'Renta Santa' Really Puts Time Into Perspective.

Whenever I think of 1975 I always think of it as 'just a few years back'. With so many of the artists I still love listening to now originating from that period I still hold a familiarity with the way I felt back then and that makes it all seem 'closer to home', if you know what I mean?

Well, the other day I went off in search on the Internet of 'Renta Santa', a top 10 Christmas hit from Chris Hill. try as I might, though I remembered its title I could not recall how the song went nor 'Bionic Santa' his top 10er from Christmas 76.

As usual, Youtube was the place to re-discover the song and I was soon listening to it. Both hits turned out to be rather silly but unique comedy pieces. I say pieces because really they are no more than collages of spoken words and excerpts from other peoples hits. 

To think that something so amateurish could have made the top ten two years running in different guises sounds amazing these days but the 'songs' are both typical of the kind of thing Radio 1 DJ's would have played on the radio back then for a bit of fun. What is really comical to me about both records is that Chris Hill sounds a lot to me like a cross between Jools Holland and Chris Evans! If I didn't know better I'd swear the two of them were involved!

What re-discovering these old time pieces did for me though was put into perspective just how long ago 1975/6 is. How far has mixing etc come on since then - it is astonishing now to think that 'Renta Santa' would have been thought really cleverly done back then...

I think Chris carried on releasing '.....Santa' records at Christmas for a few years after 'Bionic Santa' was his second and last hit. There was I believe a 'Disco Santa' in 1978 but by then the novelty appeal of his kind of 'schoolboy humour' montages had worn off. This all said, the world very much needs a few more Chris Hills these days. A sense of humour and a cheeky quip or two are also becoming a thing of the past as the E.U. machine and todays litigation conscious society turns us all into robots.  We Brits would not be British without leg pulling so God knows where the current trend towards perfect politeness with ABSOLUTELY NO personality will lead us?

Merry Christmas Mr. Hill if you are still out there!