Popular Nostalgia

Mud’s cover of the Elvis hit was a glam rock success. Rob Davis (lead guitar) went on to write “I just can’t get you out of my head” for Kylie Minogue and “Spiller” for Groovejet. Les Gray (vocals) died in February 2004 after taking his show “Les Gray’s Mud” around the UK. Mud were big […]

This song was released in 1987. Kirsty MacColl was drafted in for the female lyrics after Cait O’Riordan left the band. MacColl was later killed in a boating accident and Katie Melua sang the part instead on a 2007 performance for Jonathan Ross. The track reached #1 in Ireland but was kept off the top […]

This song was kept off the top spot in 1984 by Band Aid’s “Do they know it’s Christmas?”. George Michael had still had input on that day and Wham! decided to donate all of the money from their song to the Band Aid appeal anyway to help mitigate the effects of the Ethiopian famine. “Last […]

This song has been sung by some of the 20th Century’s sexiest women. Santa Baby was originally sung by Eartha Kitt who delivered the sultry Christmas list with the tongue-in-cheek it deserves. Kylie Minogue and Madonna have both covered it but the beauty of its original release in 1953 was how risque it would have […]

The biggest selling track of Brenda Lee’s career is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. In 1958, when she was 13, Owen Bradley asked Lee to record a new song written by Johnny Marks, who wrote “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (Gene Autry) and “A Holly, Jolly Christmas” (Burl Ives). Lee recorded the song, in July with […]

Perry Como & The Fontane Sisters with Michell Ayres & his Orchestra released their version of the “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” on September 10, 1951. Bing Crosby also did a version and so have many other artists. The song was written in Nova Scotia and refers to a Christmas tree there in the […]

The story of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was written in 1939 by Robert L. May, a copywriter for the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward department stores, as a promotional gift for the store’s customers. May considered Rollo or Reginald before settling on Rudolph. Rudolph’s story was made into a song when May’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, developed […]

First released by Gene Autry in 1950, Frosty the Snowman was later performed by the Jackson 5 and many other artists. The first version got to number 7 in the US charts and is a perennial success. Gene Autry had previous success with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. “Frosty” was written by Steve Edward Nelson and […]

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical “Meet Me In St. Louis” – in which a family is distraught by the father’s plans to move to New York City for a job promotion, leaving behind their home in St. Louis, Missouri just before the long-anticipated Louisiana […]

It’s one of those golden oldies that gets wheeled out for four weeks of the year and results in serious torture issues for anyone working in a shop with music on repeat. Supermarket workers and Gap employees are most at risk. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge […]

This is a video of Wizzard performing the ultimate Christmas nostalgia track “I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day!” on Top of The Pops (another blast from the past since the BBC axed it a couple of years back!). If it was Christmas every day, we’d probably all be alcoholic, fat and skint, but […]

This song sums up everything nostalgic about Christmas. Christmas in Australia just wasn’t the same without chestnuts roasting on an open fire or snow glistening outside. Bing felt the same way when he sang this classic as part of the 1942 classic “Holiday Inn” and later the 1954 hit “White Christmas”: Lyrics I’m dreaming of […]

Nobody really likes them and you get them every Christmas, but somehow Ferrero Rocher exude the aspirations of middle-class housewives everywhere with their gold wrappers and ability to be stacked into pyramids. I have a friend who once mentioned that she was enjoying a particular Ferrero Rocher only to be given an entire box every […]

Every Christmas party, every year. There’s no getting away from this anthem -even if you want to. This song is twice my age and yet I’ll probably be telling my kids one day that “it was dead cool at the time”. For those who wish to sing along: Lyrics “Are you hanging up your stocking […]

I never quite understood why we had satsumas in our stockings at Christmas and oranges at the Christingle service. It may well be something to do with them being expensive in “the olden days” and so reserved for special occassions like Christmas. However, I always much preferred the sweets, chocolate and other presents inside and […]