'Driving Home for Christmas' in a Mini....

[mab01uk]

Just been reading the story behind this popular Christmas song and how it is connected to the Mini in this months MCR "CooperWorld" magazine and thought it was worth sharing here.

"The classic Christmas song “Driving Home For Christmas” was written in 1978 by Chris Rea, but didn’t become a song, much less a modern classic for almost a decade. The whole story is even more of a festive fairy tale. It starts, like the best stories, from a pretty hopeless situation. Chris Rea was still a young and relatively unknown singer-songwriter when in the winter of 1978 he was faced with the prospect of a rather sad Christmas: he was almost out of his record contract and his manager was leaving him. Standing outside Abbey Road Studios, he was stranded in London, he couldn’t get back to his home in Middlesbrough, as the record company wouldn’t pay for his train ticket.  
That’s when his wife Joan came to the rescue, making the 250 mile drive down to London in their Austin Mini, to bring her husband back home. On their way back the snow began to fall and they were constantly stuck in traffic. Rea began looking at the other drivers and they all looked miserable to him, so he, almost jokingly, started putting down the words that would become his song. Song writing can really be that spontaneous, although we’d like to think being in a cosy Austin Mini helped.
After arriving home, and with only a few hundred pound in their pockets left, the Reas were preparing for a lean Christmas. However, waiting for them was a letter from PRS America that revealed that his song Fool (If You Think It’s Over) had been a hit in the USA. There was a cheque for £15,000 in the letter as well, which saved their Christmas.
The song would sit on a shelf for years before one day Chris Rea and his band were testing new pianos, when they came upon a tune that fitted the lyrics to “Driving Home for Christmas” perfectly. They would add the familiar jazzy intro and Christmas carol-style arrangement later, and the song that we know today was born. It was only ever included as a B-Side on a different single, as nobody thought it would become much more than that. But after a few years, and without any marketing campaign, the song slowly became a bigger and bigger hit, re-entering the charts every year. Today it is considered a Christmas holiday staple.
However, Chris Rea never intended to write a Christmas hit, and so the song was never released as a single, and there was no music video produced for it. BMW thought the song deserved a music video and with its connection to the Mini created this music video below in 2022 as a tribute to one of the all-time great Christmas songs with Chris’ blessing....and it does even feature a few classic Minis!"

MINI | Driving Home for Xmas:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2we7JdB7iY

[mab01uk]

Austin-Rover also did a very successful Christmas TV advert with "Minis Have Feelings Too" back in 1986 which gave a big boost to Mini sales figures at the time, with hindsight it seems a shame their marketing department did not know or think of following it up with the "Driving Home for Christmas" Mini related story like BMW have...

AROnline - Archive : 35 years ago – Minis have feelings too.
"At Christmas 1986, the Rover Group ran a TV advertising campaign showing two Minis driving up to each other and stopping just as their noses ‘kissed’ under a mistletoe bough. And sales for January jumped to 1200 – 21% up on the previous year."
At the time many people said they did not even realise you could still buy a classic Mini as they thought the Metro had replaced it back in 1980 and Austin-Rover had failed to advertise the fact it was still in production!
"The Mini won a reprieve – due to the abiding love of women drivers. It was due to be scrapped next month after 27 years. But market research has shown that women are still clamouring for the snappy little vehicle. So much so, that Minis will roll off the production line until at least 1991 and weekly output will rise from 650 a week to 750. Rover Group Chairman Mr Graham Day, said research showed that 7 out of 10 Mini buyers are city-dwelling women aged 20 to 39. ‘Women treat their Mini cars with affection and have pet, names for them,’ said Mr Day."
More here including video of the 'Minis have feelings too' ad:-
https://www.aronline.co.uk/archive/mini ... lings-too/

[mab01uk]

The Mini story behind 'Driving Home For Christmas' with Chris Rea and a mention for Radford Minis:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfhhAXgM-2Q

[mab01uk]

Chris Rea and his 1957 Morris Minor at Thruxton Historic in 2020:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLIX8907M8