The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco are always looking across the pond as America reliably provides great fodder for light-hearted grins, putting their songwriting chops to good use. Christmas in America is just too good a topic for this British duo to pass up, and they take it on with their newest single just in time for the season, “Christmas ’57.”
In order to understand “Christmas ’57,” it helps to read its inspiration, “Christmas ’59,” a 1980 short story from the late John Hughes. Yes, that John Hughes of Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Home Alone fame. Hughes dashed off this humorous account of a loosely autobiographical holiday get-together from his childhood growing up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. It eventually provided the genesis for another Hughes classic film – Christmas Vacation. (His earlier Vacation ’58 short story birthed National Lampoon’s Vacation.)
The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco have often applied their U.K. wit toward U.S. culture, and since John Hughes was such an insightful observer of traditional middle-American psyche, it’s not difficult to imagine the respect that Tail-Fin Fiasco linchpins Malcolm Moore and David Myers have toward his work.
Sprinkled with clips from Christmas Vacation and references from the short story, the bow on the Hughes tribute is found in the chorus: “Christmas in Michigan is where we belong.” Musically, the bells-filled upbeat melody is brimming with holiday cheer, just as John Hughes likely would have loved it.
Get “Christmas ’57” now at the 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco’s Bandcamp page.
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