‘I’m driving home for christmas. Oh, I can’t wait to see those faces. ‘ Even the biggest Christmas hater knows the lyrics to Chris Rea’s famous Christmas hit by heart. NU.nl dives into the story behind the song from the eighties.
The story behind Rea’s hit is reminiscent of the plot of a Christmas movie. These were dark times for the singer: it was almost Christmas, but his manager had just let him down and his record deal was also put on the line. “Everything seemed to be over,” said Rea in a 2016 interview with The Guardian.
He had heard the bad news in London and had to return to his hometown of Middlesbrough. However, the Briton had a driving ban at the time and his record company refused to pay for his train ticket. Fortunately, his wife wanted to pick him up, even though it was almost a five-hour drive.
When the couple drove back, it suddenly started to snow hard. “The traffic jams got longer and I saw the other drivers, who all looked very desperate,” Rea remembers. “
“As a joke I started to sing: ‘We’re driving home for Christmas’ …”
Chris Rea
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..“The singer wrote the spontaneously invented lyrics on a piece of paper.
Once home, in the middle of the night, Rea’s day came to a positive end. He had received a check for his song Fool, that had become a big hit in the United States. “Suddenly we could buy a house.” The text of Driving Home For Christmas ended up in a junk box with other unfinished songs during the move.
‘A hit every year’
The career of the now 69-year-old Rea went very fast after that, but the lyrics of his future hit kept collecting dust in the attic. Until one afternoon he was jamming with his band. “I played a little on the piano and someone said, ‘That’s a great melody, you have to keep it!'”
The singer suddenly realized that he had never finished songs lying around and the lyrics came from Driving Home For Christmas against. And as it turned out, it fitted in perfectly with his just-made composition.
Rea decided to do something with it, but he did not have high expectations. “I considered myself a serious musician, I never meant to write a Christmas hit.”
The song was released in 1986 as the B-side of his song Hello Friend. When it seemed to catch on, it was made a bit more ‘Christmasy’ two years later, including strings and bells. “It became a radio hit, but also the following year. And the year after – every year again.”
Only live for the first time in 2014
Driving Home For Christmas ended up in the charts worldwide, in the Netherlands it took fourth place. Many artists also made a cover version of the song, such as Peter Andre, Helene Fischer, René Froger and Johnny Logan.
The video clip for the song also has a Dutch touch; which was made during the shooting of Toppop. Rea playbacked the song at the time. He didn’t even perform it live for the first time until 2014.
The singer had planned a performance just before Christmas and his band thought so Driving Home For Christmas should not be missing in his set list. For his performance, Rea hired twelve snow cannons to enhance the Christmas atmosphere. “I thought if we did it, it had to be done perfectly. Almost a 1 meter thick layer of fake snow ended up in the room. I had to pay £ 12,000 to have it cleaned up.”
Driving Home For Christmas had sounded almost completely different, by the way; in an interview with Louder Sound in 2015, Rea revealed that he had originally written his hit song for colleague Van Morrison.
“I still regret not offering it to him”
Chris Rea
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“said the artist.” I think he would have made a fantastic performance. But there is nothing more I can do about it. I just think: if the number is no longer being played, then I can no longer go on vacation. “
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