Just to say a big thanks to everyone who has contacted me this Christmas via email, text or carrier pigeon. It really is very much appreciated and keeps me going when I wonder why the hell I'm doing this.
Merry Christmas and all the best for 2025 to you all.
Deity of choice depending, perhaps we can do it all again next year.
From the 1951 film 'The Lemon Drop Kid' comes the original version of 'Silver Bells', although the first recorded version was by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards. Once the song proved popular, Hope & Maxwell went into a studio to make their own recording.
This song has appeared once on the Calendar before, an excellent soul version by Wilson Pickett that you can hear here and I urge you to seek it out later today.
Anyone who thinks I'm running this on Day 25 this year just to crack a joke about this being the only Hope you can expect this Christmas or New Year should stop me if you see me in the street. We've probably got a lot in common and would get on well.
Enjoy your day and Merry Christmas!
The Staves are a Watford-based duo Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor - though a third sister, Emily was in the band when this was recorded - and this sad, beautiful song is ideally suited to the seasonal weltschmerz. I'll be home alone too, but more likely to watch Wallace & Gromit.
The Fab Four are a Californian Beatles tribute band who perform Carols in a real Fabs style. They've been around the Calendar a number of times, but it's a good few years since we last heard them and here they are with another track from the wonderful 'Hark' album.
Want to hear 'Sleigh Ride' in a 'Lady Madonna' style? 'The First Noel' as 'Let It Be'? 'Silent Night' as 'Norwegian Wood'? If the answer is 'yes' then this is for you. If you answered 'No' then I beg you to reconsider as that is the wrong answer.
'It Came Upon A Midnight Clear' is the final Carol on the this year's Calendar. It's also 'Baby's In Black' - and who doesn't want that?
Of course, you've heard it a million times already this year but that's because some scurrilous holiday company have purloined it for their own hideous purposes. Andy hasn't appeared on the Calendar before but he got a mention earlier on this year (See Claudine Longet) and it seems churlish to leave him off any longer, and I need him onside to spearhead my campaign to reclaim this joyous song back for Christmas.
The fight starts here, Brothers & Sisters!
Taylor Swift's 'Eras' tour may not be something that interested everyone this year, but there is no doubting the staggering cultural and socioeconomic success of a world tour that started in Arizona in March 2023 and had made over $2billion at its conclusion on December 8th this year in Vancouver.
The resulting book of the tour sold over 814,000 copies in its first two days making it the most successful book launch of the year, while Swift was also the most streamed artist of 2024 and her 'Tortured Poets Society' was the top-streamed album of the year.
It's also worth recognising that Swift gave everyone connected with the tour bonuses totalling $197 million, and while a nod might be expected for the dancers, lighting and sound staff, the rewards were just as generous to the drivers, technical staff and even the Merchandise people. This was all on top of providing generous donations to all food banks in every city she played.
While here at the Calendar we like to nibble round the crusty edges of the Christmas pie, we're not beyond looking at the big hitters from time to time, although oddly Taylor Swift's 2019 Christmas single 'Christmas Tree Farm' was only a minor hit and got no further than a peak position of 44 in the UK despite being a lot better than most similar Christmas Fayre. I'd take it over Maria Carey any day of December.
Rumours that Taylor Swift is expected to be involved in discussions on world peace next year probably cannot be discounted.
Former War on Drugs lead guitarist Vile covering what he thought was a Dylan song from Bob's 'Christmas In The Heart' album, only to find it was actually written by Hal Moore & Bill Fredricks and was originally released in 1960, in fact early UK rocker Tommy Steele had a minor hit with it a year later.
If you want to hear Dylan's version - and you really should - you can find it here on Day 4. With his daughters accompanying him on vocals, Vile makes the song an oddly affecting synth rendition.
This is the opening track on a vinyl album that I actually own called 'Rockin' Christmas: The 60s'..
Written by Howard Kaylan and Chip Douglas of The Turtles, the track was recorded by the pair one day in 1968 under a pseudonym band name. When they arrived at the studio they found fellow Turtle Mark Volman there, he was working with Byrds alumni Gram and Gene Parsons (no relation), Linda Ronstadt, Gospel singer Bessie Griffin and two members of the Modern Folk Quartet who then all came into the Kaylan / Douglas session to help out on the record.
That's a prodigious amount of talent to produce something so dull, making it something of an festive oddity.
A little cracker from Leigh Indie band The Lottery Winners.
There's just one wish on my wish list / This year I won't be alone / There ain't no star / near or far / With the power to guide you home
The third Sunday Carol of this year's Calendar finds us with U.S duo Pomplamoose, a husband and wife duo Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, performing a Carol that's not been featured before.
