''Christmas with the Fizz'' is a 2018 album by British pop group

The Fizz The Fizz are a British pop music group formed in 2004 as a spin-off from the original group, Bucks Fizz. The core of the group consists of Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston, who are all former members of Bucks Fizz and performed as OBF ( ...

. It is a festive-themed album, the group's first and was released in November 2018. The album features the line-up of Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and

Jay Aston Jay Hilda Aston (born 4 May 1961 in Purley, Surrey) is a British singer and occasional songwriter. She was a member of the British pop group Bucks Fizz from 1981 to 1985 and now under The Fizz. She was the youngest member of the group's origin ...

, fourth member

Bobby McVay Robert (Bobby) McVay (born Glasgow) is a British singer and radio broadcaster. In 1983, he represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest as a member of the band Sweet Dreams. Singing the song "I'm Never Giving Up", the trio came s ...

having parted with the band earlier in the year. ''Christmas with the Fizz'' was produced by experienced hit producer Mike Stock.

Background

''Christmas with the Fizz'' was in the planning stages early in 2018, after the group had experienced chart success with their '' The F-Z of Pop'' album in late 2017. Producer Mike Stock came up with the idea of doing a Christmas-themed album, as he states, "from our first meeting, I always thought a Christmas record would work wonderfully with the band...because they are such a positive bunch of people and so much fun, it just really translates into Christmas cheer." Member

left the band in February, due to family commitments in Italy, reducing the act to a three-piece. Another challenge came a couple of months later as member

was diagnosed with mouth cancer. As a result of this, she went into the studio early to record her vocals before she underwent surgery, there being a chance that she would not be able to sing again afterwards. She underwent surgery in early July. The songs for the album were mostly

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of Christmas standards, mixed with original compositions, "Don't Start Without Me" and "So Christmas", the latter being written by member Cheryl Baker's daughter Kyla. Mike Stock chose the majority of the songs, while member Mike Nolan selected "

Mull of Kintyre The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula (formerly ''Cantyre'') in southwest Scotland. From here, the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland is visible on a calm and clear day, and a historic lighthouse, the second ...

" as a festive-period song that he'd liked; the group themselves chose " White Christmas" as they'd performed it live a number of times through the years. The album was released on 16 November 2018 with the lead single "Don't Start Without Me" being released a week later. The video of the single featured fans of the group, who had been selected through a campaign with Pledge Music. The album charted at No. 93 on the official

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, while it reached No. 65 in Scotland and went to No. 54 on the UK sales chart. ''Christmas with the Fizz'' met with mid to positive reviews, with '' The Herald'' saying that "

he group He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

were obviously loving every second of recording these songs and it radiates through the whole playlist". Concluding that it was "the seasonal album you didn't know you needed". '' Classic Pop magazine'' awarded the album a three-star review.

Track listing

# "Don't Start Without Me" (Johan Kalel / Mike Stock) – 3:43 # "

I Believe in Father Christmas "I Believe in Father Christmas" is a song by English musician Greg Lake with lyrics by Peter Sinfield. Although it is often categorised as a Christmas song, this was not Lake's intention. He said that he wrote the song in protest at the commercia ...

" (

Greg Lake Gregory Stuart Lake (10 November 1947 – 7 December 2016) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP). Born and b ...

/ Peter Sinfield) – 3:13 # "

Keeping the Dream Alive "Keeping the Dream Alive" is a 1988 song by German pop and rock band Münchener Freiheit – also known as Freiheit in English-speaking countries – taken from their album ''Fantasy''. The music was written by Aron Strobel and Stefan Zauner with ...

" (

Aron Strobel Aron Strobel (born 26 January 1958, in Schwäbisch Gmünd, West Germany) is best known as the lead guitarist for Münchener Freiheit, who had several big hits throughout Europe. Background Aron has been a member of the group since their debut i ...

/ Stefan Zauner) – 4:02 # "

" (

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

Denny Laine Denny Laine (born Brian Frederick Hines, 29 October 1944) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, known as a founder of two major rock bands: the Moody Blues, with whom he played from 1964 to 1966, and Wings, with whom he played from 1 ...

) – 4:40 # "So Christmas" (Kyla Stroud) – 2:31 # "Home for My Heart" (Festive Mix) (Dave Colquhoun /

/ Mike Stock) – 3:15 # " Wonderful Christmas Time" (McCartney) – 3:01 # " Winter Wonderland" ( Felix Bernard / Richard B. Smith) – 2:54 # "

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions ...

" (

Jule Styne Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became s ...

/ Sammy Cahn) – 1:54 # " Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" ( Haven Gillespie /

J. Fred Coots John Frederick Coots (May 2, 1897 – April 8, 1985) was an American songwriter. He composed over 700 popular songs and over a dozen Broadway shows. In 1934, Coots wrote the melody with his then chief collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, for t ...

) – 2:56 # " What a Wonderful World" ( Bob Thiele / George David Weiss) – 2:17 # " White Christmas" ( Irving Berlin) – 2:54 # "

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

" (

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

) – 3:34 # " The Land of Make Believe (Christmas Mix)" ( Andy Hill / Sinfield) – 3:37 # "Don't Start Without Me (Extended)" (Kalel / Stock) – 5:46

Personnel

* Cheryl Baker – vocals * Mike Nolan – vocals *

– vocals * Mike Stock – instruments, production * Jimmy Junior – instruments, production * Chris Lyndon – engineer *

– vocals on tracks 6 and 14 * Dave Colquhoun – guitar on tracks 1 and 6 *

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...

– piano on track 6 * The English Chamber Choir – vocals on track 6

Chart positions

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Christmas albums by English artists The Fizz albums