Here's a pop version of my favorite Christmas tune--it was originally recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fielder and has been covered by everyone from Bing Crosby to Air Supply all the way to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones most recently. The lead singer here of the group (best known for the 1965 chart-buster hit "Be My Baby") is Veronica (Ronnie) Spector. She's the former wife of super-egotist Phil Spector, the guy who created the richly layered "Wall of Sound" recording techniques that graced her group and many other rock and roll albums.
For more on Ronnie today: http://www.ronniespector.com/
This is indeed a jolly song Doug, I remember this version from the days long before I became a grumpy old man.
ReplyDeleteIt conjures up images in my mind of snow flakes attaching to my eyelashes as the lights twinkle on the Christmas Tree in Birmingham city centre (an annual donation from Sweden-for what reason, I know not).
It also makes me think of the now bankrupt and boarded up department stores when they had reindeers and brightly wrapped parcels in their window displays, vapourised breath and a general atmosphere of excitement and joyous anticipation.
Mulled wine, family get togethers, glasses of Port and Danny Kaye on the television.
This Christmas I will be working (as indeed I will be this New Year) by choice.. to allow colleagues who apparently still have those sorts of experiences to tuck into their Christmas dinners, pull crackers and watch Harry Potter DVDs. Bah humbug.
Thanks for those reveries inspired by this song Doug.
Christmas can be a busy time in my line of work but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my shift won't be too hectic.
New Year stands a chance of getting even busier, January 1st is statistically the worst day of the year for suicide and self harm.
This is the quintessential Christmas song. I have never heard a bad version of the song. I think the Ronnettes did a particularly good job with their rendition.
ReplyDeleteSad and ironic that holiday times can make people in distress feel more lonely and left out, AA. I hope you have a calm and Hogwarts-free holiday at your work this year around. Thanks for sharing those vivid Christmas memories. I didn't have a white Christmas until I was 29 up here in Oregon. I was amazed how quiet the snowfall made everything, and how frigging cold.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think that's why its my favorite, Fred. That and it always makes me happy when I hear it unexpectedly this time of season. It's almost fool proof for a professional band or singer.
ReplyDeleteI have never had a white xmas in my life lol and I guess I never will. Nice song and vid.
ReplyDeleteWhite Christmas's are very much overrated in my opinion, I dread them.... but up until this year I had consoled myself with the thought that global warming would make these severe accident hazards a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteThis year it's bloody freezing here, the coldest pre-Christmas period in years.....so I suppose the melting ice caps have turned off the bloody Gulf Stream and England is about to become like Greenland.,,,,oh well.
It's strange what this song can make you think of isn't it?
Thanks Iri Ani. Hard to imagine Summer heat and Christmas going together. Must have been rather odd growing up in NZ and watching snowy "Christmas" movies on television and perhaps in air conditioned movie theaters----in December!
ReplyDeleteI suppose down in NZ folks could go caroling in beach wear. :-)
Dreary prospects indeed, AA. Stuck between New Labour's finest, Gordon Brown, a Tory government on the horizon, and a mini-Ice Age to deal with top top it off...oh brother!
ReplyDeleteSeriously we had a couple inches of snow here, but I don't miss those serious Cascade Mountain Winters. Snow is not only overrated, it's a bother to drive in as well. Personally, I'll be glad when the days start getting longer. Pitch dark at five-thirty in the afternoon is a bummer.
Well, at least our tatty almost useless radiata pine tree windbreak has its uses at least once a year. My boys cut off a really nicely xmas tree shaped branch today which has been duly decorated and tinseled. It looks very pretty with some parcels underneath it and our xmas cd is playing old fashioned northern hemisphere type songs like White Christmas and although its nearly 11pm as I type it is still about 20C outside. Totally schizophrenic. I cannot imagine a cold xmas.
ReplyDeleteBut I must admit I never thought of carolling in beach wear before.
That's why I love the Solstices so much Doug..... the winter is what gives spring it's glory, although when the weather isn't too bad, I actually like the winter for it's special charms too.
ReplyDeleteBut as Billy Connolly I think once said...."there's no such thing as bad weather....only the wrong clothes"