In the UK we'd know this better as 'Here We Come A-Wassailing', a traditional Carol from the mid-19th century. They don't wassail in California - more's the pity - and annoyingly the Video features an ad for upcoming shows so stop it after 2' 48" or better still head over to the BB Spotify page where you can listen to it unencumbered while you peel the sprouts.
...And rightly so. I think we can all appreciate Joe's intentions here but he doesn't really tell us how he is going to do it. I suppose if he buys her a present or massages her feet every day she'd be appreciative, but if he makes her eat a mince pie and baste a turkey then I think she's going to be looking for the exit by March.
We need more information.
The second Christmas Party nights of the season and if this doesn't get you on the dancefloor doing your funky stuff then you need to book in to see your doctor.
The Louisiana Blues Brothers are Tyree Neal, Pokey and Adrian Bager and here they promise that Santa is looking for those that are naughty 'he don't want no nice' so that's good news for most of us then.
Ghostface - or Dennis Coles as his mum shouts out when she calls him in for his tea - is a rapper with the Wu-Tang Clan so you might expect his X-mas might be a cynical denouncement of the season and include the type of Ho-Ho-Ho's you'll not hear from the Santa you saw earlier this week at the Co-op.
But you'd be wrong.
In fact, 'Ghostface X-Mas' might have the most seasonal sentiments of any song on this year's calendar. Set to a sample of 'Carol of the Bells', the whole thing sings with lines like 'Smell the pinetrees in the air', 'Snowmen, snowflakes, cinnamon cakes', 'Wooden soldiers and chestnuts' and 'Cookies and milk on the mantle / the mistletoe, that scent from the peppermint candles'. I mean, you could give this to Bing or Sinatra and they'd be happy with the emotion of it all.
Even when 'ol Killah says at one point 'Ghost knows when you be sleeping / Ghost knows when you awake' it sounds more of a promise than a threat.
In fact the only thing that might cause consternation is the line 'That warm French vanilla / Mean coat with zippers / Bearskin robe dragon with Versace slippers' as it might be confusing to those of us who get our dressing gown and slippers from Next.
Wu-Tang for the children? Well, perhaps.
Percy Sledge, who left this world in 2015, was of course, the man who brought us the classic 'When a Man Loves a Woman' and he's in fine voice here on a gorgeous song that implores 'May every man be your brother'.
That seems a decent wish any season of the year.
Californian rockers Green Day on the type of seasonal headbanger you'd probably expect.
The former Ronald Wycherley - as his mum knew him - has a Christmas prayer from 1959, and if you didn't know it was from the 50s then the girlie backing singing 'Bong' at the end of every line might give you a clue.
Among the many strange turns this Calendar has taken over the eighteen years we've had until it was old enough to vote is one rule - now fortunately fallen by the wayside - that each year had to have one version of 'White Christmas' on it.
Even amongst the insanity of those early years though, we never had anything quite this bonkers. This is the Christopher Lee - Hammer Dracula, Saruman etc - singing (and I use the word loosely there) a Heavy Metal Christmas version of the old Bing classic.
The weird thing is that as it starts you think 'Oh no, surely not? Please!...' but after a couple of minutes you're shaking your head and flipping rock signs to your neighbours. No? Just me then...
For reference, Heavy Metal Christmas also features a version of 'The Little Drummer Boy' and - wait for it! - there is also a 'Heavy Metal Too' featuring more festive nonsense, a 'Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing' version of 'Hark, The Herald Angels' and a full non-Christmas related concept album, but I'll leave you to investigate that.
This whole thing has reminded me that when I was a younger man working in the glittering West End of London I once passed Christopher Lee in Berkeley Square. I can confirm, he was very tall, very imposing, and definitely not a man you'd approach for a chat.
Rock on Scaramanga!
It's the first shopping Saturday of the season and time for another Blagg GOFGOF (Get One Free, Get One Free). This one involves the strange story of Claudine Longet.
Longet, now 82, is a Parisian-born Franco-American singer and actress who appeared in many huge hit U.S. TV shows and films in the 1960s, at her peak starring alongside Peter Sellers in the box-office hit 'The Party'. She was also a very successful recording artist, frequenting the U.S. Billboard chart on many occasions and earning a Gold disc for her 1967 debut album 'Claudine'.
In 1975 however, Longet's career came crashing down when she was arrested for the murder of her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir Sabich.
In her defence at the trial, Longet claimed that the gun accidentally discharged as she was being shown how to use it, but the prosecution claimed that she was nearly 6ft from Sabich at the time and the skier had been bending down.
