I thought for today’s Advent Calendar selection that I would go back to a couple of songs that are favourites of mine. One of these gets played every year, the other is a more recent addition to my catalogue, though the song itself dates back quite a while. I’m also sharing with you a current ad, which you may well not have seen before.

The first of my old favourites is this one:

This was recorded for the album A Very Special Christmas, which was released in 1987 to raise money for the Special Olympics – the first of nine such albums to date. John Mellencamp’s version is one of many of this song, but it has never been a hit in its own right. This performance is typically boisterous and is made for me by the show-stealing role played by John’s three year old daughter Teddi. She will be in her late thirties now, but I hope she still gets pleasure from seeing how adorable she was back then. The ‘proud Dad’ look on his face says it all. The song was written in 1952 by a British songwriter, Tommie Connor, and was first recorded by the then 13 year old Jimmy Boyd. It topped the US chart that year and got to #3 in the UK when it was released here the following year. Other versions you may know are by The Ronettes and the Jackson 5. I much prefer this one, though!

Today’s second old favourite, but with a relatively recent video, is 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 only released in October 2020, and has accumulated more than 4.4m 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 that Carey creature. I dread to think what she’d have done with it!

And now for that ad I promised you. More of a trailer, really, but you’ll get the idea:

Sky is running this for a new comedy show they are broadcasting this year. Anything starring Suranne Jones will usually get my attention: this trailer has added to the anticipation!

That’s all for today – a slightly shorter set than yesterday but I don’t want to run out of songs to play you, do I? As if: the problem is squeezing in everything I’d like to!

Just time for an image of the day before I go:

I’ll be back tomorrow – hopefully you will, too 🧑‍🎄