Charlie’s Bar | Take It Easy

I’m really hoping that this post reaches you as I intend it to be seen, after the WP gremlins decided to play about with Tuesday’s offering. So if you see anything strange in this one, remember – it’s them, not me! This is my second selection of seasonal songs to mark Advent: as usual, they are a bit of a mixture and even when I go for one which was a chart success I choose an alternative version, as I’m doing today.

I’m starting with one which is a real Christmas standard, and it may come as a surprise that I’m playing it. But this isn’t the original, and the fairly recent video is fun:

The Drifters released their version of White Christmas in 1954, with Bill Pinkney and Clyde McPhatter leading the vocals. It only reached #80 in the US but did make #5 on their R&B chart. I love this animation that was made for it, and their version of the song is pretty good too.

My next song is another standard for which I have played several versions over the years. I think this is my favourite:

The Little Drummer Boy (originally known as Carol of the Drum) was written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was first recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family (yes, that one), and has been recorded many times since. In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Mary, recalling, “I played my best for him” and “He smiled at me”. It is a nice little song, and Bob Seger’s version and the accompanying video are lovely: he gives it everything, doesn’t he. This has never appeared on any of his own albums or singles, though it did feature in a retrospective compilation in 2011.

Just to show you how the same song can be done rather differently, here’s another version of that one that I have always enjoyed too:

Walk Off The Earth (WOTE) with their usual brand of creative lunacy. I’ve played their version several times previously, but not in recent years, so I thought I’d dust it down and share it again. They have made so many great videos over the years, and this is typical of their style.

My next tune for today is another favourite of mine, and has been ever since it was first released in 1975. But I don’t think I’ve ever played this version before – I should have done, as it is rather lovely:

Greg Lake and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson with I Believe in Father Christmas, accompanied by none other than Strictly Come Dancing’s musical director on keyboard. When first released that was one of the big Christmas hits here in 1975, reaching #2 at a time when just about everyone was jumping on the bandwagon and releasing Christmas songs, though many of them were of dubious quality. The song was written by Greg Lake, of the prog rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with other lyrics by Peter Sinfield, who was with Greg in the first of those bands. Although it is thought of as a Christmas song, Greg said that he wrote it in protest at the way that Christmas had become commercialised. Peter, however, said that the words are about a loss of innocence and childhood belief: take your pick! I think the church setting and the choral backing gives the song a new beauty – the church connection is that it is where Ian Anderson has previously recorded for his own Christmas album.

I’m closing today with a Christmas carol. Last year I played a version of this by the Fisherman’s Friends, which was a fun one, but this year I’m going back to one I have played previously. This is one of my favourite carols, going right back to my days in primary school when we used to sing it as the school choir. The video is a little grainy but the music is lovely:

Isn’t that gorgeous? The Chieftains have released many albums featuring an array of guest singers, and this song with Marianne Faithfull is from one of those: The Bells of Dublin, which came out in 1991. I can’t find any details of chart placings, but the album has been certified ‘Gold’ in the US for over 500k sales, so I think it has done alright. Another of the guests on the album is Jackson Browne, who recorded a version of his song The Rebel Jesus, which you might just be seeing again soon.

That’s all for today’s music, but as usual I’m adding in a little something extra. You probably won’t remember it but last year I shared a lovely ad by Charlie’s Bar, a pub in the northern Irish town of Enniskillen. It was a nice little reminder of how we should care for each other, and deservedly went viral on social media. They have done another for this year, so I thought I’d give you that too. For some reason they have split it into two parts, though both are very short, and they are posted on YouTube as ‘shorts,’ which can’t be embedded. This is as close as I could get: