Tuesday Tunes 159: Another Holiday

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Having last week played you a set of songs about holidays and the way we spend them I still had a few tunes on my list. This isn’t as obvious a title as you might think, and once issues of good taste had made me leave out Madonna, Cliff Richard and the Sex Pistols I realised that the ones that I still had were probably less familiar. But they are all good so I thought I’d go for a second holiday set this week. Four of these have the word in their title and the other one is very much a celebration of having fun on the beach. I’ll be surprised if anyone knows more than one of these, so do let me know how many you scored in the comments!

I’m starting with the one I think you might know:

Nazareth are a rock band from Scotland, who were formed in 1970 and began releasing records in 1971. They enjoyed a fair amount of success in the UK in their early days, along with several hits in Europe, and later did reasonably well in the US. Holiday is the opening track on their wonderfully named Malice In Wonderland album, which was released in January 1980, peaking at #41 in the US but failing to make the UK charts. It was also a single, issued to coincide with the album coming out, and reached the dizzy heights of #87 in the US, again failing to make a mark in our charts. I always liked the band: they were a fun act, and could be relied on for some entertainment. They also managed several hits with their own take on some cover versions: Joni Mitchell’s This Flight Tonight, The Everly Brothers’ Love Hurts, and Tomorrow’s My White Bicycle among them. In case you were wondering, the arcade game featured in the video is apparently Super Road Champions. Who knew? Clearly, I didn’t!

Looking at today’s set list the word that struck me was ‘quirky.’ This is one that fits that bill:

Lindsey Buckingham wrote Holiday Road for the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation, and it was also used in the sequels National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), Vegas Vacation (1997) and Vacation (2015). Despite only reaching #82 in the US Singles chart during its original release (June 1983), it has since become one of his best known songs away from his Fleetwood Mac repertoire. I remember seeing the movie when it first came out and being surprised to hear this familiar voice on the soundtrack, as I hadn’t at that point known that Lindsey had recorded this. The film was the usual mix of gross and hilarious, and I loved it!

Maybe I should have saved last week’s header cartoon for this next song – it would have been a good fit. This is a guy having fun with his mates on holiday:

I love the feel good sound of that song, and the video is a great match for it. The Zac Brown Band released Toes on their second album, The Foundation, in November 2008. The album was a big seller in the US, reaching #9 in the main Albums chart and #2 in the Country listings, selling well over 3m copies in the process. The song became a single in July 2009, and was also successful over there: #25 in the US, and #1 in their Country chart, and also #60 in Canada and #3 in the Country version. Like the album it has also sold more than 3m copies. I like the band a lot: they play enjoyable music and don’t take themselves too seriously. You may have seen me playing songs by Caroline Jones here on several occasions: she has toured with the band since 2017, playing as their opening act, and last November they made her a full band member. I guess she knew what she was letting herself in for…

I’m going back to ‘quirky’ for my next song, which tells a sad little tale:

Holiday Romance was released as a single by The Kinks in the UK and Japan in October 1974, but wasn’t a hit. This was actually just a trailer for the full album, The Kinks Present A Soap Opera, which came out in June 1975, and reached #41 in the US, though it wasn’t a UK success. It was the third concept album in what has become known as the band’s “theatrical period,” and tells the story of a musician named Starmaker who changes places with an “ordinary man” named Norman to better understand life. Starmaker beds Norman’s wife Andrea and then goes to work the next day, getting caught in the rush hour. He then does a full day at the office and goes out for a few beers afterwards. He gets back ‘home,’ where Andrea greets him, and he tells her she is “making it all worthwhile”. He settles down with Andrea and the album concludes with the sentiment that, although rock stars may fade, their music lives on. This song was generally well received by critics, who liked the way Ray Davies could tell a story in a song, and some likened it to a Noel Coward style of performance, with the traditional English tea orchestra arrangement. As I said, it’s ‘quirky!’

Today’s final song is much more recent, dating from 2019, but it is another that I doubt many will know, as it has only been an album track:

Northern Holiday is about the struggles of being constantly on the move and how being away from home can make you forget where you come from. It was a track on the Kaiser Chiefs’ most recent album, Duck, which came out in July 2019 and made #3 in the UK Album charts. It didn’t enjoy anything like the level of success outside the UK that they usually got, and it feels like they may be coming to an end. I hope not, as they are another band who play it for fun and I’ve enjoyed all of their albums. They have been very successful here – their seven albums have all reached the top ten, including two #1s, so hopefully they’ll stay around at least until 2025 for the twentieth anniversary of their debut record.

That brings today’s selection to a close. As I said, they comprise what I think are a mixture of the quirky and the unfamiliar, and I hope you’ve had fun listening to them – that’s what I’m aiming for! I have also realised that only one of today’s bands – The Kinks – has ever featured here before, so I may have been making some introductions for you. How many had you heard before?

Have a great week, and if you are on holiday or just about to go I hope the place isn’t on fire! See you again soon 😊

41 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 159: Another Holiday”

  1. Pingback: Goodbye July | Take It Easy

    • I’m glad to hear your holiday will be safe! Glad you liked these, and thank you for sharing yours – it’s always interesting to see how someone else takes on the same theme 😊

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    • I’m pleased you like that one, Robbie. It’s not strange at all, just quirky! Aside from the heavier rock stuff Ray Davies has a whole catalogue of thoughtful gems like this one.

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  4. Thank you for sharing your links with us at #271 SSPS Linky. See you again next week.
    This will be the last week that I will share your posts on “X”. Deleting it as of Monday, so will share on my other SM going forward

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  6. I only knew the first two, Clive. I watched two of the Vacation movies, so that’s why the Buckingham tune was the most familiar. I am a big Fleetwood Mac fan. Even though I’m mostly a rock guy, Nazareth never held that much appeal to me. I owned one of their albums. This song is okay. Of the other three new ones, I liked the Zac Brown Band and Northern Holiday. better then The Kinks. As always, it’s hard to articulate what accounts for our musical tastes.

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    • You did well to know those two, Pete – more than anyone else has claimed so far!

      Nazareth weren’t the biggest of bands, either here or over there, but I always liked them. Unpretentious and didn’t take themselves too seriously. I guess two out of the other three isn’t a bad score for me. That Kinks one is in a very different style to their early hits.

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  8. A fun holiday mood, and ain’t a smile exactly what you want on the hols?
    Love Nazareth’s version of ‘Busted’ too- great guitar and the usual growly vocals. They were underrated and underappreciated IMO.

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  10. All new to me except for the Holiday Road one. 🙂 All good, and the Holiday Romance one is quirky. LOL!
    Toes was a fun song and now I really want to have my toes in the sand! Some day I will live at the beach. 🙂 but for now, counting down the days until vacation to the beach!

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    • I thought that one might just be known to N American readers. It’s fun, isn’t it, just like the movie. Glad you liked the others – you’re the second to have gone for Zac Brown 😊

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