"Driving Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written and composed by British singer-songwriter

Chris Rea Christopher Anton Rea ( ; born 4 March 1951) is an English rock and blues singer and guitarist from Middlesbrough. A "gravel-voiced guitar stalwart" known for his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty five solo albums, two of which t ...

. The first version was originally released as the B-side to his single "

Hello Friend ''Hello Friend'', sometimes written as ''Hello, Friend'', is a short comedy horror film directed by Graham Linehan and written by Linehan and Robert Popper. The film was Linehan's directorial debut. The film stars Martin Savage as a man, John ...

" in 1986. In October 1988, a re-recorded version served as one of two new songs on Rea's first compilation album ''

New Light Through Old Windows ''New Light Through Old Windows'' is the first compilation album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 1988. The album consists primarily of re-recordings of songs from Rea's earlier albums, as well as the new track "Working on It" ...

''. It was issued as the fourth single from the album in December 1988, where it peaked at number 53 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

as the lead track of ''The Christmas EP''. Despite its original modest chart placement, the song has made a reappearance on the UK Singles Chart 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 number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in 2021. In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted twelfth on the ITV television special '' The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song''. The song has since been covered by numerous artists, including Engelbert Humperdinck. A 2011 version by

Stacey Solomon Stacey Chanelle Clare Solomon-Swash (born 4 October 1989) is an English singer and television personality. She finished in third place on the sixth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2009, and won the tenth series of '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Ou ...

peaked at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.

Background

In interviews for the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

programme ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'' in 2009, and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' 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 Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

from Abbey Road Studios in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. His wife had come down to drive him home in her

Austin Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

to save money because it was cheaper to drive than travel by train. Rea was recently out of contract and the record company was unwilling 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 motorists, who "all looked so miserable. Jokingly, I started singing: "We're driving home for Christmas..." Then, whenever the streetlights 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 Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

but did not manage to get it to him. It has been incorrectly cited that Rea never played the song live until 2014 at

Hammersmith Odeon The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ha ...

, but he actually played it at his Wembley Arena concert in December 1987; 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". However, he did play it on the final night of the Old Light Through New Windows tour at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. Not renowned for showmanship, Rea departed from his usual performance style with falling snow and balloons in the auditorium and an enormous grinning Santa Claus appearing behind the drum riser. It was used in Christmas commercials for supermarket chain

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in 1997, 1998 and 2011; the last featured a cover by

. 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 David Maxwell Middleton (born 4 August 1946) is an English composer and keyboardist who was originally a docker on the London docks. Middleton is known for his work on the Fender Rhodes Electric piano, the Minimoog synthesiser and his percussiv ...

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 23 December 1986 by Dutch pop music TV show ''

TopPop ''TopPop'' is the first regular dedicated pop music television series in the Dutch language area. The Netherlands broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 22 September 1970, to 27 June 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted for its first fif ...

'', interspersed with stock footage of the

motorways A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

around Hilversum. In 2009, 21 years after the song was first released, an original video was made in aid of

Shelter Shelter is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. Shelter may also refer to: Places * Port Shelter, Hong Kong * Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations * Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locatio ...

; all proceeds from digital download were donated to the charity. The celebrities who featured in the video were

Mike Read Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter. Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for musi ...

, David Hamilton,

Martin Shaw Martin Shaw (born 21 January 1945) is an English actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV crime-action television drama series '' The Professionals'' (1977–1983). Further notable television parts include the title roles in '' ...

, Kristian Digby,

Gail Porter Gail Porter (born 23 March 1971) is a Scottish television personality, former model and actress. She started her television career in children's TV, before branching out into modelling and presenting mainstream TV. In the 1990s, she famously po ...

Lizzie Cundy Elizabeth Jane Cundy ( Miller; born 2 May 1968) is an English socialite, TV personality and former wife of footballer Jason Cundy. Career Cundy appeared on ITV's '' This Morning'' on their ''A Day with a Designer'' series and has since regular ...

