Christmas at Home
1965 · Decca 31867 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- Webb Pierce
- Title
- Christmas at Home
- Release
- Christmas at Home / Sweet Memories
- Year
- 1965
- Label
- Decca # 31867
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Songwriter
- Max Powell, Wayne Walker
- Genre
- Country · Honky Tonk
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
Popular honky tonk / country singer Webb Pierce, born 8 August 1926 in West Monroe, Louisiana, served in the US army during World War Two.1 He moved to Nashville in the 1950s, and released the track "Christmas at Home" (Decca # 31867) in November 1965, narrated from the perspective of a soldier heading out to war2 In San Francisco, the Christmas season had begun and "people are happy, there is holiday cheer". However, the narrator said that "I'm shipping out tomorrow", so for his Christmas present he wanted "last December". The narrator also chose to focus on the discrepancy between the voting age and draft age: "they say I'm not old enough to vote, that I'm old enough to fight".Sources1Google Books↩2Billboard, 20 November 1965↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — Christmas Songs
Popular honky tonk / country singer Webb Pierce, born 8 August 1926 in West Monroe, Louisiana, served in the US army during World War Two.1 He moved to Nashville in the 1950s, and released the track "Christmas at Home" (Decca # 31867) in November 1965, narrated from the perspective of a soldier heading out to war2 In San Francisco, the Christmas season had begun and "people are happy, there is holiday cheer". However, the narrator said that "I'm shipping out tomorrow", so for his Christmas present he wanted "last December". The narrator also chose to focus on the discrepancy between the voting age and draft age: "they say I'm not old enough to vote, that I'm old enough to fight". Sources1Google Books↩2Billboard, 20 November 1965↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Oh how I would loved to have spent it, Christmas at home / Here I am in San Francisco, and Christmas is here / People are happy, there is holiday cheer / I'm shipping out tomorrow and forever I may gone / Oh how I would loved to have spent it, Christmas at home / Here I am in San Francisco, and it's Christmas eve tonight / They say I'm not old enough to vote / That I'm old enough to fight / My ship will sail tomorrow, and forever I may be gone / Oh what I'd give if I could just spend one more Christmas at home / Give me last December for Christmas this year / For last December I was holding my darling / I'm shipping out tomorrow, and forever I may be gone
Notes
Decca record no. 31867 (116,568), pink promotional label, "Promotion copy – not for sale", Mfg'd by Decca Records, Inc., New York; "Christmas at Home" (Max Powell – Wayne Walker), 2:35; Cedarwood Publ. Co., Inc. (BMI); vocal with chorus and instrumental accompaniment. [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
Born 8 August 1921, West Monroe, Louisiana, USA. Died 24 February 1991, Nashville, Tennessee, USA