I only loosely plan this Calendar and I often find - particularly this year - I have about ten songs pencilled in that get moved back and back and then eventually drop off.
Nevertheless, I'll have to admit this year's Day 25 was probably decided back on 13th January when I lost my mum. She loved Cliff, saw him on many occasions (once I took her), had many of his albums, books and, as I discovered in February, had kept every one of his calendars that I bought her for the last umpteen years.
Like a lot of people her age she never really understood the Internet and web sites but always asked every December 'Are you doing that song thing again?' Well, yes Doll, I am and this is for you.
A first on the Calendar - not the song itself, that was Day 24 in 2007 by The Pretenders and Day 25 in 2009 by Judy Garland - rather this is the first time I've really wanted a particular song on the list and looked for a suitable version instead of finding the song first.
Even in happier times this has always made me reach for some water to swallow something hard and jagged and this year the lyrics - new or old - seem hugely prescient. I felt strongly this song needed to feature again this year.
Actually, there's a fascinating story about the lyrics to this as they originally read 'Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we will all be living in the past'. Judy Garland who was singing it in the film 'Meet Me in St Louis' objected to the tone of the song - calling it 'too depressing' - and, begrudgingly, songwriter Hugh Martin changed it to the beautiful 'Someday soon we all will be together / If the fates allow / Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow'.
Frank Sinatra later decided to record the song for his first Christmas album and asked Martin to change the lyrics again for a more upbeat outlook. Probably now realising the worth of the composition would certainly mean he and his family would never need to work again, Martin obliged a little more willingly this time and changed them to 'Hang a shining star upon the highest bough'.
Torn on which version to chose, I'm eventually going for '2 for 1' deal. Perhaps more in keeping with the spirit of the Calendar, I'm featuring First Aid Kit's stark, bitter version
But I'm also backing it up with the sumptuous, heart-melting tone of Karen Carpenter - my Go To version - for the second.
Ignoring the first draft of Hugh Martin's lyrics, I'm hoping everyone reading this embraces the second, and manages the third.
I had a beautiful Carol lined up for the last Sunday of Advent but then we had yesterday evening's news and I thought '**** it', I'm never gonna see anyone ever again, so let's rock it out with just the right amount of menace to see us all in hell.
Annoyingly, the song seems to have been pulled from YouTube but you can listen to it on Spotify. If the video reappears I'll let you know.
Neil Innes - the ex-Bonzo and Rutle man who we lost just a few days after last Christmas - with a song from 1975's Rutland Weekend Christmas special. It's very Seventies...
The exquisite Lana Del Ray joins host Kacey Musgraves on the 1943 Bing Crosby original and almost makes you forget that this is the third party Friday of Advent and you're still indoors.
I was going to take this opportunity to make some satirical jokes about Boris Johnson adopting this song for the Nation, but this is so beautiful, I don't want to contaminate it.
Little Known Blagg Fact: Blagg Jnr has a chicken named Kacey after the Grammy Award winner.
'Really Blagg? After 14 years?' I hear you cry. Well, yes, I know but listen...
Firstly there is a brand new Official Animated Video to go with the song which is really worth watching and, I think, even adds a bit of long-forgotten sparkle to a chestnut so old we've forgotten why it was great in the first place, and secondly, in this particular year I have a strange tale to tell.
It will take some time so - if you have other things to do - I'll understand and I'm happy for you to leave. However, if you want to help me get to the bottom of a puzzle that has fuddling my brain since July then stick around.
To begin with I need to explain that I have been fastidious in looking after my records since I bought my first 45rpm back when the world was black and white. I regard my record collection as I would an old photograph album, a diary or an almanac. I can chart my life through my vinyl and I have never thought of it as less than a valued collection. When I left my first marriage it was the only thing I took with me. It has never been in the loft or the garage; always in my lounge but usually hidden behind a tasteful Ikea cabinet. Bowed shelves open to dust don't figure in my world.
The next thing to understand is I put the A into Anal. All the albums are filed alphabetically but the singles are in boxes in the order in which I bought them. If you asked me if I have, say, Bowie's 'Starman', I can pull out the appropriate box and go to roughly where it is in the box and locate it immediately because I know what label it's on and what colour the sleeve is.
Yea, I'm THAT bloke! *Back behind the velvet rope please, Ladies*
When lockdown was announced in March I decided what I would do is work my way through my albums, playing them all in order. I started with ABC's 'Lexicon of Love' on 16th March and, by complete coincidence, played The Zombies 'Odessey & Oracle' on July 4th. I can't say for certain what it was that made me feel uncomfortable after I'd finished this little trial, but I couldn't shrug off the idea that I'd missed something out. Then later in July it struck me.
'The Roy Wood Story' is a double album on the Harvest label that charts the man's musical career from his days with the Mike Sheridan Lot through The Move and onto ELO, Wizzard and a solo career. To be honest, it's an album of diminishing returns with all The Move stuff being great, some good singles from ELO and Wizzard and some solo stuff of dubious quality.
