We all have our favourite Christmas songs. Most of these we like through sheer tradition – songs like Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody (1973) or Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime (1979) are just as part of the Christmas landscape, ingrained by sheer repetition, as Christmas trees and Father Christmas. I have delved into Spotify to explore Christmas songs from way back, many of which you no longer hear on the radio but which nonetheless are often very enjoyable – check out Kay Starr’s (Everybody’s Waitin’ for) The Man with the Bag (1950) or Mitch Miller’s Must Be Santa (1960) to name just two worthy old classics (I’m also a fan of Bob Dylan’s cover of the latter).
However, the Christmas song that resonates the most with me remains Greg Lake’s glorious debut solo single in 1975, I Believe in Father Christmas. It manages to encapsulate the required Christmas magic whilst remaining a great piece of music in its own right. Greg Lake wrote the song initially with a view to protesting at the commercialisaton of Christmas, but the lyrics provided by King Crimson co-founder Pete Sinfield brought it back on track as a picture-postcard Christmas song (albeit with a theme of lost innocence as the narrator “saw through the disguise” and seems a bit disgruntled about broken promises regarding snow and peace on Earth, but never mind).
The instrumental melody between the verses comes from the “Troika” portion of Sergei Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite, written for the 1934 Soviet film of the same name, and provides a very Christmassy, sleighbell-heavy motif. This was added at the suggestion of Greg’s bandmate from ELP, Keith Emerson, who was no stranger to incorporating themes and motifs from classical music. An orchestra and choir were added too, contributing to an ebullient musical finale. The song was recorded at Abbey Road studios, and the video was shot on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, and in the West Bank.
The song was released in November 1975 and got to number two in the UK singles chart, held off the number one slot by a certain Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Lake commented: “I got beaten by one of the greatest records ever made. I would’ve been pissed off if I’d been beaten by Cliff (Richard).”
Merry Christmas!
