The true story behind Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home For Christmas’
Ever get a song pop into your head based on the activity you find yourself doing at any given moment? Anytime I’m on the mend from a small illness, I tend to get the line “I have to admit it’s getting better” playing on loop in my brain, with The Beatles making me wonder if I am indeed, getting better, or if I’ve gone slightly doolally.
At a more festive time of year, the one that’s likely to lodge itself in the folds of your grey matter as you travel to visit loved ones is Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home For Christmas’, and it’s the kind of track that is bound to enter the mind as you head on your way, regardless of your preferred method of transport. Do I mind that that’s the case? Not at all, and as far as Christmas songs from the 1980s go, the Middlesbrough icon’s defining hit is one that doesn’t appear to get any more grating, unlike the efforts of Band Aid and Wham.
Even though ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ wasn’t released as a single until 1988, he’d written the song several years prior, and had even recorded it two years before it hit the charts. Underwhelming in its performance, it peaked outside the top 40 in the UK, but has gone on to experience a new lease of life in subsequent years, with it now becoming a staple around this time of year, especially within the UK where it has re-entered the charts on a near-annual basis, reaching number 10 at its best in 2021.
But, despite it being an appropriate soundtrack for anyone who makes a significant journey in December every year, is there actually a true story behind the lyrics? Was the track even written while traversing the treacherous icy roads, and if so, what journey was Rea talking about in the seasonal song?
True to the song, Rea did in fact write the song while in his car, stuck in traffic on the way out of London as he embarked on the trip back up to Teesside for the Christmas break. While at a standstill in his wife’s Austin Mini, lines began coming to him about wanting to rush home, and began conjuring up festive-themed metaphors for how the tailback reminded him of the tree with its “red lights all around”.
Working alongside his keyboard player and frequent collaborator Max Middleton, he was able to then get the structure of the song down in 1978, adopting something of an easy-listening style that was atypical of the blues rock that he was known for producing throughout his career. The light touches of keyboard generate a coolness to the song that is reflective of the December weather, and there’s a yearning within the sound as Rea clearly hopes to get back to his family.
Surprisingly, Rea almost didn’t keep hold of the song for himself despite its obvious charm, and came close to offering it out to other performers as a potential hit. Had he given it away, it may well have experienced a better chart performance upon its initial release, but Rea decided to stick by it, with it eventually being released as a B-aide for his ‘Hello Friend’ single.
“Me and Max thought we’d try to get it to Van Morrison, as we thought it’d be his kind of thing,” he divulged during an interview with The Daily Express, before going on to explain how it unexpectedly became the standout over the A-side. “A DJ picked up on it and started playing it instead of ‘Hello Friend’,” he claimed, “and I still don’t know how or why they did that.”
It may not have been the most successful song at the time, but its use in the Christmas special of Gavin and Stacey in 2008 helped bring about a newfound appreciation for the song, and its aptness during the COVID-19 pandemic was what propelled it to its highest ever chart performances in the 2020s.
“It’s a frustrating song, but it’s also hopeful and comforting,” he later reflected. “It’s funny, because I’d just been banned from driving when I wrote it. But I was feeling good at the time too, and people say they can hear that infectious feel-good mood. I still sing it at other drivers when I’m stuck on the motorway.”
