Label: Columbia
Year of Release: 1972
Ordinarily I would have had no reason to believe that this was anything other than an underplayed and under publicised Christmas single, were it not for the fact that Billboard magazine in the USA lists it among the notable British Christmas releases of that year. So was it a simple case of a keen US journalist being a bit of a fan, or did this actually have a slightly higher profile than I believe?
Whatever stories lie behind this recording, it's safe to say it's a slightly quirky three minutes. Charlie Jones has an excitable, hiccuping voice throughout, faintly akin to a sherry-sozzled and slightly chilly Steve Harley in his underpants standing naked by the festive tree. A rinky-dink arrangement bounces along in the background, until the anthemic chorus kicks in and begs the whole world to join in.
Lyrically, the song focuses on the antics of Santa Claus and seems determined to sell him as being some kind of crazy beatnik character. "He likes to boogie just like you and me/ man, he's cool, he's free!" we're assured, and it's impossible not to swept along with the daftness of it all. I really like this one, and I'm surprised it didn't fare better, but I suspect that the lowly status of Charlie Jones suffered against giants like T Rex, Slade, The Osmonds and The Jacksons in the 1972 Christmas chart, and this effort was swept to one side in all the excitement.
And who was Charlie Jones? He seemed to put out this single and the seemingly even more obscure "I Don't Want To Lose You" before disappearing entirely. There's also talk of an album, but I've scoured the internet and all I've managed to find is talk, and no evidence of a physical product whatsoever. If anyone knows, please do share the facts with the rest of the world.
7 comments:
This looks right up my alley, thanks!
The b-side seems to have got ignored here, there is a strong Nilsson influence at work, in a good way!
I've got a copy of don't want to lose you and it's been quite a task trying to find a valuation...columbia demo db 8925...
I don't think it's particularly in-demand, unfortunately. A promo copy sold in the USA for $1.65 in 1972. It can't really be found in any collector's price guides either, so far as I'm aware.
That said, you could put it on ebay and it might go for considerably more. It's a very scarce record and somebody may need it to plug a gap in their collection, particularly if they're collecting Columbia releases (though it's not one of the more collectible labels).
I find the market incredibly hard to predict nowadays. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised when a record that's not even listed in any price guide goes for £50, sometimes I'm horribly shocked when a £20 valued record goes for a mere fiver. The advent of ebay and discogs has made everything much more faddish and fast-moving than it used to be.
Sorry, I meant to say "sold for $1.65 in 2014" above. 1972 was, obviously, the record's release date! Doh!
It's the promo I have...really nice condition and actually a fairly decent tune...had it for years but can't remember where I got it...thanks for replying.. :-)
I would be interested to hear I DON'T WANT TO LOOSE YOU. It's amazingly difficult to find info abou this record. All I could found was that it was a disco-pick from the UK magazine : Dee Jay and Radio Monthly (1972/11 p.28).
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