Walking in the Air

"Walking in the Air" is a song written by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film of Raymond Briggs' 1978 children's book The Snowman. The song forms the centrepiece of The Snowman, which has become a seasonal favorite on British and Finnish television.[1] The story relates the fleeting adventures of a young boy and a snowman who has come to life. In the second part of the story, the boy and the snowman fly to the North Pole. "Walking in the Air" is the theme for the journey. They attend a party of snowmen, at which the boy seems to be the only human until they meet Father Christmas with his reindeer, and the boy is given a scarf with a snowman pattern. In the film, the song was performed by St Paul's Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty,[2] and reissued in 1985 (on Stiff Records) and 1987.[3]

In 1985, an altered version was recorded for use in a TV advertising campaign for Toys "R" Us. As Auty's voice had then broken, Blake recommended the Welsh chorister Aled Jones, whose recording reached number five in the UK pop charts, and who became a popular celebrity on the strength of his performance. The association of the song with Jones, combined with the fact that Auty was not credited on The Snowman, would lead to a common misbelief that Jones performed the song in the film. "Walking in the Air" has subsequently been covered by over forty artists, in a variety of styles.

Recorded versions

Uses in other media

  • In 1985 the song was featured in a Christmas advert for Toys "R" Us where it shows a teddy bear flying a boy to the store.
  • A 1980s popular An Post advert for Christmas stamps ever since every year at Christmas still seen on television today.
  • During their Somewhere on Tour concert tour heavy metal band Iron Maiden sampled the song in the song 'Walking on Glass'.
  • Abbas Kiarostami used the song in the closing credits of the movie Ten.
  • A parody version of it was used in a British television commercial in 2006, for an Irn-Bru advert.[9]
  • It was used in a 2013 World Wide Fund for Nature commercial showing on YouTube, performed by Vajèn van den Bosch.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Tämä ohjelma on katsojien joulusuosikki" (in Finnish). Retrieved 2018-02-25.
  2. ↑ "Snowman singer finds voice at last". BBC News. 2002-12-09. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  3. ↑ "Singles", Sounds, 14 December 1985, p. 22
  4. ↑ http://ronantynan.net/ill-be-home-for-christmas/
  5. ↑ George Lam's version on YouTube
  6. ↑ Archived December 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ "Dubstep Snowman". YouTube. 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  8. ↑ "Walking in the air Howard Blake, Snowman by EUTERNITY". YouTube.
  9. ↑ Irn-Bru advertisement parody
  10. ↑ WWF Commercial - Win de Wereld
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