Eight million billion may be too many children for Santa. “The Grinch’s Dream” by The Yev is happy fantasy from The Mean One about Christmas interruptus.
Noelle Rose has pretty mundane dreams: trees, snow, fa la la la. Is her dull pop “Christmas Dream” an illusion, or a Target commercial?
The “Christmas Dream” of the Tartan Lads is of home. The heath, the heather, the weather… ’tis Scotland! Jesus is name-dropped as well.
What is he dreaming? asks the Christmas Choir with Murgatroyd & Burrell. Well, in “Teddie’s Christmas Wishes” the stuffy wants a… friend! New age kidsong.
Isaac Nightingale (Вадим Капустин)’s “Christmas Dream,” on the other hand, is pictures in his mind. This jazz lounge journey has a bit more suspense.
Ah my late father Stewart Ross of Inverness wrote The Christmas Dream (C) MCPS/PRS etc. I still have the original lyrics he worked out. Just to say, it was 1977, you had punk then you had slush.. Ironically, Mull of Kintyre came out that year which is just as cheesy and sentimental, but sold a couple of million more copies than the Tartan Lads. ‘The Christmas Dream’ still sold quite well for an independent Scottish release, just into the tens of thousands, and was played annually for decades on Tartan music shows. There is a horrible monologue bit with a heavenly backing singer warbling away. My father wrote it to be sung, but they did that to it. He was always singing about being far from home (he wrote lyrics to the Dark Island, and a song called My Bonnie Maureen etc.). He’d never been further than touring England, or doing national service, so it was an ability to think himself into the role of emigrant. He also wrote a whisky song which went on to over 40 heather and haggis releases ‘Here’s To Scottish Whisky’, and didn’t drink the stuff!
Cheers to your Da’. There’s a charm to The Tartan Lads that recalls Midwestern Scandihoovian hoe downs; it’s heartwarming and sweet. Not like that raucous Irish Cabaret stuff filtered down for the States. You should chronicle your father’s career into a biography, sounds full up. I’ve always loved the Christmas Number One tradition across the pond, we’ve nothing specialized like that here. Then you mentioned Wings and their definitely non-holiday fluff that won in ’77. [Note that in the USA no one’s heard of that song.] I see That ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ also won their respective years. Seems that up until LadBaby’s novelty grip on the competition of late, it’s been a lot of secular hooha. Thanks for the background check up.