Behind The Christmas Hits: Bryan Adams joins to talk about the REAL Story of 'Christmas Time'

BEHIND THE CHRISTMAS HITS:

This week on Behind The Christmas Hits - Drew gives you a peek behind the curtain about what goes into making this podcast - and the story behind the Bryan Adams hit - Christmas Time!

Bryan Joins to give the real story of the massively popular song - and Rob Thomas recalls how important the song is to him!

 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Finally, we're doing it. A song that I've been wanting
to cover since we launched this podcast. This is the
story behind Bryan Adams and Christmas time. Behind the Christmas
hits with Drew Savage.
Yes, this is a song I have wanted to do
for a long time because I was such a huge
fan of it growing up. Uh, I'm an 80s kid,

(00:23):
and a lot of the biggest singers at that time
were recording Christmas music. Wham, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Whitney Houston, U2,
Bon Jovi, Eurythmics, Corey Hartz, and yes, of course, Bryan Adams.
I honestly don't think there's another time period since the
birth of rock and roll where more artists.
The peak of their careers were recording Christmas music. Now

(00:45):
before we get to the story, I do wanna give
you a peek behind the curtain, and honestly, this episode
is going to be different from any other episode that
we've done because this is going to be more behind
the curtain stuff than actual stories about the song. When
I started this podcast in 2020, I didn't know a
lot about the origins of any of these songs. I

(01:05):
just knew that I loved the songs.
So I figured along the way, during the research phase,
there would be songs that just didn't have much of
a story behind them. And to be honest, I am
surprised at how much we have learned, 6 full seasons'
worth of stories.
During our very first season five years ago, yes, I
have been wanting to do this for a while. I

(01:26):
invited Jim Valance to come on the pod. Jim co-wrote
so much of what Brian recorded in the 80s, including
Christmas time. I'll share with you the email that Jim
sent me. He wrote, Hey, Drew, thanks so much for
your note. When we wrote that song back in the
summer of '85, we couldn't have imagined that it would
still be getting airplay all these years later, or that

(01:47):
an on-air host would deem it worthy of a segment.
I'm just not sure the backstory is all that interesting.
First of all, Jim Vallance, Total Gentleman, we exchanged a
couple of more notes, and hey, it's all good. It
was bound to happen with one of these songs. So
the story behind Christmas time, at least from Jim Valance's perspective, is, uh,
there isn't much of a story. But recently I did

(02:09):
have the opportunity to talk to Brian about his most
recent album, Roll with the Punches, his first studio album
for the record label that he launched, Bad Records.
We mainly talked about the album and his current tour,
but we did have a minute left at the end
of our scheduled time, so I asked him about his
now 40 year old Christmas hit. OK,

Speaker 2 (02:29):
so that song was never officially released, um.
It was a song I recorded for my fans, and
we made a bunch of forty-fives in green vinyl. If
you can still find them, they're, they're out there somewhere.
I had one, yeah. So that, those were only given
to fans, and when the internet came along, then uh

(02:50):
the record company realized I had that. I had another
song called Reggae Christmas, and they put them out on.
To the internet, but there was never any sort of official, oh,
here's a Christmas song, or there's a Christmas record or
anything like that, but it distributed as a single or
anything like that, and, and along with a beautiful sentiment,
you know, it's about peace.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Christmas time was licensed to numerous compilation Christmas CDs in
the 90s and early 2000s, and is played on radio
stations around the world every single year. So while it
was never officially released, in the minds of most of us,
it's very much a hit.
It certainly made an impression on Rob Thomas. Well, I mean,
I'm a, I'm a child of the 80s, you know,

(03:31):
I was in, in high school in the 80s, it was,
that to me is, that is like up there with
Jingle Bells. You know what I mean, like that, you know,
the 80s was a time of a lot of really,
it was a furtive period for a lot of artists
making really good Christmas music, you know, the Waitresses and
Cyndi Lauper and Band-Aid. Um, there's a lot of great

(03:51):
original Christmas songs coming out, and that, that to me is, is,
is like.
That was like the first one I knew that no
matter what, I was gonna do that song, and when
I did it, and Ingram Michaelson and I finally finished
recording it, I actually sent it to Bryan Adams and
got his, his seal of approval on it. I asked
Brian what it was like for him to hear Rob
Thomas do a song. I know, I

Speaker 2 (04:10):
mean, it's, it's nice when people do that, it's like,
it's like the ultimate compliment for a songwriter, and, and
the song has had a good life. I,
Actually made a video for it about 4 years ago, um,
which is on the internet now, and, uh, yeah, so
I mean, I've, I've embraced it more as, as time
has gone on, and I've recorded some other, other stuff

(04:32):
as well, but I haven't recorded that many Christmas songs.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Bryan Adams has never done a full Christmas album, but
his Christmas music catalog is uniquely his.
Outside of Run Run Rudolph, all of his Christmas recordings
are original songs Reggae Christmas, Merry Christmas, Must Be Santa,
Joe and Mary, and of course Christmas Time. As Brian said,
the songs had a pretty good life, especially considering it

(04:56):
was never officially released.
I'm Drew Savage. Thank you so much for listening. You
can find me on Instagram at Drew Savage on Air.
If this is the very first episode of Behind the
Christmas hits you've ever listened to, well, first of all,
thank you, and let me recommend a couple of other
episodes for you to check out, including our very first
episode ever on the song Santa Baby. It was co-written

(05:19):
by Phil Springer, who is just about the last living
songwriter from that golden age of Christmas music. As we're
recording this.
Bill is 99 years old, and when I chatted with him,
he was smart and quick as a whip. You can
also find conversations with everyone from Michael Buble to Brenda
Lee and Darlene Love, Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Al Petrelli, and 98 Degrees.

(05:44):
So many episodes, so many stories. If you enjoyed this one,
please leave us a rating and review. It does help
other people find the podcast, and don't forget to hit subscribe,
so you never miss the story behind the Christmas hits.