Country-tinged Pop-Rock rejecting the festive season in favour of a slumber
Label: Handkerchief
Year of Release: 1976
Another puzzler to add to the teetering pile of Christmas single conundrums. "Don't Wake Me Up (For Christmas)" is yet another example of a festive record which had two separate cracks at success - first on the short-lived Handkerchief record label in 1976, then again on its parent label Anchor in 1977. On neither occasion was there any indication that the general public could have cared less (the Anchor releases are less commonly found, which would suggest it was treated even more dismissively second time out).
Musically, it's not particularly Christmassy, though it does at least have sleigh bells throughout. Instead, it has a faintly Smokie country-rock feel and lyrically focuses on the fate of the lead singer, who has had such an unlucky time with his lady that he's decided he's sleeping in for the period (I hope he's planning to eat something and consume liquids too, even if it's only Complan. It seems inadvisable to spend such a long period of time in a self-induced coma).
Mud had a huge hit with "Lonely This Christmas" in 1974, and that seemed to have fuelled the idea that there was an ongoing demand for tragic, depressive yuletide wailing about lost love. This means that any collector seeking out obscure festive 45s is likely to find endless weepy ballads about being abandoned for the season - trust me, I KNOW. Almost all of them sold zilch and proved that Mud's success was a total outlier, as obviously nobody really wanted to hear such complaining on the turntable at the office party.
"Don't Wake Me Up", on the other hand, does at least have a high tempo backing, a knowing wink on the singer's face and a sense of its own ridiculousness, which saves it being an entirely bleak affair. I have absolutely no idea who Mars were, but Lawrence Lathem - aka Laurie Latham - co-wrote it and produced it. He went on to record with the likes of Ian Dury and Paul Young's backing group The Royal Family, and apparently mostly made his living as a recording engineer. I suspect this was just a one-off jolly with a bunch of mates rather than a serious gigging group attempting to crack the big time.
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