FACTORALY - CHRISTMAS: DAY 12 - MUSIC

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

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Merry Christmas, Simon. Merry Christmas, Bruce. Welcome to Factorial, everyone. Yes, hello, everyone. This is a special because we are going to be giving you 12 in 12 days, because there are 12 days of Christmas. Indeed, instead of the usual one a week, you get one every single day for the whole 12 days of Christmas. But because it's one a day, they're obviously not as long as they normally are. Indeed. So these are going to be relatively short, relatively punchy, quick little snippets of festive, Christmassy, informative fun.

Yeah, of course we're going to take a subject every day. Yes. But the subjects will be Christmas relevant. Indeed. So that's the plot. Let's get on with it. Off we go. So Simon, what are we talking about today? Today, Bruce, we're going to be talking about Christmas music. Oh, carols.

Yes, carols all the way up to the cheesy 1980s pop hits that we all know and love. So do you know what the very first Christmas song was? We're not sure about the very first Christmas song, but the oldest Christmas song on record uh was a christmas hymn called jesus refusit omnium okay which translates as jesus light of all the nations written by a fellow called saint hillary of poitiers in the fourth century so quite old wow um i i instantly think of christmas carols obviously you know going to church and having a choir singing those good old fashioned Christmas carols. A carol, the word carol, comes from the old English, I think, carolin, which means to dance in a circle. Yes.

So a carol used to be a dance and they could be performed at any time of the year. So you'd have Easter carols, you'd have summer carols, and then eventually you'd have Christmas carols set to Christmassy songs. How interesting. Hmm. summer carols and then eventually you'd have christmas carols set to christmasy songs how interesting one of the more popular christmas carols is about um good king wenceslas which always reminds me of a joke how does good king wenceslas like his pizza deep pan crisp and even exactly thank you very much um wenceslas was a real person who lived in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, around 900 to 930 AD. Okay. And he was a saint attributed with various good works and miracles and so on. So he must have been good.

So he must have been good. He wasn't a king. He was just a saint. Okay. But to confuse matters, that was saint wenceslas the first who was duke of bohemia not to be confused with king wenceslas the first who was also the duke of bohemia but 300 years later oh right um apparently it was definitely written about the first one the saint yeah um based on an old legend from the 13th century, but then written into the form that we know it today with music around the 1850s.

Excellent. Yeah. I know a story about Wenceslas, which I love. Okay. Again, it's my favourite comedy writer, John Finnemore, wrote a sketch about good King Wenceslas. Yes. Which people can look up and find.

But then you get more into the modern style. And then you get the Christmas number one, which is always the big thing to have. Yes, of course. Do you know what the first Christmas number one was? I don't. It was a song by a fellow called Al Martino. And it was a love song called Here In My Heart.

It was nothing to do with christmas at all it just happened to be the number one at christmas in 1952 which is the first year that they had a top uh a top 20 correct yes um it was not until 1955 that uh dickie valentine wrote the first christmas number one that was actually a Christmas song in the attempt to make it a Christmas number one. And that's been happening ever since. There are some Christmas number ones that are nothing to do with Christmas. They just happened to be popular at the time.

Bohemian Rhapsody, believe it or not, was a Christmas number one. Was it? But then obviously you get Slade and Wham and Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and people like that specifically making Christmassy songs. There's a very interesting sort of sub-fact about some of these Christmas songs.

Go on. So things like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose. He had a very shiny nose. And Ragnarok and the Christmas Tree. Yes. And Holly Jolly Christmas. Yes. All written by the same guy. Oh, really? A guy calledok and The Christmas Tree. Yes. And Holly Jolly Christmas. Yes. All written by the same guy.

Oh, really? A guy called Johnny Marks. Okay. Jewish. Or you've got things like White Christmas and Let It Snow. Yeah. Irving Berlin. Right.

Also Jewish. Jewish. Or The Christmas Song by Mel Torme, which is also Jewish. I mean, basically, there's a theme going on here, which is they're all sort of Jesus, obviously. Sure, king of the Jews. Yeah. So there's a lot of Jewish people who wrote songs about Christmas. Fascinating. I mean, the big one from many recent years, and in fact it's the 40th anniversary this year,

is Do They Know It's Christmas, the charity single. 40th? We're not that old, are we? I think it is the 40th, isn't it? Where are we now, 2024? Yeah. Oh, wow. And in the same year as Do They Know It's Christmas was released,

Last Christmas was released by Wham! Oh, really? In the same year as Do They Know It's Christmas was released, Last Christmas was released by Wham. Oh, really? In the same year? So, you know, obviously, Do They Know It's Christmas went to number one because everybody, every single person I know bought it and gave it and bought several and gave us presents. And then you'd have multiple copies. But because Last Christmas came out at the same time as Do They Know It's Christmas, Wham decided to give all the profits and they still do give all the profits from last christmas to the ethiopian appeal so it all goes to band-aid really yeah well done wham i mean bad luck yeah well done that's great it still gets paid a load on the topic of royalties um slade's merry christmas everyone apparently still gets the

band half a million pounds in royalties every single Christmas. It's Noddy's pension. Yeah, essentially. The most recorded Christmas song in history is Silent Night. There are apparently over 730 different recorded versions by different artists uh since 1978 700 sorry since 1978 yeah so in the last 40 years well 40 46 45 yeah yeah 730 or different versions copyrighted since 1978 goodness Goodness. Do you have a favourite Christmas song yourself?

Yes, I do. Go on. My favourite is I Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake of Emerson Lake and Palmer. Oh, you've gone for a really traditional classic. Yeah. Right, OK, wonderful. But it's still the one that I play when I'm putting the Christmas tree up. Is it?

Yeah. Or opening presents. Oh, wonderful. My favourite is The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole, better known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. Yes. As soon as that violin kicks in, I'm just, oh, amazing. It's Christmas. It's immediately Christmas.

But I'm also rather fond of Fairyt Tale of New York by the Pogues. Yes, although they're having to edit that slightly these days, aren't they? Yes, it's not PC. I don't know why. I love a Christmas song. I do. It's emotive, isn't it? It's one of those things that brings back all the memories that you have of all the Christmases you've ever had.

Absolutely. And because they're so seasonal, you are only allowed to play them during December. So you sort of have an absolute hammering of Christmas music in this one month and then nothing. That's true. Except that when I used to be in advertising, when we did the Christmas commercials, we used to make the Christmas commercials in sort of August and September. Oh, yes. So they would be edited and ready to go out in December. Yeah. So we had to get into the Christmas commercials instead of August and September. Oh, yes, of course. So that they would be edited and ready to go out in December. Yeah.

So we had to get into the Christmas mood. So we always played Christmas music when we were writing the commercials. Oh, brilliant. Well, thank you for listening to this Christmas special. Indeed. Thank you very much for coming along. We hope you'll join us again next time for another fun-filled episode of Fact or Really.

Bye-bye. Au revoir.