Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas • TopPop

“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 No. 53 on the UK Singles Chart as part of The Christmas EP. Despite its original modest chart placement, the song has made a reappearance in the top 40 every year since 2007 when it peaked at No. 33, and is featured among the Top 10 Christmas singles. It reached a new peak of No. 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. The Toppop recording in the studio was made by Chris Berger. He remembers that the cameraman filmed on the motorways around Hilversum: “I recognise the exit of the A1 to Laren en the A27 to Maartensdijk’, he confirms. Christopher Anton Rea (born 4 March 1951) is an English rock and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born and raised in Middlesbrough, he is of Italian and Irish descent. He is known for his distinctive, husky-gravel voice and slide guitar playing, and the Guinness Rockopedia described him as a “gravel-voiced guitar stalwart“. British Hit Singles & Albums stated that Rea was “one of the most popular UK singer-songwriters of the late 1980s“ and “already a major European star by the time he finally cracked the UK Top 10 with the release of the single “The Road to Hell (Part 2)“, which was his 18th chart entry. Two of his studio albums, ’The Road to Hell’ and ’Auberge’, topped the UK Albums Chart. Rea was nominated three times for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: in 1988, 1989 and 1990. His other hit songs include “I Can Hear Your Heartbeat“, “Stainsby Girls“, “Josephine“, “On the Beach“, “Let’s Dance“, “Driving Home for Christmas“, “Working on It“, “Tell Me There’s a Heaven“, “Auberge“, “Looking for the Summer“, “Winter Song“, “Nothing to Fear“, “Julia“, and “If You Were Me“, a duet with Elton John. ’Driving Home For Christmas’ charted for one week at #5 in the Dutch Tipparade of the Dutch Charts on 27 December 1986. This Toppop recording was first broadcast on December 23, 1986. It became a hit in his homeland UK two years later in 1988. Watch our great music videos ❯ More TopPop? Subscribe here ❯ More info on Wikipedia ❯ Broadcast date: 1986/12/25 This is to let you know that the video recording of the video clip was originally recorded by AVROTROS Broadcasting. AVROTROS Broadcasting hereby warrants and represents that it is the sole and exclusive owner of the physical film and/or videotape footage in this video clip. The performance of the artist(s) in the clip was filmed and recorded with the written consent of the artist(s) and their representatives. AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, founded in 2014 from a merger of AVRO and TROS. From January 1st, 2014 the name of the merged broadcaster was used in joint programmes. AVRO was founded in 1923 as the Netherlands first public broadcaster. TROS started broadcasting in 1964. Toppop was a weekly AVRO pop program that was aired between 1970 and 1988. AVROTROS Broadcasting PO Box 2 1200 JA Hilversum The Netherlands TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music TV show in the Dutch language area. Dutch broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 1970 to 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted the show for its first fifteen years. World famous music artists performed on TopPop: ABBA, 10CC, Bee Gees, The Jacksons with Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Earth & Fire, Queen, Golden Earring, Boney M, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chic, Donna Summer and many many more.