Comments on: CLIFF RICHARD – “Mistletoe And Wine”

By: heather

heather — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:42:07 +0000

“A time for giving. A time for getting. A time for forgiving. And forgetting”.

I have to put up with this versifying every Christmas. He deserves a shoeing.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:11:15 +0000

Or we could take the boring old MASS out of Christmas and be left with a delicious RICH T, vicar.

By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît

a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:06:05 +0000

hence the phrase “turkey with all the TRIMmingS”

By: punctum

punctum — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:52:59 +0000

Alternatively we could take the CASH out of Christmas. That would leave us with trims.

By: Jeanie

Jeanie — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:49:54 +0000

I get the “children singing Christian rhyme” and yes, I am middle aged as are a hell of a lot of other fans of Cliff’s who continue to buy his CD’s and DVD’s (however, he does also have many younger fans). Don’t deny us our enjoyment of Cliff singing Christian songs – let’s not forget the real meaning of Christmas and put the CHRIST back into Christmas.

By: Dominic

Dominic — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:20:16 +0000

“Saviour’s Day” was immeasurably better than this dross…

By: Vom

Vom — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:03:24 +0000

Cliff’s arm-waving dance has my sister in absolute hysterics every Christmas, and for that alone I have to have at least a little affection for this song. And it’s definitely not the worst #1 of the year for me, as Groovy Kind of Love makes me feel physically sick. Still pretty hard to defend on a musical level though, I’d agree with the score of 3.

By: Jimmy the Swede

Jimmy the Swede — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:10:10 +0000

That’ll learn you, Errol!

By: Errol the Slovakian

Errol the Slovakian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:06:39 +0000

Bugger. I’m on the wrong site!

By: Dave the Hungarian

Dave the Hungarian — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:43:58 +0000

A lot of the dissing that Cliff gets seems to be from people who have a latent fear, or at least suspicion, of the expression of genuine religious faith, and criticize the music on the basis of the religion rather than its quality (although I’m pleased to see there’s not MUCH of that in this thread).

I’m pretty agnostic myself but appreciate the message and the sincerity being conveyed here – it’s not the type of religious song that’s saying “you’re all going to hell unless you believe in this” or even “you’re going to hell if you’re gay”; more like “it’s Christmas; it’s brilliant; in my belief system the reason we have fun at this time of year is Jesus; let’s have a good time and remember he’s the reason why we’re having it”. It’s seeking to include rather than hector, and I feel well-disposed to it as a result. Not most people’s idea of a classic song, or indeed mine, but that religious faith and undeniably fine voice sell it for all it’s worth. It doesn’t convert me, but it’s always welcome on 4 Music, at least until you hear it every few bloody hours from December 1st to Christmas Eve…

I think we need to give him a bit of a free pass about “Christian rhyme” as I think it’s used as a stock phrase in those circles (by no means sure about that though!) And “gifts on the tree”? Certainly – the little presents where the tree can bear their weight, why not?

Wichita #29 – I thought “Little Town” was a neat, warm-hearted reworking of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and would have made a far better Christmas number one than the one we got that year…

By: Jimmy the Swede

Jimmy the Swede — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:56:48 +0000

Anne (#51) – I’m assuming you remember Cliff’s puzzling jerking movements at Eurovision 1973 when dilivering “Power To All Our Friends”. What the devil was he up to, there? I personally couldn’t have cared less at the time as he was beaten in any case by the gorgeous Anne-Marie David with a song which wasn’t that bad actually.

By: Caledonianne

Caledonianne — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:54:33 +0000

Rory – observation re the arm-waving dance and The Wicker Man. Spot on!

It has always baffled me that throughout his television career no one ever succeeded in getting His Rockface to do anything approaching a credible dance. Surely given his substantial Light Ents carrer efforts must have been made to get him to essay moves that are even remotely sympatico to the music?

This is particularly egregious.

By: rosie

rosie — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:25:48 +0000

I missed out on this at the time.

Instead I was having a whale of a time in Upstate New York. Never mind the wall-to-wall Tin Pan Alley standards that issued from Momma B’s kitchen radio. I could never understand why Judy Garland singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas fell into this category, Surely just because it’s got the word ‘Christmas’ in the first line doesn’t make that miserable and slightly bitter song seasonably appropriate. But then I’m not American and I can’t fathom these things.

Christmas in Verona meant proper snow, up to my knees in the street, with snowmen to build (a carrot from Momma B’s shed to establish gender), and my glasses freezing opaquely on entering the house, and if I played my cards right a Ski-Doo to ride manically around the yard (a ‘yard’ being a very different beast from the small concrete-floored enclosures of Barrow)

And no Cliff Richard in sight. Bliss!

