Blogocentric Formulations

Love Actually Is All Around

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"Christmas Is All Around"
by Billy Mack

"God Only Knows"
by The Beach Boys

"Prime Minister's Love Theme"
by Craig Armstrong

"All I Want for Christmas Is You"
by Olivia Olson

                   

For the last entry of the competition, I'm cheating a little and choosing four songs that are all linked together (and loosely related to Christmas) because they're from the soundtrack to the same Christmas movie: Love Actually.

The first song I'm including is "Christmas Is All Around" by Billy Mack (played by Bill Nighy), which is a remake of the The Troggs' classic "Love Is All Around" that Nighy's character is trying to use to secure the #1 position on the UK Singles Chart. He's rather unenthusiastic about the whole proposition, from repeatedly forgetting the word should be "Christmas" instead of "love" to telling a DJ on-air that he wants people to "buy [his] festering turd of a record" that "[crassly tries] to squeeze an extra syllable into the fourth line." I'm not sure it's a Christmas classic in the real world quite as much as it ends up being in the movie, but it's a fun Christmas song that I wanted to include on my list:

The second song I'm including is "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys which actually isn't even a Christmas song at all. The song was #25 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and listed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of its 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The reason it's sometimes thought of as a Christmas song these days is because it was prominently featured in the movie over the ending scene at the airport (and included on the soundtrack), so that - combined with the fact that "God" is prominently referenced in the lyrics - has led many to believe that it's a holiday song when, in actuality, it isn't. But still, it's a great song in a wonderful Christmas movie:

The third song is the "Prime Minister's Love Theme" composed by Craig Armstrong for the film. Even if you haven't seen Love Actually itself, there's a good chance that you'll recognize it as the score is widely used in other films and particularly in trailers and TV spots. Most notably, it's been used in the theatrical trailers for The Aviator and Pride & Prejudice (2005), as well as the TV trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's such an uplifting track and probably my single favorite film score composition outside of Clint Mansell's "Lux Aeterna.  " I dare you to not be uplifted by this score!

And finally, just because it's a Christmas challenge and I know lizco252 is such a fan, I figured the most fitting way to end this Soundtrackers challenge is with the hit song that made such a dominant appearance on so many lists this year. This version is actually performed in the movie by the ten-year-old Olivia Olson, so Beth's ears need not bleed from listening to She Who Shall Not Be Named. The film's director Richard Curtis actually mentioned on the DVD commentary that Olson did such a flawless cover of the song that they had to train her to sing the song differently (worse) so that the audience wouldn't think she was just lip syncing to the original version. Anyway, here it is... my final song of the challenge:

Even though only half the song's in this last entry are technically holiday songs, the whole movie Love Actually is such a great holiday film. Yes, there are plenty of haters out there and it's by no means a perfect film, but it's got such a great message about love making the world go round and being the thing that connects all of us that I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate sentiment during the holiday season.

Happy Holidays, everyone!