On the third side however is the ubiquitous 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' which meant that, if nothing else, the LP came out at least once a year every December. However, I now realised that this album was missing. It was certainly played at Christmas 2017, I can actually remember playing it late one evening, but following the passing of Lady B I certainly didn't feel the sentiments of the song and didn't pull it out in 2018 or 2019.
Now this is a vinyl album here; it's not a set of keys tossed in a drawer or a mislaid pen or pair of glasses. It can only be in one place and that is in my record cabinet. Except it's not. I'd played everything in order anyway so I knew I hadn't misfiled it but, of course, I pulled the whole lot out again and checked. Twice. Three times...Four - aw hell, you know don't you?
The fact is it's not there and there's no-one been in this house to take it. So bad did it get, I eventually decided I needed to replace it. Fortunately, buying a pristine copy on eBay from a bloke who obviously loves his vinyl as I do (except he sells his, of course) got me over the worst of the shakes, but it's still not dispelled the notion that there is something very odd here because I can come to only one conclusion and it's something I will never be able to check.
I have to assume for one reason or another, Lady B did something with it. Why? What for? And where is it? Even as I write it, it sounds preposterous - she never showed the slightest interest in my interest and I wouldn't have thought, had anyone asked, she'd even had known I owned it. But there's a nagging feeling I'm missing something beyond the actual album here and I fear I'll never know what it is. Help please!
And just to thank you for humouring me while I go slowly insane, here's an extra for you as the daughters of the Beach Boys Brian Wilson and John and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas attempt a U.S. styled version of Roy Wood's opus.
Mind you, you're unlikely to thank me after listening to it.
As if you didn't love Dolly Parton enough, she then does something even more wonderful ...Wait? What's that? She donated $1m towards a Coronavirus vaccine? No, No, I'm talking about the fact that not only did she release a Christmas album but she called it - wait for it! - a Holly Dolly Christmas! How has it taken so long?
Unfortunately, that is the end of the good news as I find most of it a bit too twee - and I'm a man who likes a Christmas Twee (Groan!) - and it's rather too full of that rather tacky Vegas-style stuff including that breathy talking style that no-one really wants. There's nothing here to compare to Calendar 8 / Day 16 'Hard Candy Christmas' sadly.
So I'll leave you with 'Christmas Is' - one of the better tracks - where Ms P is feat'ed with Miley Cyrus but urge you to click on the 'Hard Candy' link too
How'd ya like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? / How'd ya like to spend a holiday away across the sea? / How'd ya like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island? / How'd ya like to hang your stocking on a great big coconut tree?
Well, Tough!
You're in Tier 3 now m'lad so pull that mask up, put those plastic gloves back on and get inside - and I don't wanna see you outside your front lawn again until at least Good Friday.
The Maine hail from Arizona and in 2008 released an EP called '...And a Happy New Year' from which comes 'Ho Ho Hopefully'. There's an official video version but the sound is better on the EP for some reason.
'Ho Ho Hopefully this holiday will make us believe that / We're exactly where we're supposed to be'
Back in 2010 I managed to blag a couple of tickets to a recording of the Jonathan Ross show. On the bill that night were Al Green - not singing sadly, but in full Reverend mode - actor Tom Hardy, some people from 'Glee' - who knows? - and the Scissor Sisters.
It's fair to say the good lady was most impressed by Tom Hardy while I was just in awe of being in the same space as Al Green. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Wow! Al Green? I mean, AL GREEN! Can you believe it?"
Lady B: "He was dull but Tom Hardy? phwoarr"
Me: "Oh come on he was just rabbiting on about his 'craft' - but, seriously, Al Green?"
Lady B: "I didn't come here to see a vicar. But Tom Hardy I'd travel a long way to look at"
Me: "Eh? Al Green! Al - fecking - GREEN! 'Let's stay Together'? 'Tired of Being Alone'?
Lady B: "Who cares? But Tom Hardy... oh yes!"
This continued not only all the way home but raised its head regularly over the months and years and went the full distance whenever it did.
Now it seems a tad unfair to claim a victory by dint of being the last one standing, but rest assured if I could run upstairs with this fantastic, goosebump inducing track and play it to her now, it would be:
"SEE? I told ya - Al Green!"
Still, at least I don't have to imagine what her reply would have been.
Another party night, another night staring at the wall. Time, I think, for a Blagg Calendar staple, the Christmas novelty record.
There'll be after meal dozing / And arteries closing / Cholesterol levels will grow / It's too cold to go jogging / Too brisk for tobogganing / So pass me a hot buttered roll
The Dap-Kings were a funk / soul revivalist band who recorded in a ten-year period from 1996 until 2006, before Jones herself gained late career success with a Grammy-nominated R'n'B album in 2014, sadly having little time to enjoy her breakthrough when succumbing to cancer in 2016 at the age of 60.
