I really don’t listen to much music radio anymore. So I cannot say for certain whether my posts get radio airplay. I know some of the contemporary Christian artists appear on Christian radio (but even then, unless you’re a bigger name or band, airplay is limited).
What I’m willing to bet is on stations that play “popular” Christmas music, the songs I’m featuring aren’t playing.
Anyway, the reason for the digression is a couple years ago both Chrissie Hynde and Nick Lowe released Christmas music (Hynde’s was a single – Lowe’s an album). If these are in a heavy rotation, please accept my apologies. If not, two great tunes from two great artists to follow.
Hynde of course gets regular Christmas airplay for 2000 Miles (a song she wrote and released in 1983 when she was with The Pretenders). In 2010 she teamed up with JP Jones and a band called The Fairground Boys and released one record, Fidelity. The song I’m featuring from that record tonight is “Christmas Soon.” It was a bonus track on that CD.
“Christmas Soon” is not a happy song. It’s about a couple at odds with each other who call a truce for Christmas. It’s an outstanding tune. (BTW, Hynde re-recorded 2000 Miles in 2014 – link here.)
Nick Lowe of course gets regular airplay for Cruel To Be Kind and probably three or four others tunes. In 2013 he released a Christmas record (Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All The Family). In the studio, Lowe set out to make a non-Christmasy record (for lack of a better term). “We tried to make it a sleighbell-free zone,” Lowe said in a media release. Quality Street is not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s a solid holiday release and if you’re a Nick Lowe fan, you’ll like this record.
I’ll be featuring “A Dollar Short of Happy” from that record tonight. The song is co-written with Ry Cooder and is cleverly interspersed with Silver Bells and Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song.
Christmas Soon
A Dollar Short Of Happy
Tom's Christmas Music Blog 