Walking in the Air

"Walking in the Air" is a song written by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film The Snowman based on Raymond Briggs' 1978 children's book of the same name. The song forms the centrepiece of The Snowman, which has become a seasonal favourite 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]

This article is about the Howard Blake song. For other uses, see Walking in the Air (disambiguation).
"Walking in the Air"
Single by Howard Blake & Peter Auty
B-side"Dance of the Snowmen"
Released1982 (1982)
Genre
Length3:30
LabelCBS
Songwriter(s)Howard Blake
Producer(s)Howard Blake

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 then-15-year-old Welsh chorister Aled Jones, whose recording reached number five in the UK Singles Chart, and who became a popular celebrity on the strength of his performance. The association of the song with Jones, combined with Auty not being credited on The Snowman, led to a common misbelief that Jones performed the song in the film. "Walking in the Air" has subsequently been performed by over forty artists, in a variety of styles. In a UK poll in 2012, the Aled Jones version was voted 13th on the ITV television special The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.[4]

Recorded versions

Uses in other media
  • A parody version of it was used in a British television commercial in 2006, for an Irn-Bru advert.[12] It was reused in the advert's sequel in 2018.
  • It was used in a 2013 World Wide Fund for Nature commercial showing on YouTube, performed by Vajèn van den Bosch.[13]
  • The main tune of the song was used by the Taiwanese music group S.H.E in their song "Goodbye my love".[14]

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. "The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song (shown on ITV on 22 December 2012)". Radio Times. n.d. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  5. "Walking in the air Howard Blake, Snowman by EUTERNITY". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
  6. George Lam's version on YouTube
  7. "Recordings - Forest". George Winston. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  8. "Dubstep Snowman". YouTube. 2008-12-09. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  9. "The Entire Population Of Hackney Setlist at Marquee Club, London". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  10. "McFly Walking in the Air Single". OfficialSingles.com. 2021-12-16. Archived from the original on 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  11. "Ronan Tynan | I'll Be Home For Christmas".
  12. "IRN-BRU snowman - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
  13. VajenVennaTV (5 June 2013). "WNF Commercial - Win de Wereld". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2013-09-02.
  14. "S.H.E [ Goodbye my love ] Official Music Video - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
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