We are now up to the third part of my Advent Countdown, and today’s is a mixed bag of some rousing old favourites, plus a couple of new ones and an ad many of you won’t have seen here before. Hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy amongst the mix.

Let’s get things going with an all time Christmas rock ‘n’ roll classic. I’ve played it before, but who doesn’t like this one:

They don’t come much more rock ‘n’ roll than Chuck Berry, do they! The song may have been around for donkeys’ years but that video was released in October 2020 and has accumulated more than 9.3m views in that time. I think it’s superb. The track was originally released as a non-album single in 1958, reaching #69 in the US – it has been re-released several times, and achieved its best ever position of #10 in the US in the last week of 2020. No doubt this animation helped! In the UK its highest chart placing was #36, in 1963 – it didn’t rush into the charts, did it? It was co-written by Marvin Brodie and Johnny Marks: the latter of those also wrote Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, which is a kind of prequel to this one. Wikipedia gives a very long list of cover versions of Run Rudolph Run but, thankfully, none by Screeching Mariah. I dread to think what she’d have done with it!

Today’s second tune is another that, for me, is making a welcome return:

Bellowhead, with Ring Christmas Bells. For me, it wouldn’t be Christmas without this bunch of lovable idiots. As I’ve said before, Bellowhead are the band I’ve seen live most often, and they are my favourite live act. I’ve been to many of their shows, including a Christmas one, and they really are as anarchic as the video suggests. But if one of the purposes of music is to entertain, Bellowhead do it in huge amounts: no one ever leaves one of their shows feeling short-changed. If they were moving around too quickly for you to count, they have eleven members and describe themselves as a ‘folk big band.’ This was released as a non-album single in December 2013, with a re-recorded version of Jingle Bells on the B-side, but didn’t make the charts. This one is tinged with sadness, though, as Paul Sartin – the chap doing a spot of doctoring with a trombone around the 1’40” mark – passed away last year from a sudden heart attack just as he was about to go on stage, at the age of just 51. He is much missed.

Now for the first of today’s new ones, which brings a complete change in style and pace. I’ve featured the band before but not with this one, which is a newly released video:

The Mediaeval Baebes were formed in 1996, and have had a widely changing membership since then, varying from six to twelve in number. They have mostly been considered a classical music act, but have had much radio and tv coverage here. They have been steady sellers of records through their lifespan, and are estimated to have had sales of around 1m or more – they are best seen as a live act, though, as I can confirm. They are enchanting, and an evening in their company passes very quickly. Noël Nouvelet is a 16th century Spanish carol, but this is their own arrangement. I haven’t a clue what the words mean, and unfortunately they don’t provide a translation on YouTube, but I think this is lovely.

I found today’s other new song from a YouTube recommendation. I had never heard of the singer before, which is possibly a reflection of my ignorance, or that he has achieved the square root of diddly squat over here, but apparently he is well known in the States. Again, this is a big difference in style from the previous tune, but it’s fun – and guess which store he is sponsored by:

Walker Hayes, or to give him his full name, Charles Edgar Walker Hayes, is an American country pop singer and songwriter. He has released three studio albums: Reason to Rhyme in 2011, Boom in 2017 and Country Stuff the Album in 2022. Several of his singles have been hits on the US Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts: his highest placing is the original non-seasonal version of Fancy Like, which reached #1 on both charts in 2021 and made #3 in the main US listings. Fancy Like spent five weeks in the UK Singles chart in late summer 2021, peaking at #33: not a huge hit, then, which fact I offer in my defence for not knowing of him previously. This reworked seasonal version of his big hit, Fancy Like Christmas, was released last week and has yet to make a chart appearance. As I said, it’s a fun song and video which I thought was worth sharing.

I’m closing today with one of the best known Christmas songs, and one of the best (and best known) versions of it. I think I’ve played this one every year, and it wouldn’t do to miss it out, would it? This is the return of one of my usual suspects – it starts slowly, but is worth the wait (if you can’t wait, the song actually starts around 2 minutes in):

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934, and was first recorded that year by a banjo player called Harry Reser (and His Band). Bruce’s version was released in 1985 as the B-side to the single My Hometown, from the Born In The USA album. The single was a top ten hit in both the US and the UK and this song was also a minor UK hit on re-release in 2007, the year of this performance. For me, it’s always great to see big stars having fun like this, though as I have said before I think Clarence Clemons (RIP) rather steals the show! There are loads of versions of this but for me this is still the best, the most iconic of them all. I’ve never had the pleasure of going to one of Bruce’s shows but I understand that this one gets played whatever time of year it happens to be – it is that much a part of his catalogue! 

That’s all the tunes for today, but as is becoming my habit I’m also giving you an ad. For this one, I’m indebted to Pete, who suggested it in a comment last week. Actually, this is more of a mini-movie than an ad, but it is lovely and well worth sharing:

Of course Chevrolet are promoting their cars, but this so beautifully done, and reminding people of the damage that can be caused by Alzheimer’s is a good thing, in my book. Both of my parents suffered from that pernicious disease, and it was sad to see their gradual decline. Watching this has reminded me of them both, and of how much I miss them. Christmas is the time of year for memories, isn’t it.

That’s all for today. I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday and again on Tuesday for part four of this series. Stay safe, warm and well 😊