By: Chris Gilmour

Chris Gilmour — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:47:41 +0000

@34 When Cliff calls out ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ the whole studio audience also replies ‘THANK YOU!’ like obedient school kids, which I thought was very funny and quite charming.
As everyone else has mentioned, so many brilliant records around at the time, such a shame this is what has to represent such an exciting period. As a mass appeal pop record that’s pretty decent, I think ‘Stop’ would have made a great Xmas number one (even if ‘Good Life’ or ‘Buffalo Stance’ would have been more thrilling).
A great Xmas school disco this year, and quite a happy period for me, though 1989 would be quite a bit tougher…
This gets a one from me, sorry Clifford.

By: 23 Daves

23 Daves — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:51:20 +0000

Perhaps I was a bit harsh singling out Robin Beck’s single as a rare example of an elongated advertising jingle which barely feels like a proper single. Cliff’s effort here feels like more of the same, except the marketing on this occasion is focussed on Christianity rather than Coca Cola.

Hmmm… Jesus invented Christmas… but Coke invented Santa Claus… but which is the most festive? There’s only one way to find out….

By: Elsa

Elsa — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:28:20 +0000

Oh, that was also the week that Christie Ann Rhymes won the grand prize on Star Search, which led of course to her chart-topping duet with Billy Ray Cyrus, “I Forgive You For Forgettin’”

By: Elsa

Elsa — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:50:43 +0000

‘Tis that time of the year when you might want to reflect upon #1s from other territories. In the US, Will to Power were enjoying one week at the top with their sublime “Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley”

By: punctum

punctum — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:36:32 +0000

Yes, but the bunny (not to mention the Bunny) would be annoyed.

By: Old Fart!!!!!!!

Old Fart!!!!!!! — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:32:47 +0000

I’ve always viewed this gramophone as Cliff’s “Frog Chorus”, in that every few seconds brings a new level of ridiculousness until there’s a singular moment of ridiculousness that’s effectively the Ridiculous Christmas Fairy atop a Christmas Tree of Ridiculousness, and any further ridiculous moments after that are merely ridiculous tinsel trimmings!!!!!!

… And for me the Ridiculous Christmas Fairy was when that inexplicable warbly harmonica assaulted my earholes from underneath a sea of treacle at the end of the instrumental break, only to be immediately followed by a totally unfathomable fretless bass jazz-solo odyssey at the start of verse three, apparently oblivious to Cliff’s vocals, which then disappeared in a crap multi-tracked keyboard glissando splurge!!!! As those notes hit the ground, so did any respect I had left for Cliff, who to be fair was enjoying a late rally with “My Pretty One” and in particular “Some People”, before this behemoth of bilge!!!!!! “Logs on the fire”, indeed!!!!!!!!!

Incidentally, this might have also been the “Frog’s Chorus” for Xmas pop records in general!!!! Is anyone aware of any proper Xmas pop records (ie not parody) post MAW?!???!?!?

By: alephnaughtpix

alephnaughtpix — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:23:05 +0000

Wow, “Good Life” was the top 5? I forgotten about that.

By: Jimmy the Swede

Jimmy the Swede — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:11:41 +0000

Ah, “The Wicker Man”. What a heart-warming wee film!

(See what I did there?)

Yeah, I know. Coat.

By: thefatgit

thefatgit — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:52:53 +0000

Hmm…burning bandstands :-)

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:43:51 +0000

re 39 ‘logs on the fire’

By: Rory

Rory — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:41:25 +0000

@38 Cliff’s arm-waving dance reminds me of the closing scenes of The Wicker Man.

By: pink champale

pink champale — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:07:05 +0000

my word there were some good records in this chart weren’t there? ‘mistletoe and wine’ isn’t quite one of them, but i’m a bit more fondly disposed than most here. if anything my atheism has hardened since the time i hated this with teenage fury, but i’ve softened considerably on sentiment and (not unrelated) on cliff. it probably helps that the bar is set shockingly low for me and xmas songs – basically, as long as they don’t feature bo selecta i’m sold, but also the great welling crescendo djp identifies really does have a certain grandeur and, struggling now, cliff’s arm waving ‘dance’ invents the bandstand finale of each episode of ‘in the night garden’, so points for that. hmm, that’s not a great deal. to summarise, i like xmas songs and this is an xmas song so i like it (a bit).