Procedural mistakes by the defence team barred the trial from hearing some further evidence and Longet was eventually found guilty of negligent homicide and ordered to pay a fine and spend 30 days in jail of her own choosing. She chose to go in at weekends.
Interestingly, the singer was supported throughout by her ex-husband Andy Williams who paid for her defence and even drove her to court every day. Williams famously said of his ex-wife "She's the mother of my children and we never stopped being friends".
Following the criminal trial, the Sabich family sued Longet via a civil case and an undisclosed settlement was made out of court with the added proviso that the singer never discuss the killing or the settlement. Since then Longet has maintained a completely private profile.
'I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You' is a December 1967 release of a song written by Margo Guryan, the writer taking ten years to release her own version. It's since been covered by St. Etienne (1998) and then in 2013 by the Scottish Indie band The Garlands.
I'd intended on just adding Claudine's version for its gorgeous mid-60s pop feel but The Garlands have added an Indie zing to it and I couldn't choose between the two. This could very well have been a three-hander as St Etienne's version is very good too, but I'll let you chase that one down.
I'm not doing all the heavy lifting here.
Claudine Longet:
The Garlands:
Talking of parties, it's Friday and the first party night of the season, so here's a bit of Keith Sweat for that chilled out Soul / R'n'B type thang.
I pride myself on the Calendar research I do here at the new Blagg Acres, but I must admit I'm confused by this one.
There was a Harmony Sisters from the mid-1930s, a Finnish vocal group who were very popular all over Europe at the time, but who don't seem - as far as I can see - to have recorded any Christmas swing records.
Similarly, there is a later band of the same name who formed in 2002 to tour with the Bill Blanchard Little Big Band but who don't seem - visually at least - to be the same group here.
The blurb from this suggests that these girls are singing 'lost songs from World War II' (not to be confused with the one we're planning for next year!) found after an 'estate sale' and I'm assuming the ladies concerned are the ones pictured on the YouTube page. But I'm just suspicious of the whole thing. Have we really only just 'discovered' songs from the 1940s? This seems highly unlikely. If they are new songs done in a 40s swing-style then I'm happy enough about it, but I just want to know.
I'm sensing some sort of trap here.
I think given the song's title and the ladies concerned, they are thinking I'm going to channel my 1980s Christmas-party inner Gregg Wallace and say something totally inappropriate about attractive women and mistletoe. But I'm too smart to get myself cancelled like that. Far too smart.
Anyway, you enjoy the excellent close harmonies and toe-tapping swing while I find my hair net. This Roast Guinea Fowl and Truffle won't sample itself, you know.
Born in 1912, Samuel John 'Lightnin'' Hopkins was an America country blues singer, songwriter and guitarist who has recorded more blues albums than any other artist and is considered a primary influence on rock guitarists from the 60s on.
In 'Santa' Hopkins promises that if we 'take our stocking and hang it up on the bed, In the morning Santa Claus gon' see that we all is fed'.
Seems fair enough to me.
Molly Burch is a Californian Singer/Songwriter with a penchant for songs about heartbreak and loss - right up my avenue - and I discovered her Christmas album late last year and spent a lot of time playing 'Holiday Dreaming' as I love it's restrained groove and plaintive guitar sound. I was looking forward to hearing it again this season, hoping it would have the same effect and I'm pleased to report it made me feel so festive I went into the kitchen searching for the Stilton, crackers and truffle honey.
There wasn't any. More heartbreak and loss.
As regulars here know - and I'm certainly including those two people in China that site stats say visit every year - Day One on the Calendar normally involves something of a more seasonal offering rather than an outright Christmas record, to help ease those who refuse to have anything to do with the Yuletide spirit until at least the 16th of the month.
But those same regulars will also know that another utterly pointless self-imposed Calendar rule is that Sundays have to be a Carol, so I'm starting off this year with one that hasn't appeared here before but also something that won't tax too many: a UK No. 4 hit back in 1975.
This used to be something of a staple on the radio years ago, but it doesn't get so much airplay now, and it's odd to think that there will be Millennials and Gen Z'ers out there playing this via Virgin mobile, while ordering their Christmas wine from Virgin and booking their holiday to the US on Boxing Day via Virgin airlines, paying via their Virgin savings, oblivious to the fact that Richard Branson's company virtually owes its very existence to this bloke.
For real Nerds - and, yea I'm looking at you! - the flip side** of the single was a twee, but utterly charming Christmassy effort called 'On Horseback' that also appeared as a hidden track on Oldfield's 'Ommadawn' album.
** Please note I am not going to explain terms like 'Vinyl', 'Flip side', 'B Side' etc. Ask your Grandad. He wants to hear from you anyway.
