Day 11 - We Three Kings Of Orient Are / O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Ella Fitzgerald

This Sunday's carol(s) come from the album 'Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas', although there's little swinging about these two Yuletide favourites that Fitzgerald delivers in that honey smooth way that she made her own. Gorgeous.

Day 10 - This Christmas - Donny Hathaway

There are a myriad number of versions of this modern standard out there but the original is the best. From 1970, when it bombed spectacularly, it was composed by Hathaway himself with Nadine McKinnor. The years have been kind to it however and it's just a shame the composer never received the plaudits in his lifetime, Hathaway passing away at the criminally young age of 33 in 1979 as a result of suicide.

This is another of those tracks that keeps getting pulled from YouTube and it's been hard to find the individual track although - for reasons I'm too dense to understand - the full Hathaway Christmas album is easily listenable too on the same medium. 

I'll keep searching but, in the meantime, here's the original label to get you all excited. No? Just me then...

Day 9 - Silver Bells - Wilson Pickett

It's Christmas party night and this cracker from the 'Wicked Pickett' appears on YouTube under the heading 'Music For Shagging'. The fact I'm listening to it in my underpants with a glass of kummel and a cat laying on my keyboard, tells you much about how my life rolls nowadays.

This is an absolute stormer from the legendary Atlantic label artist; and if you do get lucky tonight then please feel free to let me know. It's all part of the Calendar service.

Day 8 - Bright Star In The East - Billy Taylor & David Frost

'David Frost? THE David Frost? What madness have you foisted on us this year Blagg', I hear you ask.

Well, Billy Taylor was Frost's musical sidekick when the latter hosted his own huge show on U.S. TV for four years in the early seventies. Frost was the famous Englishman who had made his name with satirical comedy on the BBC before becoming a hard-hitting political interviewer in America, while Taylor was a well-respected jazz musician in his home country, although relatively unknown in the UK.

This track is from an album called 'From David Frost and Billy Taylor, Merry Christmas' and is considered something of a lost festive masterpiece.

The fascinating story of the album can be found here 'Classic Christmas Album You've Never Heard Of'

Meanwhile, hear the mellifluous tones of Frost as he introduces this bass and piano driven, jazz groove.

Day 7 - It's Christmas So We'll Stop - Frightened Rabbit

Selkirk based Indie darlings, the horribly monikered Frightened Rabbit, have tapped into that desolate, wintry Yuletide feel that many of their countryman seem to manage with some ease - see Glasvegas in 2008 and 2009 as a good example.

[We] Are built to give at least once each year / And that's better than never I guess /
And life might never get better than this' apparently because 'the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues'.

Best stick to the Whisky, lads...

Day 6 - Santa's Messin' With The Kid - Eddie C. Campbell

Good God! Don't let the Daily Mail know or we'll be Brexiting Christmas by next July.

Christmas At Blagg Acres

Day 5 - Rock 'n' Roll Christmas - George Thorogood and the Destroyers

Storming seasonal Rocker that should get you jivin' up to the loft to get the acrylic reindeer out. Play loud.

Day 4 - Silent Night - Leonard Cohen & Jennifer Warnes

The first Sunday in this year's calendar and self-imposed rules say it has to be a carol.

This was recorded live in Brighton in December 1979; any other information is superfluous.

RIP Leonard

Day 3 - We Need Christmas Now More Than Any Other Year - Byrdie Green

As I understand it, general scientific theory tells us we can only time travel if we travel faster than light or we lurk about next to a black hole. Well, I dispute that.

For surely, Byrdie Green slipped through some wormhole in space in 1973 and saw what was in store for us all in 2016. 

Stranger still, flip this single on the wonderfully named Penda Mungu label and you'll find the same song spoken / rapped by Ms Green pre-empting the Sugar Hill Gang's 'Rappers Delight' by about six years.

Anyone got Steven Hawking's number?

A side:

B Side: 

Day 2 - Last Christmas On Planet Earth - Palma Violets

After everything 2016 had in store who's to say Lambeth's very own Palma Violets haven't caught the zeitgeist? 

'Don't write to Santa and don't pray to Jesus' as 'Rudolph got shot down over Georgia'

Fear not Yuletide fans, the antidote is coming on Day 3...

Day 1 - Walking In The Air - The Maccabees

What better way to start the 2016 Calendar and the annual 'festive but not exactly a Christmas song' tune, than with a seasonal nod to the old Aled Jones 1985 hit. I mean we all love Aled, don't we? DON'T WE?

Of course there will always be those who say it's all too early but the Good Lady Blagg was actually chopping the Brussels for the Christmas dinner today - I'm not kidding! - while Ziggy the Cat (of whom more later) played with those dropped on the floor. So it's on its way and you may as well go with it.

To be fair to the Macca's anyway, this is actually a really surprising version. Join it a minute in and you'd probably struggle to recognise what it actually is. 

And if the whole thing makes you feel stupidly seasonal and and you want to try and celebrate by going off to find when the Maccabees are going to be coming to your town next, then hurry. The band announced they were to break up after 14 years last August and their farewell tour starts next spring.

December 2016

2016

2016