Pictured: Elle King backstage at GMA’s ‘Summer Concert’ series (2017) (Photo by David Crotty/Getty)
Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has arrived for our first festive post of the new year’s holiday season, and that’s also because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! The John Lewis advert is out. The supermarket shelves are full of tat. The Hallmark movies are now showing on TV almost each day and everybody’s sharing a list with an item or two. That can only mean one thing: It’s here again for another year. Whether you still think it’s too early or not is up for debate, but since this is me writing the blog and planning a post out every single day, I’ve decided that it’s time to start looking at different artists who are getting into the seasonal spirit as we begin our own ‘Countdown To Christmas’ series of Christmas-themed posts on the blog, which will be spread throughout the next seven or eight weeks, or so. We’ll be listening to a variety of on-brand Yule tracks, both new and old, that will provide alternatives to the yawners from Sir Paul McCartney and Elton John that we seem to get over-exposed to every single year, while sharing the same goal of injecting some Christmas flair into your streaming playlists. My first exhibit of the season this year is Elle King, an LA-born multi-instrumentalist and singer songwriter who is the daughter of the comedic actor Rob Schneider and the former model London King. You may remember her from scoring a big hit in the mainstream with ‘Ex’s & Oh’s in 2017, a track which reached #15 in the UK Singles Chart and the top ten in the US charts. She’s also known for her collaboration, ‘Drunk’, which she performed with Miranda Lambert, a single which has racked up over 150 million streams worldwide. She has also toured with acts like James Bay, Joan Jett, Of Monsters & Men, Michael Kiwanuka and Train. Check out her new rendition of ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’ below.
To tell the truth with you, when I first heard Elle King’s version of ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’ a week ago, I had never heard of the track before at all and it was only when I was researching some information for this post that I learned that it’s a cover version of an ancient and traditional Christmas R&B recording. It was originally performed by legendary Blues pianist James Brown in 1960, which he co-wrote with Gene Redd, and it reached #76 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1961. Since then, it has been covered by the likes of Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson, The Eagles, Willie Nelson, Josh Gracin, Gary Allan and Lee Roy Parnell. Elle King is just the latest to join their ranks and, hopefully, put a fresh spin on the original version. She does so with her mid-pitched crooning and sultry guitar melodies that feel representative of her Country-leaning solo material, while also keeping the Jazz element of the original track intact. Lyrics like “Oh, what a Christmas to have the blues/My baby’s gone, I have no friends, To wish me greetings once again” discuss the melancholy felt by those people who spend Christmas alone and apart from loved ones, while the later verses show a more optimistic take on simply enjoying the festivites of the time of year, as sequences such as “Choirs will be singing/Silent night/Christmas carols, by candlelight” and “Friends and relations send salutations/Sure as the stars shine above” trade the longing and agony of the opening verse for feelings of anticipation and contentment, as the final hook of “No more sorrow, no grief and pain/I’ll be happy, Christmas once again” draws things to a naturally mood lifting conclusion. This was a decent take on the original carol because Elle King manages to modernize some of the widely universal themes of the old 1960’s recording and King sounds absolutely accessible to a casual, very easygoing audience of listeners. While her take didn’t really suprise me in any way or did something that I’m likely to remember for that long, regrettably, this was perfectly fine and enjoyable to listen to as it sounded pleasant and it has a solid, calm vibe going on. A cheerful carol, with an air of Amy Winehouse to it, that everyone can find relatable if heard by all of the family at dinner.
Pictured: Elle King in an official photoshoot for Teen Vogue (2013) (Photography by Matthew Kristall)
That’s the only trick that I’ve got left in my stocking of seasonal strains for today! I’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same ‘Scuzz Sundays’ shtick as we look back at one of the Pop-Punk era’s memorable anthems of the late-90’s to mid-00’s era to see if it can hold up to some quality and value tomorrow! On the chopping block this week is an Agura Hills-formed Post-Grunge band with a silly name who haven’t appeared on the feature since March of 2020 – when the global lockdowns began. Known for hits such as ‘The Reason’, the Californian band have sold over ten million albums globally.
Connect with One Track At A Time:
One Track At A Time 