music.wikisort.org - Composition

Search / Calendar

"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]

"Walking in the Air"
Single by Howard Blake & Peter Auty
B-side"Dance of the Snowmen"
Released1982 (1982)
Genre
  • Christmas music
  • orchestral pop
  • choral music
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-14-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]


Nightwish version


"Walking in the Air"
Single by Nightwish
from the album Oceanborn
B-side
  • "Nightquest"
  • "Tutankhamen"
Released30 January 1999 (1999-01-30)
Recorded1998
StudioCaverock, Kitee, Finland
GenreSymphonic metal
Length
  • 3:41 (radio edit)
  • 5:28 (album version)
LabelSpinefarm
Songwriter(s)Howard Blake
Producer(s)Tero Kinnunen
Nightwish singles chronology
"Sacrament of Wilderness"
(1998)
"Walking in the Air"
(1999)
"Sleeping Sun"
(1999)

In 1998, Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish covered the song for their second studio album, Oceanborn, in a power ballad style. A shorter version of it was released on 30 January 1999 as the second single from the album, featuring two b-sides. It spent eighteen weeks on the Finnish charts, peaking at number one for a week.[5] The band named the compilation Walking in the Air: The Greatest Ballads after this song.

The song was performed regularly during Tarja Turunen's time with the band as the lead singer; after her departure, she went on to record her own version for her 2006 winter album Henkäys Ikuisuudesta.

Nightwish's founding member and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen had stated that it is his all-time favourite piece of music.[6]


Track listing


  1. "Walking in the Air" (radio edit) – 3:41
  2. "Nightquest" (Tuomas Holopainen) – 4:15
  3. "Tutankhamen" (Nightwish, Holopainen) – 5:30

Other notable recorded versions



Uses in other media



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. "Nightwish - Walking In The Air". Finnish Charts. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  6. Dare, Tom (18 May 2020). "Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen: 10 albums that changed my life". Louder Sound. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  7. "Chloé". Billboard.
  8. "McFly Walking in the Air Single". OfficialSingles.com. 2021-12-16. Archived from the original on 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  9. "IRN-BRU snowman - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
  10. VajenVennaTV (5 June 2013). "WNF Commercial - Win de Wereld". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2013-09-02.



На других языках


[de] Walking in the Air

Das Lied Walking in the Air wurde 1982 von Howard Blake für den Animationsfilm Der Schneemann (The Snowman) geschrieben, der auf dem gleichnamigen Kinderbuch basiert. Das Musikthema begleitet einen kleinen Jungen und einen Schneemann auf ihrem Flug zum Nordpol.
- [en] Walking in the Air

[ru] Walking in the Air

«Walking in the Air» (рус. «Идущие по воздуху») — песня, написанная композитором Ховардом Блейком[en] для английского короткометражного анимационного телефильма «Снеговик», снятому по одноимённой детской книге Рэймонда Бриггса[en] 1978 года, который традиционно демонстрируется по телевидению в Великобритании в канун Рождества.



Текст в блоке "Читать" взят с сайта "Википедия" и доступен по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike; в отдельных случаях могут действовать дополнительные условия.

Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.

2019-2025
WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии