Kate Bush - Wow

OK, I wasn't going to put another Kate Bush single on here for a while but after yesterday's news (Friday 21st March) that she has announced she is going to play live for the first time in 35 years, it needed celebrating! Wow was released in March 1979 and came off her second album Lionheart. The album Lionheart was released in late 1978 and people say it was rush released and more or less had tracks left off from recording the first album. The first single Hammer Horror missed the top 40 so relief was all around when this charted. The song managed to get to number 14 and around this time she played live for the first time calling the tour, The Tour Of Life.

Part of the lyrics for Wow were about an aging gay actor and had a pretty good video to go with the single, much in the vein of the last few videos, when released on the compilation video, they made a compilation video of bits from the live tour for Wow. Kate's success I believe is mainly here in the UK and Ireland and I think she is more of a cult artist in America and Europe. A lot of artists around today say that Kate has been a huge influence and hopefully after this tour she just might release a new album and her back catalogue is in need of a re-master and a new compilation DVD would be great too!

Here's several shots of the single I've collected over the years starting with the UK release

Here's the Italian pressing

And Finally a rare Canadian pressing in yellow vinyl!

Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

This feel good Christmas song originally was released in 1973 and reached number 4 for 4 weeks, Slade has taken the coveted number 1 spot with their single and Elton John's Step Into Christmas stalled at a lower number 24 with his Xmas offering.

Wizzard's track was written and produced by Roy Wood and originally had been recorded in the hot summer of 1973, with Roy and the engineer making a Christmassy theme feeling in the studio to create the right mood for the song. School children from Birmingham were brought down to London for the recording of the choir. When the band performed the song on Top Of The Pops, the school kids were to sing on the track, but were replaced with school children from a London stage school instead. There was also a video for the single with Roy's daughter featured in the video.

The single was released in a mock Christmas card picture cover and although the single came on Harvest records (owned by EMI) the promo copies were released on Warner Brothers records as the band had signed to them when it was discovered that EMI were still owed a single, so they released it.

Here is my copy of the single, released in 1981 which managed to get to number 41. Over the years it has managed to get onto the single charts and even in the years of downloads only still manages a placing on the charts. To me it is one of the best Christmas songs ever, a Christmas card turned into song!