Track 9 - “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You” by Billy Squier (1981)
Released as a B-side; performed live at MTV Studios, December 1981
Music and lyrics by Billy Squier
Performed by:
Billy Squier – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Cary Sharaf – lead guitar
Mark Clarke – bass
Alan St John – keyboards
Bobby Chouinard - drums
Just outside the window, snow is falling
But here beside the fire we share the glow
Of moonlight and brandy, sweet talk and candy
Sentiments that everyone should know
Memories of the year that lays behind us
Wishes for the year that’s yet to come
And it stands to reason that good friends in season
Make you feel that life is just begun
When I set out to choose the songs for this playlist, I debated on whether to include my favorite holiday music. In fact, maybe you’ve read the Intro where I list the genres of the tracks included and wondered why I would waste not one, but two slots on holiday songs. You wouldn’t be wrong in asking how impactful holiday songs could be when you only listen to them for 3-4 weeks out of the year. You also wouldn’t be wrong in saying that some holiday songs are just annoying. Maybe during that festive time of the year, you utter a “Bah, humbug!” every time a holiday song comes on the radio. However, I would argue that aside from music I’ve associated with summers in my life, that holiday music invokes the most memories for me. Hearing those songs every year certainly makes me recall memories of cutting down our Christmas tree, celebrations with family and friends, and just in general that time of the year, when the weather starts to turn cold and it’s time to break out that ugly holiday sweater. My family and I love holiday music. Whether it’s traditional or modern versions of standard holiday songs or popular songs written for the season, our holiday playlists are on a lot when we’re all together. Most radio stations and streaming services nowadays can’t wait until the day after Thanksgiving, and sometimes earlier, to break out the Bing Crosby, Mariah Carey and Johnny Mathis standards we hear each year. But in our house, we have a strict rule: no holiday music until Christmas tree cutting day, which is usually the first weekend in December. Once we’re in the car on our way to the tree farm in Rhinebeck, New York, we’re usually fighting over whose playlist we listen to first. My wife is more of a holiday standards gal, while my younger son and I favor both standards and songs written by popular artists specifically for Christmas. Once we get to that day, the holiday tunes are on a lot in the car and in the background while we’re working at home, and certainly if we’re sipping holiday punch or serving the Christmas goose. If I had to give a reason why I love this music so much, I would probably have to say that attending Catholic school and Sunday mass each week while I was growing up in Brooklyn had a tremendous influence. Church services during the holiday season always included singing Christmas carols each week: “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Silent Night”, “Joy to the World”, and others, all songs associated with the story of Christmas. Beyond that, there were the earworm Christmas songs played during the animated holiday specials that ran every year. I’m talking “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Frosty the Snowman”, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”, and those great Vince Guaraldi tunes in A Charlie Brown Christmas. And let’s not forget the holiday-themed commercials! Those beautiful Clydesdales clomping through the snow to the Budweiser jingle, the choir singing about buying the world a Coke, and those cute Hershey’s Kisses ringing in tune to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" all come to mind. It was inescapable in such an amazing way, and when you’re little and Christmas is the greatest day of the year, the music adds to all the anticipation. As I got older and started listening to the radio more, I would hear holiday songs that popular artists had written specifically for the season; “Father Christmas” by the Kinks, and the much-maligned “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney are great examples. I started to realize there were more than the standards I was hearing on those holiday specials and in church every week. So, the first holiday song on our 50 At 50 playlist is something I discovered completely on my own in 1981, on MTV of all places, when the network was just a few months old and a popular rock artist at the time stopped by to perform his own holiday anthem.
The 1980s officially began on August 1st, 1981, the day MTV launched and played its first music video. At least that’s how I see it. You’ve heard me mention MTV about a dozen times so far, and I will mention it again several more times as we travel down this musical road. My generation grew up squarely in the middle of MTV’s golden age and its influence on music and pop culture can’t be overstated. And I’ll repeat this as well: If you only know MTV as a reality show channel, you missed out on a cultural revolution and well, that’s just too bad. MTV helped launch a second British invasion in the US; bands like Culture Club, Flock of Seagulls, Billy Idol and Human League, all had Top 10 singles owing to MTV constantly playing their videos. And I probably don’t need to mention what videos did for Duran Duran, Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson, who all became icons and literally revolutionized the music video format. So, when I was eleven years old and discovered MTV by accident when I was flipping through the channels on our new cable box, it quickly replaced the after-school specials, Batman reruns and Saturday morning cartoons I was watching at the time. I remember thinking at the time, “Wow…actually watching music; what could be better than this?” There weren’t many videos at the time MTV launched, so if you were a regular viewer, you saw a lot of the same artists: Pat Benatar, REO Speedwagon, The Who, The Cars and country artist Juice Newton come to mind, to name a few. But it didn’t matter because that limited playlist would explode very quickly in the years to come, when artists realized that making the best music videos would be instrumental in having a hit song.
