme. I wanted to make a point of celebrating that part of the holiday."
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sxip1lhpik13gi8/13%20You%20Make%20It%20Feel%20Like%20Christmas.mp3?dl=0
http://youtu.be/Tcgz08EVKzI
"It's Christmas (All Over the World)" is a Christmas song written by John Hubbs and Bill House and made popular by the pop group New Edition in 1985. Released on December 12, 1985 on the album Christmas All Over the World, the recording is notable in that it was the final album to feature vocals from original member Bobby Brown who shortly departed for a solo career after its release. The group reluctantly forced him out due to managerial concerns of the group's image being tattered by Brown's outbursts. Brown did come back for the album Home Again in 1996.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sgwvcc1ohioxm6s/New%20Edition%20-%20It%27s%20Christmas%20All%20Over%20The%20World.Mp3?dl=0
"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (also known as "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town") is an iconic Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934. It was previously noted in the 2nd installment of this blog:- Part Two: The 1930s and 1940s.
One of the most popular remakes of this classic was recorded by rocker Bruce Springsteen in a 1975 live version and eventually released in 1985 as a B-side to "My Hometown", a single from the Born in the U.S.A. album.
http://youtu.be/iSgEDKjmT5o
"Santa Claus (I Still Believe in You)" was a country Christmas song written and recorded by Alabama. The song appeared on their Alabama Christmas released by BMG in 1985.
"Driving Home for Christmas" is a single written by Chris Rea and released in 1986 as a non-album single. The song peaked at #53 in the UK Single Chart in 1988, and re-entered the chart in 2007, peaking at #33. It was used in Christmas commercials for supermarket chain Iceland in 1997, 1998, and 2011 respectively, with the latter featuring a cover by Stacey Solomon.
In a live interview on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today on 16 December 2009 Rea said he wrote "Driving Home for Christmas" many years before he first recorded it. His wife had come down to London to drive him home to Middlesbrough in her Austin Mini to save money because it was cheaper to drive than travel by train. Inspiration for the song came as she and Rea were stuck in heavy traffic heading out of London with a long drive to Middlesbrough ahead of them. Rea said "Driving Home for Christmas" is a "car version of a carol".
http://youtu.be/gKwP_13qo-I
"Mistletoe and Wine" is a song made famous in 1988 as a single by Cliff Richard. The song was written by Jeremy Paul, Leslie Stewart and Keith Strachan for a musical called Scraps, which was an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" set in Victorian London.
Scraps was first performed at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, London in 1976. The musical was renamed and adapted for television by HTV in 1987, and featured Roger Daltrey, Paul Daneman, Jimmy Jewel and Twiggy. As originally conceived, "Mistletoe and Wine" had a different meaning from that for which it has come to be known. The writers wanted a song that sounded like a Christmas carol, intending it to be sung ironically while the little matchgirl is kicked out into the snow by the unfeeling middle classes. By the time the musical transferred to television, the song had become a lusty pub song sung by the local whore, as played by Twiggy.
Richard liked the song, but changed the lyrics to reflect a more religious theme (which the writers accepted).
Richard's 99th single, it became his 12th UK number one single, spending four weeks at the top in December 1988 - selling 750,000 copies in the process. It was the best-selling single of 1988 in the UK. In December 2007 the single entered at number 68 on the UK Singles Chart by virtue of downloads.
One of the record breaking statistics often cited about Cliff Richard is his achievement of number one hit singles in five consecutive decades, and Mistletoe and Wine is important to this record in being his only number one hit of the eighties.
Richard's version of the song was also used in a British public information film about drunk driving. The film was part of the Drinking And Driving Wrecks Lives campaign during which films were shown during ad breaks over the Christmas period.
http://youtu.be/b7lKKNrXUJg
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a Christmas song (not to be confused with Mariah Carey's later title from the 90s) recorded by American novelty act Vince Vance & The Valiants. Initially released as a single in 1989, Vince Vance's version of the song has charted several times on the Billboard country singles charts. It is the most-played Christmas song on country radio, as well as Vince Vance & the Valiants' only chart entry.
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a mid-tempo in triple meter, featuring strong lead vocals from Lisa Layne. In it, the female narrator, singer Lisa Layne, explains that she does not want Christmas decorations, or gifts from Santa Claus. Instead, all she wants for Christmas is her lover. The melody used in the song is based on Bobby Vinton's number 9 pop hit single from early 1964, "My Heart Belongs to Only You", with a few minor alterations.
https://youtu.be/w8HWHd0EYJA
"Now the Bells Ring" was a Christmas hit for Rita MacNeil recorded in 1989 and included on an album by the same name. This iconic Canadian singer had two successful Christmas albums which spawned several other popular Christmas songs.
http://youtu.be/iMSQLa44nAo
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