One for you fact-fans out there: the Dap-Kings featured the wonderfully-monikered Binky Griptite (real name Franklin D. Stribling - I kid ye not!) who made a famous appearance here on the 7th Calendar back in the good old days of 2013.
Here we're reminded of 2020's other big storyline with a nicely festive video to go with it
Today, I scattered my parents ashes in the garden of the home they shared for 60 odd years. A small socially-distanced gathering of masked family and neighbours, I couldn't help but wonder what they would have made of the scene had they seen it.
My father passed away last November and I paid a tribute to him here last year when I posted a photo of him as Father Christmas at the local church where he served as Santa for many years.
Santa Bert
I mentioned he was something of a skinny Santa - although the kids didn't seem to mind - but didn't dedicate a song to him as there wasn't really anything Christmas-y that I could really associate with him.
A few days later one of my best friends sent me this song. It was too late for inclusion last year, but today seems a good day to post it.
J.D. McPherson sounds like he might be from the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll but Jonathan David - as his Mother knows him - was actually born the same year that the Clash released their first single (How old does that make you feel?) but records in a retro rockabilly 1950s style.
This has real Bill Haley feel with a great sax break. I'm not sure my Dad would like it - his musical taste didn't move much beyond Classical and a bit of Sinatra - but I think he'd appreciate the sentiment.
Oh yea, that Santa suit with the 32" waistline? I was wearing it on Friday night for a Zoom meeting!
Regulars will know by now that a Sunday window means a Christmas Carol so, all the way from Chesapeake, Virginia come indie-folk band The Last Bison with a gorgeous rendition of the 1914 Carol based on an old Ukrainian chant.
Hackney's finest on a mesmerising version of a tune you probably didn't think you'd have much time for, but now strangely do. Joey Gadsden's vocals turn Aled's old chestnut into a haunting, bleak apocalypse of a Christmas.
Autoheart - then knows as The Gadsdens - first came to prominence with the beautiful The Sailor Song - one, if not the best song (the video is brilliant too) from 2013; it got a lot of airplay on 6Music but didn't make the band as rich and famous as they deserved.
Two excellent albums followed and there was always a sense the lads - Gadsen, Simon Neilson and Barney JC - just needed a break to make the next step up, but things then went very quiet for a long time before the wonderful Wretch appeared on their web site just after Christmas 2019. There was hopes of more songs and some appearances somewhere in the following months, before 2020 clanged the bars down on us and, understandably, it's all gone quiet again.
There's no YouTube for 'Walking' but follow this to their SoundCloud page and seek out their other tracks while you're there.
Back in the day, any Friday in Advent would mean Christmas party night and a chance to get to know the delectable Mavis in Accounts a bit better (You'll understand my Christmas parties ended in 1988 when such things were allowed).
On the Calendar, we usually salute the evening with a slow groove thang, but this year Mavis is firmly in Tier 3 and, actually, so are you. So, as you'll have to do your thang socially-distanced, here's (surprisingly) Germany's Soul Saints Orchestra with a funky soul tune that should ensure you wave your arms wildly enough to keep everyone - yep, even Mavis - the obligatory 2 metres away.
'Love you in my way / Ever since I met you back in May' sings our Macy before adding that's she's 'Been a good girl / Santa promised me whatever I want.'
I just hope it wasn't coming from Debenhams, eh?
It's all heart-warming stuff with a storming back-beat and comes from an album called 'Christmas Calling'. It's passed me by previously but I think is going to keep me up to the early hours tonight.
Well, I got a better response to Day 1 than I've had any year since I started this thing, and any normal, self-respecting blogger would now try to up the ante. But, of course, this is the calendar that celebrates all aspects of the season, and anyway you know what a cantankerous old b'stard I am so you just knew something like this was on the horizon, didn't you?
It's Christmas time and everything's wrong / All our belongings are out on the lawn / the wait for the breadline is four blocks long
I know nothing of Man of Arms and can discover even less but I know at 1:34 he doesn't outstay his festive welcome.
Regulars here at the Calendar will know I often start Day 1 off with a seasonal opener rather than an outright Christmas record. "It all starts too early" moan some.
Well, of course, that doesn't apply this year. You've all been baking bread, mixing puddings and testing mince pie recipes since April; the decorations went up in September and the cards were all written by Bonfire Night. In fact, my local Homebase sold out of Christmas Trees just after August Bank Holiday Monday.
So here's Glenn and his men with a seasonal stormer from 1941 - a crisis was a real crisis in them days! - and if this doesn't get the stragglers up in the loft by mid-afternoon then I'm from Kalamazoo.
Plenty of versions out there but this one has the original His Master's Voice Bluebird label pictured and, please note what it says on the label - 'always use RCA Victor needles'. My guess is that is a reference to your Phonograph player and not a suggestion for next year's mass inoculations but, then again, with Matt Hancock in charge, who can say?
