The Ghost Of Christmas Past Singles
Next week sees the release of Terry Wogan and Aled's Little Drummer Boy. It’s almost a dead cert to be the Christmas Number One, but just a shame it’s not a new Christmas song. It seems this country’s lost its way in writing good new Christmas songs, so every year we just hear all the old Christmas favourites by Slade, Wizard, Cliff Richard and Macca etc.
Does this bother you, is the Christmas single dead and buried forever or will this year be different. With the demise of Woolworths, the Christmas single may even suffer further this year.
Personally, I prefer seasonal winter songs, a few of my favourites currently on rotation include:
Through December-Laura Veirs
Jesus Christ-Teenage Fanclub
Valley Winter Song-Fountains Of Wayne
Little Girl Blue-Nina Simone
A few of the above were recommended by Word bloggers last year and are now firm favourites. What are your thoughts, who would you like to see writing a classic new Xmas song and what are your favourite winter songs? Or do you hate Christmas songs?
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here's a few
Winter Song - Lindisfarne, from the splendid Nicely Out Of Tune.
The Spirit Of Christmas - Steve Ashley
Holy Heathens And The Old Green Man by Waterson:Carthy is good too.
You wouldn't have found any of these in Woolworths anyway.
A dearth of new Christmas songs....
... is almost exactly why this comes out next week as well. : )
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/chris-difford-christmas
Local plug
for Brummies Misty's Big Adventure, a band who can always bring a smile to my face, particularly at Christmas when - for my money - their "Where Do Jam Jars Go At Christmas Time?" takes its place alongside the hardy perennials.
I don't think
Aled and Tel is a dead cert. X Factor winners have nabbed the number one slot for the past three years so there's no reason to suggest this year's dullard singing Hallelulah will fare any worse. Hopwever John Sargeant is releasing a single so all bets are off.
Christmas by Low
The whole album/EP is excellent, but if the faux Spector vibe of the opening track Just Like Xmas doesn't make you want to take a trip to see Santa in Lapland, you are indeed a modern day Mr Scrooge:
Last night
Thanks to e-Music, I rediscovered Home Service's music for the National Theatre's production of The Mysteries (this included John Tams as both musical director and as a cast member). This features a great version of a traditional Christmas song "Shepherds Arise" which is well worth a listen (can't find it on You Tube but it is on Last.FM).
Incidentally, I remember the whole Mystery Plays production being shown on Channel 4 soon after the channel launched. I'd love to get hold of a DVD. Does anybody know if it is available? I haven't been able to track it down.
This is one of my faves...
This deserves
..a re-release.
None hold a candle to this...
Not the original 64 recording but...y'know....