Like the rest of this year, December is flying by and we’re already up to the sixth of the eight parts of this year’s Advent Countdown. I hope you’ve been enjoying these, and will continue to do so. I usually dedicate one post each year to some more serious songs but am changing it a little this year: today’s selection features three of the ‘serious’ ones, bookended by a couple more upbeat tunes. And we have another episode in the ongoing saga of great ads.

I don’t play this first one every year, but it always goes down well:

Chris De Burgh has been rather looked down on by ‘proper’ music lovers (e.g. me) since the utterly execrable Lady In Red, but there is no denying that some of his earlier stuff is very good. A Spaceman Came Travelling 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.

This next one is the first of my three regular ‘serious’ tunes:

This one is seen as a novelty hit, but it carries a serious message under its jaunty little tune. Jona Lewie’s Stop The Cavalry wasn’t a US hit, but it reached #3 here in 1980, and was a big chart hit in Australia, New Zealand, and in many European countries. It is a regular Christmas favourite here, and has reached our charts a further thirteen times since its original release, including this year – it is currently at #69. I’m guessing that it will be new to most American readers, though, apart from those of you who may remember it from my playing it before. For one of the five weeks he spent at #3 Jona Lewie was held off the #1 spot here by two John Lennon songs, which hit the top again after he was murdered on 8 December of that year – one of them being Happy Xmas (War Is Over), the other was Imagine. Forty five years on there is, sadly, still a relevance to this which we shouldn’t ever forget, even at a time of celebration. Current events in Ukraine, Gaza/Israel and elsewhere are everyday reminders.

This next one is another that carries a meaningful message, but is far from being well known – unless, again, you’ve seen it here before. When I first played this I remarked that I would imagine that many of you are familiar with the story of the unofficial truces between German and British troops on Christmas Day 2014 in WW1, during which gifts were exchanged and a game of football was played in the no-man’s land between the trenches. English readers won’t be surprised to hear that Germany won the game (without having to go to penalties), but it provided the background to a remarkable song:

That remastered video for Mike Harding’s Christmas 1914 was released in 2014, to mark the centenary both of the Christmas truces and the beginning of WW1, although the song itself dates back to 1977. Not to be confused with the New Zealand folk singer with the same name, Mike Harding will be known to some here as a radio presenter of folk and roots music programmes, but he has also had a long career as a folk singer and songwriter of some note, with a wide range of publications and TV broadcasts to his name, plus many albums. Amongst all the other strings to his bow he has also been a stand up comedian, and actually had a #22 hit here in 1975 with his song The Rochdale Cowboy. I saw him play live a couple of times at my university’s folk club – he was a regular visitor, and his shows were almost as much a collection of extremely funny anecdotes as they were of music. But he also has a sensitive side, as this song demonstrates. The video for it is as beautiful and heartfelt as the song. To complete the story, 50% of the proceeds from its 2014 re-release were shared between the Royal British Legion and the Help For Heroes charities.

To complete today’s trio of songs to make you think I’m playing one which has long been a favourite of mine, an absolute beauty of a song. I’m not a particularly religious person, but I can appreciate that the meaning of this time of year may have become a little lost. Here’s a reminder:

That was Jackson Browne with The Rebel Jesus. The video that someone has compiled for this track is inspired: the images match perfectly with the beauty of Jackson’s lyrics, which should prompt us all to consider our beliefs and our behaviours. Religion can be a wonderful support for people, but it can also be damaging and divisive. In a world which has so much division we need to heed lessons like this one. Although this was Jackson’s song it first appeared as a guest performance on The Bells Of Dublin, an album of seasonal songs released by The Chieftains in 1991 – I recommend the album highly. This song was first released under Jackson’s name as a single in 1997, to promote his first ‘Best Of’ album, The Next Voice You Hear: I think it is stunning.

I thought I should close today with something a little less downbeat, beautiful though those last two (in particular) are. I played these guys earlier in this series and they kind of stole the show, so here they are again:

The adorable Masaka Kids Africana with We Sing. The video is a new one, published just four days ago, and the song is from their new EP Christmas With The King. I’m sure it is a lovely record but somehow I think I prefer to see them performing – dancing doesn’t work well on a stereo system!

To round things off for today I’m sharing again the next in the series of ads by Hafod Hardware. This is the third, from 2019, and is where it all took off for them:

This was the one that made a star of little Arthur Lewis Jones, who was just 2 at the time. He’ll be 8 now, and I’m really hoping that he wants to make another of these and persuades his Dad to do it – we need their brilliance back again, after five blank Christmases! I still can’t watch that without a tear forming. Everything about it is perfection: the story that revolves around Arthur helping his grandparents in their shop, the clever way he morphs into his dad, Tom, at the end, and how Tom imitates Arthur’s greeting, all topped off by Andrea Von Kampen’s beautiful version of the Alphaville song, Forever Young, which underpins the whole message. Trying, and failing, to copy a good idea the song was also used the following year by McDonalds in their Christmas advert: proving yet again that there is no justice, the incredibly inferior version they used, by Becky Hill – a ‘reality’ tv show winner – made it to #35 in the UK singles chart. I defy anyone to listen to both versions and not prefer Andrea’s! What they couldn’t even come close to was matching the viral success of this video, which garnered national press and tv coverage, and resulted in a visit by the then Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, who could be seen buying a copy of Andrea’s latest album. The video has over 2.8m views on YouTube, and I think that is richly deserved.

That’s all for today, and I hope you found something here to enjoy. I’ll be back for Song Lyric Sunday, and will then be here next week for the two final parts of my Advent Countdown. I hope to see you for those. Stay safe and well ☃️

And I leave you with a little PSA: