Driving Home for Christmas



"Driving Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written and composed by English singer-songwriter Chris Rea. It was originally released as one of two new songs on Rea's first compilation album New Light Through Old Windows in October 1988, and issued as the fourth single from the album in December 1988, where it peaked at #53 in the UK Singles Chart as part of The Christmas EP. .

Despite its original modest chart placement, the song has made an reappearance in the top 40 every year since 2007 when it peaked at #33, and is featured among the Top 10 Christmas singles. It reached a new peak of #11 in 2018. In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted twelfth on the ITV television special The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.

Background
In interviews for the BBC Radio 4 programme Today in 2009, and The Guardian in 2016, Rea said he wrote Driving Home for Christmas many years before its first recording; this was in 1978 when Rea needed to get home to Middlesbrough from Abbey Road Studios in London. His wife had come down to drive him home in her Austin Mini to save money because it was cheaper to drive than travel by train. Rea was recently out of contract and the record company wasn't willing to pay for the rail ticket.

The inspiration for the song came as they were getting stuck in heavy traffic, while the snow was falling. He started looking at the other drivers, who "all looked so miserable. Jokingly, I started singing: "We're driving home for Christmas..." Then, whenever the street lights shone inside the car, I started writing down lyrics". Rea said Driving Home for Christmas is a "car version of a carol", and that he wrote it for Van Morrison but did not manage to get it to him.

Rea never played the song live until 2014 at Hammersmith Odeon, he recalls: "the gig was on 20 December, so the road crew kept badgering me to do it. I went, 'If I'm going to sing this fucking song, we're gonna do it properly.' So we hired 12 snow cannons. When we started the song, you couldn't hear it for the noise of the crowd, and we let go with the machines. We put three feet of artificial snow in the stalls. The venue charged me £12,000 to clean it up".

It was used in Christmas commercials for supermarket chain Iceland in 1997, 1998 and 2011, with the latter featuring a cover by Stacey Solomon. An alternative version of the single was released in Japan as part of an EP called 'Snow'.

Recording
Rea never planned to write a Christmas song. It was several years later that while testing pianos with keyboard player Max Middleton he found a tune that fitted the lyrics. Initially, it was released as a B-side (to the 1986 single "Hello Friend" ), but afterwards was re-recorded with strings. Middleton played the distinctive jazzy intro, and together they produced a typical 1950s Christmas carol-type arrangement.

Music video
A video clip was broadcast on 25 December 1986 by Dutch pop music TV show TopPop.

In 2009, 21 years after the song was first released, an original video was made in aid of Shelter; all proceeds from digital download were donated to the charity. The celebrities who featured in the video were Mike Read, David Hamilton, Martin Shaw, Kristian Digby, Gail Porter, Francis Jeffers, Ian St John, Jimmy Greaves, Lizzie Cundy, Ewen MacIntosh, Carol Decker, Matt Di Angelo, Mark Brennan, Giles Vickers-Jones, Zig and Zag and Lionel Blair. Of the project, Rea stated: "I wanted to do something special this Christmas and what better way than to help keep a roof over people's heads when they need it most – at Christmas. By teaming up with Shelter we can hopefully make a difference".

Charts and certifications
In recent years it charted as follows: In 2008 on Netherlands Digital Songs (#4), Euro Digital Tracks (#8), in 2009 on Norway Digital Songs (#3), on Billboard Japan Hot 100 in 2012 (#18) and 2014 (#23), while on Denmark Digital Songs in 2016 (#9) and 2017 (#5).

Stacey Solomon version
Singer and television presenter Stacey Solomon covered the song in 2011 and it was released on 18 December 2011 as her debut single. Originally intended to be used solely in commercials for supermarket chain Iceland and cabins, it was later released as a single due to popular demand.

Background
The single was released on 18 December 2011 on iTunes with all proceeds going to Alzheimer's Research UK and children's hospice charity Together For Short Lives.

In an interview with the British newspaper The Sun, Solomon said that she was nervous about going head-to-head with the winner of that year's series of The X Factor, "If I got Christmas number one it would be the best feeling in the world," she said. "I'd be ecstatic. I don't know if I'd be able to look Simon Cowell in the eye! No, I don't think he'd talk to me!" She subsequently said that she was not disappointed that the single did not make it into the UK top 20.

Other versions
Other artists who have covered the song include:
 * The Bachelors
 * Michael Ball
 * Joe McElderry
 * Saint Etienne
 * The High Kings
 * Lucy Rose
 * Casanovas
 * Gavin James
 * Engelbert Humperdinck