Ewen MacIntosh Ewen Douglas MacIntosh (born 25 December 1973) is a British actor and comedian known for his role as Keith Bishop in ''The Office'' (2001–2003). Early life MacIntosh was born in Merionethshire. He was educated at Repton School in Derbyshire, ...

Carol Decker Carol Ann Decker (born 10 September 1957) is an English singer and musician. She is the lead vocalist of the band T'Pau, which had international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although Decker is mainly associated with the group, sh ...

, Giles Vickers-Jones, and

Lionel Blair Lionel Blair (born Henry Lionel Ogus; 12 December 1928 – 4 November 2021) was a Canadian-born British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, and television presenter. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he made regular appearances as a danc ...

. On 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".

Critical reception

Upon its release as a single in 1988, David Giles of ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the '' NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in '' ...

'' described "Driving Home for Christmas" as a "jaunty, happy song" with "the joys of the season and some lilting ripples of guitar".

Track listings

Charts and certifications

In recent years it charted as follows: In 2008 on Netherlands Digital Songs (No. 4), Euro Digital Tracks (No. 8), in 2009 on Norway Digital Songs (No. 3), on

Billboard Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and '' Hanshin Contents Link'' since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thur ...

in 2012 (No. 18) and 2014 (No. 23), while on Denmark Digital Songs in 2016 (No. 9) and 2017 (No. 5). In 2022, the song entered the top 10 of the

for the first time at number 10.

Charts

Certifications

Stacey Solomon version

Singer and television presenter

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

and cabins, it was later released as a single due to popular demand, hitting number 27.

Background

The single was released on 18 December 2011 on iTunes with all proceeds going to

Alzheimer's Research UK Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) is a dementia research charity in the United Kingdom, founded in 1992 as the Alzheimer's Research Trust. ARUK funds scientific studies to find ways to treat, cure or prevent all forms of dementia, including Alzhei ...

and children's hospice charity ''Together For Short Lives''. She subsequently said that she was not disappointed that the single did not make it into the UK top 20.

Track listing

Charts

Other versions

Other artists who have covered the song include: *

The Bachelors The Bachelors were a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland, but primarily based in the United Kingdom. They had several international hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. Car ...

Michael Ball Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of ''Les Misérables'', and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in ...

Joe McElderry Joseph McElderry (; born 16 June 1991) is an English singer and songwriter. He won the sixth series of the ITV show ''The X Factor'' in 2009. His first single " The Climb" reached number one on both the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singl ...

* Saint Etienne *

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Lucy Rose Lucy Rose Parton (born 20 June 1989) is an English singer-songwriter and musician who performs as Lucy Rose. Her debut album, '' Like I Used To,'' was released in 2012. Rose released her second album, ''Work It Out'', in 2015 on Columbia Record ...

* Casanovas * Gavin James * Engelbert Humperdinck *

Dermot Kennedy Dermot Joseph Kennedy (born 13 December 1991) is an Irish singer-songwriter. He is best known for his 2019 single " Outnumbered", his 2020 single "Giants" and his feature on the 2020 Meduza single "Paradise". He is signed to Interscope Records i ...

Tom Grennan Thomas Grennan (born 8 June 1995) is an English singer and songwriter from Bedford and is based in London. Grennan found fame as the guest vocalist on Chase & Status's " All Goes Wrong" in 2016. His debut album, '' Lighting Matches'', was rel ...

In popular culture

The Chris Rea and Stacey Solomon versions of "Driving Home for Christmas" were used in the Christmas adverts for supermarket chain

in 1997 and 2011 respectively. In December 2020, a joke about

Dominic Cummings Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020. From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...

' journey to Durham during the coronavirus lockdown, which referenced the song in the punchline, was announced as the winner of UK TV channel

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

's annual " Christmas Cracker Joke" competition. The joke read: "What is Dominic Cummings' favourite Christmas song? 'Driving Home for Christmas'".

References

External links

{{authority control 1986 songs 1988 singles 2011 debut singles British Christmas songs Chris Rea songs Joe McElderry songs Magnet Records singles Songs about cars Songs written by Chris Rea