Advent Calendar 2022: Day 16 🧸

Posted on by

Time marches inexorably on, and it is now the day to open door number 16 on my Advent Calendar. After yesterday’s bonanza we are back to what I regard as the regular quota of three songs today, but please don’t hold that against me. I’ve juggled my planned order around, too – you’ll see why when I get to it. And late news: I’ve just added a new one!

Starting up today with an old favourite of mine. Over the years I’ve played several versions of this one, but this is my favourite:

Chris De Burgh has been rather looked down on by ‘serious’ music lovers (e.g. me) since the execrable Lady In Red, but there is no denying that some of his earlier stuff is very good. This song was originally released on his 1975 album Spanish Train And Other Stories, and was a #1 hit in his half-native Ireland. A re-recorded version was released in 1986 to cash in on the success of the aforementioned vomit-inducer, and reached #40 here, and he then made a third version of it in 2010, which is the one in this video. On its original release the song was deemed blasphemous and was banned in South Africa – but only on the vinyl album, as the cassette version was allowed to slip through. Weird, or what? This video was the winning entry in a competition, and became Chris’ official video for the song’s 2010 re-release: I think it’s rather lovely.

I first played this one as soon as it was released, on Christmas Eve 2019, but didn’t include it last year. It’s a little bit of fun and nonsense, but I absolutely love it:

I just love how excited Chris Thile is at the end of that, at how they pulled it off! That was from the live music show Live From Here, which is sadly no longer with us – it became a Covid casualty in 2020. The show was fronted by Chris, formerly of the excellent band Nickel Creek. Another former member, Sara Watkins, is now in a female trio called I’m With Her, with Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan, and the three of them were regular guests on the show, either solo or in combinations of two or three. A couple of weeks before the big day in 2019 Chris and Sarah had a little bit of pre-Christmas fun with a children’s song, which was originally recorded in 1953 by the then 10 year old Gayla Peevey. It was a Christmas novelty hit that year, but as I was only three months old I hadn’t started buying records yet. I’ve often said here how much joy music can bring to the listener, but we shouldn’t forget what it can do for the performers too!

Today’s final song is the one for which I’ve changed my running order around. On Monday – Day 12 – I played you a stunningly beautiful song by Beth Nielsen Chapman, and had been intending to play her Christmas song one day next week. Beth has been through a lot in her lifetime: in 1994 her first husband, Ernest Chapman, died of cancer, and she herself survived breast cancer in 2000. She remarried in 2011 but on Wednesday she shared an utterly heartbreaking post on Facebook, telling us that her second husband, Bob Sherman, had succumbed to cancer last Friday. It seemed that the least I could do to show her some respect at this terrible time would be to play her song sooner, so here it is:

Please Tell Santa Claus was written especially for Song Club, a charity album compiled by Chris Difford, of the band Squeeze, and was released in December 2020. Beth tells the story of how it came about in her YouTube post:

“During this incredibly difficult year I found myself quite disoriented as I would imagine other artists and songwriters and all humans for that matter were feeling! I was drawn to creativity as I always am in challenging times, but this time I also felt adrift and disoriented and unable to write. Then, thank goodness Chris Difford (of Squeeze) called upon several of us songwriters to write songs together for his amazing charity album – Song Club. Inspired by being part of this incredible project I started thinking how the world is going to need a new kind of Christmas song to get through the holiday season of 2020! I wasn’t sure there would be a way to make it fun in the midst of this nightmare year until I started imagining someone saying “hey, let’s ask Santa! Surely he can get us out of this mess”!

A percentage of the proceeds of Please Tell Santa Claus were donated to The Royal College of Nursing. It is a nice little song, and I hope my playing it acts in some small way as a tribute to a woman whose songs have given me so much pleasure for many years, and who is suffering at this time. As I said to her in response to her announcement, the song I played on Monday – Every December Sky – will take on an even greater meaning and poignancy for her now. It is so typical of her that she fulfilled one of Bob’s final wishes by keeping to an engagement to play at a charity show last night. I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been for her: I admire her for doing it, and hope that immersing herself in music will have helped her a little.

That would have been where I left it for today but, knowing that this was coming out today I went in search of it. Hot off the press, released just two hours ago, I give you what I hope will be this year’s UK Christmas #1:

That’s now definitely all for today! But of course I’m leaving you with the usual daily image:

See you again tomorrow 🎊

27 thoughts on “Advent Calendar 2022: Day 16 🧸”

  2. And now I have “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas” stuck in my head!!! I hadn’t heard the first or the third, but loved the videos, especially the third one! And, of course, I loved the late addition, the 4th. Sorry I’ve gotten so far behind, my friend … been in a bit of a rabbit hole of late, plus busy with holiday “stuff” (I’ll be so glad to see an end to the holiday season!) Fun post, as always!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Great song choices… you always manage to find songs that I haven’t heard before, Clive that’s what I love about your posts…I too am rooting for LadBaby they deserve to have a record 5 year run at the Christmas #1 and it’s all for a good cause …Have a great weekend, Clive 🙂 xx

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. I like Please Tell Santa Claus (first time hearing it), and I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. Each year classes are performed for the rest of the classes and parents. One of the other teachers often picked this tune.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Oh you aced it this time! Chris de Burgh is amazing, have four of his CD’s. Lady in Red was my first introduction to him bur he has so many more beautiful ones.
    I also want a Hippo for Christmas and been playing that every year, but still no hippo. LOL!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. I love Chris De Burgh and have seen him perform. He is a great performer and this song is excellent. It is very sad news though about Beth Nielsen Chapman. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem fair when one person has so much dumped on them. Her song is delightful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. The first song sounds a bit familiar. I like Chris DeBurgh’s interpretation. The video is really good.
    I heard the second one once here on WordPress. The third is completely new to me. A funny one. And the last one 😂 I love LadBaby’s ideas. They make you smile and support those who need it!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Chris de Burgh wrote the song! I think the video is lovely: done by a group of young children. I’m surprised you knew either of the other two, though. And LadBaby just had to be added in today – superb video and an impressive cast of guest singers.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • This is the fifth year that LadBaby have done this to raise money for charity, and I think all of their previous ones are on YouTube if you’re interested. I’ll play this one again next week if they make #1 for the fifth year running, which would be a record. They have a lot of fun making the records and the videos, all done for the best reason.

        Liked by 1 person

Please leave a reply, I'd like to know what you think