In December 1981, we were celebrating our 2nd Christmas in our new house on Long Island, and my parents went all out. They bought a new artificial tree, and Dad even sprang for a plastic illuminated snowman that we placed right outside our front door, the first ever outdoor holiday decoration we ever owned. My brother and I had also asked for a new Atari 2600 video game system; at ages 11 and 7, we were certain we would need this to survive childhood, so the anticipation that year for Christmas morning was intense. Over at MTV, just four months after launching, a Christmas tradition was about to begin. Aside from the five original VJ’s, or “video jockeys” (Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, JJ Jackson, and Martha Quinn) introducing videos and bantering in between, the in-studio performances were scarce. I barely remembered seeing any live performances and few guests in those first few months I was watching. But in December of 1981, when MTV wanted to shoot a holiday video, they invited solo rocker Billy Squier to come down to the studio to perform his holiday song, “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You”, a B-side on one of the singles from his top 5 album, Don’t Say No. Billy Squier had some success in a band in the 70s, but it wasn’t until he went out on his own as a solo artist that he achieved stardom in the early 80s. I remember seeing his videos on MTV all the time; “The Stroke” and “In The Dark” were both on heavy rotation, and the album itself (which I seem to remember getting as a birthday present the following year), was great. So, when it was time to shoot the video, MTV’s entire staff gathered at the studio on 33rd Street to sing, clap, and otherwise be part of the experience. Original VJ Martha Quinn recalled, “Everyone you see in that video, they’re the technicians, the secretaries, the executives, the production assistants. We were all one big happy family…” And I have to agree, it really did look like that. All five VJ’s were there singing along, and what looked like just regular people, having this amazing time with a real rock star leading the festivities. When I first saw the video that holiday season in 1981, it looked like one big, amazing Christmas party, a party I really wanted to be at! Not only did I love the song almost instantly, but I think what grabbed me most at that impressionable age was that you could celebrate Christmas with anyone, not just your family. As long as you had some music, maybe some food and eggnog (Hey, I was 11, it’s the only holiday drink I knew), you could celebrate anywhere and with anyone. I loved the feeling of togetherness the video conveyed. This wasn’t a traditional Christmas carol; it was a rock song, and it was fun! MTV played “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You” all through Christmas in 1981, and they continued to play it every year. I couldn’t tell you when I stopped seeing the video on MTV, but that’s what adds to the mystique of this particular Christmas carol. Before streaming, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I didn’t know at the time it was a B-side, so I wasn’t resourceful enough to look for it in a record store. Aside from hearing it occasionally on the radio, decades would go by until I heard it again. A friend who had Napster in 2000 offered to burn some songs onto a CD for me, and “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You” was a song I specifically requested he download for me. Now, it’s available on iTunes and Spotify, so I’ve been able to put it on every holiday playlist I’ve made, and I listen to it several times every Christmas. And the video still gives me the same feeling when I watch it: I want to be at that Christmas party with Billy Squier and the MTV gang. Here’s the video to get you into the holiday spirit. I know it’s May but as I write this there are only 237 shopping days until Christmas; it’s practically around the corner!
Thanks again for stopping by! Don’t forget to subscribe to new posts and tell people if you’re enjoying the playlist; and leave your favorite holiday songs in the Comments.
Next time…a new soul band from Austin, Texas and a radio station help navigate the pandemic year of 2020.
P.S.
Original VJ Martha Quinn says to this day that the taping of “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You” is still her favorite moment from her time at MTV. Coming from one of the people who helped launch the network and the music video era, I think that says a lot about that moment. What I also think is great about it is that Billy Squier was just popular enough at the time, and just memorable enough now. It wasn’t like it was Springsteen or Prince, and it became just another performance of many in their careers. It was truly special for that time.
Billy Squier’s album Don’t Say No ended up going triple platinum, and his next two albums, Emotions in Motion and Signs of Life also went platinum. All three albums are great, and definitely worth listening to. The video for “Rock Me Tonite”, a single off Signs of Life, is often blamed for changing the trajectory of Squier’s career because of how he was portrayed in the video and just how generally bad it is. There’s actually an entire chapter devoted to the video for “Rock Me Tonite” in 2011’s I Want My MTV, an oral history of the network by Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks. It’s a great read, and I highly recommend it; you can listen on Audible.
If you’re into popular artists performing their own holiday songs and versions of standards, I recommend the Very Special Christmas collections. All sales benefit Special Olympics, so it’s also an amazing cause. All the songs are on Spotify, and you can find out more at www.averyspecialchristmas.org.
And here’s the first of two holiday playlists on Spotify; these are my favorite holiday songs performed by modern artists. There are a few standards here, but most are songs written specifically for the holidays by that artist. No Bing Crosby or Johnny Mathis here, so, more of a “let’s get the holiday party started” playlist. 😊
And in case you were wondering, the Atari 2600 game system was under the tree that year. Our friends next door received the Intellivision game system, so we spent a lot of time that winter bouncing back and forth, wasting our brains and bruising our thumbs on video games. It was one of the best Christmases ever!
See you next time…
JS
5/1/2022