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Scanner MusicFan
Joined: 14 August 2019
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Posted: 21 November 2022 at 11:35am | IP Logged
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With holiday music already charting and airing on the radio,
I thought this would the time of the year to discuss whether
Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne" is a holiday song.
This song first charted in 1980 during the seasonally
appropriate month of December, but would peak two months
later in February long after Christmas and New Year's. So,
should this only be played this time of year or is it
lyrically suitable to be listened to all year round?
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Paul Haney MusicFan
Joined: 01 April 2005
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Posted: 21 November 2022 at 12:01pm | IP Logged
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I never thought of it as a holiday song. It's more a romantic song about lost love that just happens to be
set during the holidays. And based on a true story, BTW.
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sriv94 MusicFan
Joined: 16 September 2005 Location: United States
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Posted: 21 November 2022 at 1:16pm | IP Logged
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I distinctly remember hearing the song on the radio with the “epilogue” removed-—it edited from the “another old lang syne”
lyric right into the sax solo at the end.
Custom job, or was this on a promo?
Edited by sriv94 on 21 November 2022 at 7:58pm
__________________ Doug
---------------
All of the good signatures have been taken.
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NightAire MusicFan
Joined: 20 February 2010 Location: United States
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Posted: 21 November 2022 at 9:43pm | IP Logged
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I think of it as a holiday song, but it tests well enough to be played all year round on my 80s station.
__________________ Gene Savage
http://www.BlackLightRadio.com
http://www.facebook.com/TulsaSavage
Owasso, Oklahoma USA
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VWestlife MusicFan
Joined: 02 April 2020 Location: United States
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Posted: 21 November 2022 at 10:58pm | IP Logged
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The Annie Lennox and Al Green version of "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" is also considered to be a Christmas song, because it was featured on the soundtrack of the Christmas movie "Scrooged", even though the lyrics of the song don't have anything to do with the holiday season, and radio stations play it all year round.
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Hykker MusicFan
Joined: 30 October 2007 Location: United States
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Posted: 22 November 2022 at 6:25am | IP Logged
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sriv94 wrote:
I distinctly remember hearing the song on the radio with the “epilogue” removed-—it edited from the “another old lang
syne”
lyric right into the sax solo at the end.
Custom job, or was this on a promo? |
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Just checked my promo, and it has the 5:18 version on both sides. I don't think I've ever heard an edit of this song, so it seems
likely what you heard was a house edit.
Personally, I'm so tired of this song if I never hear it again it would be OK. Not really a holiday song per se, but it's kind of
become one over the years. Then again, "Frosty The Snowman" or "Sleigh Ride" aren't really either let alone "My Favorite Things",
but most people consider them to be.
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JMD1961 MusicFan
Joined: 29 March 2005 Location: United States
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Posted: 22 November 2022 at 9:27am | IP Logged
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Add "Winter Wonderland" to the list of Christmas songs
that never mentions the holiday.
And for a chart hit that I've always questioned... New
Kids on the Block's "This One's For The Children",
considered a Christmas song strictly because it appears
on their holiday collection.
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Jody Thornton MusicFan
Joined: 23 May 2008 Location: Canada
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Posted: 22 November 2022 at 11:18am | IP Logged
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Hykker wrote:
Personally, I'm so tired of this song if I never hear it again it would be OK. Not really a holiday song per se, but it's kind of
become one over the years. Then again, "Frosty The Snowman" or "Sleigh Ride" aren't really either let alone "My Favorite Things",
but most people consider them to be. |
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Wow! I could never hate this song, but again, I don't hear it all of the time either. In the last decade, every time I've heard it, I played it off an LP at home, or else it's a burned CD in the car. Never on the radio though.
Mind you, I can relate to your sentiment with a lot of classic rock material. If I never heard the Eagles again, minus a couple of lesser hits, I'd be just fine.
__________________ Cheers,
Jody Thornton
(Richmond Hill, Ontario)
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EdisonLite MusicFan
Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 3:37am | IP Logged
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Paul Haney wrote:
I never thought of it as a holiday song. It's more a
romantic song about lost love that just happens to be
set during the holidays. And based on a true story, BTW. |
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I agree with Paul's point of view. I'll also add that when it was a hit, I was in
college, and in my college dorm, we just thought of it as a regular song
(that mentioned 'old lang syne'). I don't think any of us thought we were
listening to a Christmas song as it was climbing and falling down the chart.
Because of the Dec 31st reference in the title, it started getting added to
Christmas playlists and probably Christmas stations on Sirius XM. But I
really don't think of it as a holiday song.
Whereas "Winter Wonderland" is on so many Xmas albums, it is considered
one, though the holiday isn't mentioned. If we gave it some thought, I'm
sure we could come up with a long list of "Christmas" songs that never
mention the word "Christmas" in them.
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EdisonLite MusicFan
Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 3:42am | IP Logged
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Another odd example. Billy Joel refers to his song "She's Right on Time" as his
Christmas song. It has one line that mentions Christmas in it - but no other line
in the song seems to be about Christmas at all. So IMHO, I don't really think of
it as a Christmas song - just because it mentions the word once. Even the
spirit of the song doesn't feel like a Christmas song.
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davidlg1971 MusicFan
Joined: 30 August 2020 Location: United States
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 6:04pm | IP Logged
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I always thought of Same Old Lang Syne as a hybrid Christmas/New Year's song. Which makes sense - the first lyric is "Met my old lover in the grocery store, the snow was falling Christmas Eve..."
In the mid/late 1980s, my local top-40 northern California radio station played Same Old Lang Syne during the Christmas season, I think pretty regularly. Somewhere I probably still have a random 1987 radio segment I taped that included that song, along with a few others like Janet Jackson's Let's Wait Awhile.
An interesting fact is that the story told in the lyrics is mostly true - except that the real ex-girlfriend's eyes were green, not blue.
Edited by davidlg1971 on 23 November 2022 at 6:05pm
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Scanner MusicFan
Joined: 14 August 2019
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Posted: 23 November 2022 at 7:15pm | IP Logged
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sriv94 wrote:
I distinctly remember hearing the song on
the radio with the “epilogue” removed-—it edited from the
“another old lang syne”
lyric right into the sax solo at the end.
Custom job, or was this on a promo? |
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I don't recall hearing this version. However, I do recall
one radio station fading out the song as soon as the "Auld
Lang Syne" outro began. Once Fogelberg's hit streak began
to cool, I only heard this song during the holiday season.
(It's probably the only one of his hits that I hear at all
anymore on the radio!)
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