Happy Bert Day!!

It's the 1st of December tomorrow which, as all of my nearest and dearest know, is Bert Day!

For those of you not in the know, Bert Day is named after the Sultan of seventies smalzch, the Prince of piped musak, the Emperor of Easy listening, the ultimate King of Swing - Bert Kaempfert!!
Who? Yes, well, he's no longer a household name, but I bet there isn't a single person alive who hasn't hummed along with one of his toons while in the lift at the shopping mall, or shimmied in the supermarket to his 'Swinging Safari''.
I grew up in the Seventies, my parents were big fans, and his music seemed like the soundtrack to my childhood, particularly at Christmas. We had a family tradition on 1st December that the first Christmas song of the season was always 'Sleigh Ride' by Bert Kaempfert. It was always a cause for huge celebration - even the dog used to go mad when it came on - and Christmas would then officially begin.

When I moved in with my husband, I brought with me a collection of things I couldn't live without, including my cat, all of my books, my piano, and an ancient scratched copy of Christmas Wonderland by Bert. Being the most trendy, most 'happenin' dude alive at the time, he could barely conceal his horror when, on 30th November, I reverently slid Christmas Wonderland out of its sleeve in preparation for the 'big day'.
'What's THAT?' 'You can't be seriously expecting me to listen to that!' were some of the more repeatable comments he fired at me. It was like I'd asked him to wear crimplene trousers.

I just ignored him, knowing that Bert would work his magic, and he'd be hooked.
He indulged me on 1st December, thinking that would be it, not knowing that I had also made a tape for the car, and Bert would accompany everything we did for the next 25 days.

After about a week, he stopped complaining, and I even started to see his toe tapping when he thought I wasn't looking. By the next Christmas, he was the one foraging in the LP cupboard on 30th November. The next Christmas, he was the one horrified to find that Bert was too scratched to play on our superduper new hifi system, and who then spent weeks trying to find a copy on CD, which he eventually had to have imported from Holland.
I didn't say anything - Bert had worked his magic.

The secret is that on that album, Bert has managed to capture every Christmas emotion going, happiness, excitement. jollity, anticipation, even poignant sadness, and it's impossible not to feel something Christmassy when you listen to it. It's just a winner.
I'm not sure how easy it is to get hold of these days - we have burned a zillion CD's to keep us going into the next generation - but if you happen upon a copy, just buy it.
It's canned Christmas, and you'll never look back.