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Saturday, 10 December 2016
THE MEANING OF C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. ...
JIM REEVES spells out the meaning of
Christmas. Listen to him hold that crystal-
clear note at the end of the song. Lovely.
6 comments:
Colin Jones
said...
He sings the song beautifully but it's not one of my favourites. Yesterday I heard about the death of Greg Lake who sang one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs - "I Believe In Father Christmas" from 1975. The peel of a bell and that Christmas tree smell, And eyes full of tinsel and fire. The video has a scene of a line of camels passing in front of the setting sun with palm trees all around which really evokes images of the Nativity.
There's another song called Christmas Alphabet (by Dickie Valentine), which is the same idea as this one, CJ. I always thought that C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. was an exclusive Jim Reeves song because I'd never heard anyone else do it. That is, until a few years ago, when I got a Rosemary Clooney (George's aunt) Christmas album, and the song was on that. Her version pre-dates Jim's, I believe. I like the way he sings it more than the actual song itself. I know the Greg Lake song, but I can't remember if I've ever seen the video.
Well, get thee to YouTube, Kid !! At this time of year I have all my favourite Christmas songs in my YouTube history so I can just tap and listen. And I also track down my favourite Christmas TV shows like the 1973 Steptoe & Son Christmas episode (where Harold organizes a party then gets chicken pox from Albert) or the 1977 Good Life Christmas episode or Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads from Xmas 1974 which was also the very last episode...
I've got the boxed set of The Likely Lads, CJ, so I can watch the Christmas Special whenever I feel like it - or any episode in fact. The Christmas Special was a stand alone 'episode' (around 45 minutes long), so it wasn't (technically speaking) the last episode of the regular (2nd) series, which was 'The Shape of Things to Come', broadcast on April 9th 1974. The Christmas Special was shown 8 months later, on December 24th 1974. There was supposed to be a third series, but the success of the pilot episode of Porridge scuppered that, as writers Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais were suddenly otherwise occupied writing Ronnie Barker's new prison sit-com series. I believe that The Likely Lads movie in 1976 was 'sort of' a consolation prize to fans of the show.
Kid, there was also a Whatever Happened... radio series in 1975 but they were just radio versions of the TV episodes. The series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra (the digital station) just a few months ago. I didn't know a 3rd TV series was intended.
I remember listening to the radio series back in the '70s, and I've heard it since, but sometimes different actors had to be used for the radio versions than the TV ones. In some of the 'repeats' of the original '60s episodes in later years, the soundtracks of the surviving episodes were sometimes used. However, I'm not sure if the '60s TV series were ever made into radio versions back in the day.
6 comments:
He sings the song beautifully but it's not one of my favourites. Yesterday I heard about the death of Greg Lake who sang one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs - "I Believe In Father Christmas" from 1975.
The peel of a bell and that Christmas tree smell,
And eyes full of tinsel and fire.
The video has a scene of a line of camels passing in front of the setting sun with palm trees all around which really evokes images of the Nativity.
There's another song called Christmas Alphabet (by Dickie Valentine), which is the same idea as this one, CJ. I always thought that C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S. was an exclusive Jim Reeves song because I'd never heard anyone else do it. That is, until a few years ago, when I got a Rosemary Clooney (George's aunt) Christmas album, and the song was on that. Her version pre-dates Jim's, I believe. I like the way he sings it more than the actual song itself. I know the Greg Lake song, but I can't remember if I've ever seen the video.
Well, get thee to YouTube, Kid !! At this time of year I have all my favourite Christmas songs in my YouTube history so I can just tap and listen. And I also track down my favourite Christmas TV shows like the 1973 Steptoe & Son Christmas episode (where Harold organizes a party then gets chicken pox from Albert) or the 1977 Good Life Christmas episode or Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads from Xmas 1974 which was also the very last episode...
I've got the boxed set of The Likely Lads, CJ, so I can watch the Christmas Special whenever I feel like it - or any episode in fact. The Christmas Special was a stand alone 'episode' (around 45 minutes long), so it wasn't (technically speaking) the last episode of the regular (2nd) series, which was 'The Shape of Things to Come', broadcast on April 9th 1974. The Christmas Special was shown 8 months later, on December 24th 1974. There was supposed to be a third series, but the success of the pilot episode of Porridge scuppered that, as writers Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais were suddenly otherwise occupied writing Ronnie Barker's new prison sit-com series. I believe that The Likely Lads movie in 1976 was 'sort of' a consolation prize to fans of the show.
Kid, there was also a Whatever Happened... radio series in 1975 but they were just radio versions of the TV episodes. The series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra (the digital station) just a few months ago. I didn't know a 3rd TV series was intended.
I remember listening to the radio series back in the '70s, and I've heard it since, but sometimes different actors had to be used for the radio versions than the TV ones. In some of the 'repeats' of the original '60s episodes in later years, the soundtracks of the surviving episodes were sometimes used. However, I'm not sure if the '60s TV series were ever made into radio versions back in the day.
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