Football Forum | Ticket Forum | Off-Topic Forum | All

Coffee 11:38 Tue Dec 14
Re: Day 14 - Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day - Brenda Lee

I'd imagine that one hits home for many people.

Thanks, Billy.

Billy Blagg 2:13 Tue Dec 14
Day 14 - Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day - Brenda Lee

Brenda 'Little Miss Dynamite' Lee had a 1958 hit with 'Rocking' Around the Christmas Tree' aged just 13. Although the song sold poorly on its initial release and didn't fare much better when re-released a year later, the song went on to have a longevity that far exceeded anyone's expectations. Brenda's version alone has since sold 25 million copies - and that was before anyone else covered it - ensuring writer Johnny Marks never had to worry too much about where the presents were going to come from any Christmas after. Not that he was probably that bothered; he'd already written a song for Gene Autry called 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'. Brenda, now a sprightly 77-year-old, lives in Nashville with her husband of 55 years.

Now you think after all that I'd point you to the 1958 hit, but you know what a festive curmudgeon I am and I much prefer this 1963 bitter denouncement of the season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wEgXN4MgQU

Syd Puddefoot 12:56 Mon Dec 13
Re: Day 13 - Christmas Coming - Alton Ellis

Watching the vid just realised (a bit slowme) where 13 Brentford Road got his user name from.

Block 12:04 Mon Dec 13
Re: Day 13 - Christmas Coming - Alton Ellis

absolutely love this

Billy Blagg 11:59 Mon Dec 13
Day 13 - Christmas Coming - Alton Ellis

From the Queen of Country to Studio One in Trench Town, Jamaica to hear the man dubbed 'The Grandfather of Rocksteady'

Come on! What a link eh?

Better get your Christmas breeze / Better get your rice and peas

Oooh yeah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S4wE-NH2eM

Coffee 8:02 Sun Dec 12
Re: Day 12 - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Tammy Wynette

Read the second para.

meat curtains 7:55 Sun Dec 12
Re: Day 12 - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Tammy Wynette

What's the problem Coffee?..

Cheers Billy

Coffee 6:19 Sun Dec 12
Re: Day 12 - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Tammy Wynette

Oh dear.

Billy Blagg 3:46 Sun Dec 12
Day 12 - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Tammy Wynette

This Sunday's Carol - making its first appearance on the Calendar - comes courtesy of the First Lady of Country Music, with a track from her 1970 'Christmas with Tammy' album. It's exactly what you'd be expecting and all the more wonderful for it.

Of course, Ms. Wynette made her talent first known at a Nativity service in her hometown of Tremont, Mississippi when dressed as an 8-year-old shepherd, she picked up the nearest sheep and, astonished the watching parents with a song of her own called 'Stand By Your Lamb'

Ay-thank-yew **

Don't forget I'm here till Christmas Day, tell all your friends and - please! - try the fish.

(** See day 6. And you think I throw this thing together?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89j5VMp_COE

Coffee 12:42 Sat Dec 11
Re: Day 11

So what if I've heard it a million times before, it still makes me want to listen again - particularly as all listens, previous and future, are about eleven months apart.

Good work, as always, Senor Blagg!

Billy Blagg 12:36 Sat Dec 11
Day 11

Just a reminder to please visit the web page at https://blaggadventcalendarchristmassongs2021.blogspot.com/

It's massive every year you go!

Billy Blagg 2:11 Fri Dec 10
Day 10 - Funky Funk Christmas - Electric Jungle

It's Friday night so time for your party groove - well, assuming you've been triple-jabbed and you're wearing your mask and hazmat suit anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJM2Fl4-EI

meat curtains 5:01 Thu Dec 9
Re: Day 9 - The Little Drummer Boy - Sparks

Another letdown.. Standards are dropping.

norwaytips 3:10 Thu Dec 9
Re: Day 9 - The Little Drummer Boy - Sparks

Bloody hell, Blagg. I’d have shot the drummer.
😂😂🔫🔫😂😂

Billy Blagg 2:08 Thu Dec 9
Day 9 - The Little Drummer Boy - Sparks

Who'd have thought that 2021 would end up being a big year for Sparks? But thanks to Edgar Wright (Baby Driver / Hot Fuzz / Shaun of the Dead) and his critically-acclaimed 'The Sparks Brothers' film Ron and Russell Mael seem to have found a whole new audience. This is from the wonderfully titled 'Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins' album.

I still loath the song though.

*See Day 21 2009 calendar for my Little Drummer Boy rant*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsK_Fkhaj4

Syd Puddefoot 4:12 Wed Dec 8
Re: Day 8 - Rockin' n' Rollin' with Santa Claus - The Hepsters

So Blagg was the writer the Dave Clark of Dave Clark Five fame?

Billy Blagg 2:08 Wed Dec 8
Day 8 - Rockin' n' Rollin' with Santa Claus - The Hepsters

Recorded in Chicago in 1955, here are The Hepsters from Ohio with a festive Doo-Wop scorcher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75cx9RBu-Bg

Billy Blagg 2:39 Tue Dec 7
Day 7 - Christmas in Fife - The Skids

It's July 18th - the hottest day of the year - and my phone tings to let me know I have a Facebook message. It's from my old sparring partner Ged from the golden days of WestHamOnline. "Blagg, I've got a Christmas song for the Calendar," he says.

That dodgy guy Bruce / Sold us a goose / But naebody kens how to cook it / It's running loose / All over the hoose / And hiding in her new jacket

And so it begins...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlHt9O4RdfE

Haz 8:19 Mon Dec 6
Re: Day 6 - I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus - Arthur Askey

Good morning Billy. Hope that you are bearing up, mate! I'm enjoying you latest festive offerings as usual!

Billy Blagg 2:24 Mon Dec 6
Day 6 - I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus - Arthur Askey

Hello Playmates!

Nobody can accuse this Calendar of not being cutting edge. 'Before your very eyes' here's 'big-hearted' Arthur, born in 1900, with a recording made in 1939 about meeting a young lad who was sending a letter to Santa Claus asking for his 'soldier daddy' to return safely home at a time when that might have been a precarious hope. When Askey sings of how it reminds him of when he made a similar wish in a 'bygone happy year' you realise he might have been thinking of his own father in 1914-18.

It sort of puts worries about Omicron into perspective.

Askey was a stalwart in British comedy from the 1930's onward and had attained legendary status by his latter years, performing well into the 70's being awarded a OBE in 1969, and progressing to a CBE in 1981

Despite its age, 'Letter to Santa Claus' is still strangely moving.

Ay-thang-yew! **

(** Younger listeners might need to see Google for some of these references)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIa6uL8EP2U

Billy Blagg 6:54 Sun Dec 5
Re: Day 5 - Deck The Halls / We Three Kings - Beat Dominator

meat curtains 3:12 Sun Dec 5
The Annies are Country meat and you didn't like that. Still, don't worry I'll probably unearth a 'my wife has run off with my kids, my horse, and my dawg' tearjerker by Christmas Day.

Prev - Page 2 - Next