Walking In The Air – Aled Jones (1985)

Description

Additional information about this, Aled Jones vinyl art.

Aled Jones – The Artist

Aled Jones, MBE (born 1970) is a Welsh singer and radio and television presenter. As a teenage chorister, he reached widespread fame during the mid-1980s notably with his performance of Walking in The Air. Since then he has worked in television with the BBC and ITV, and radio (for Classic FM).

Walking In The Air – The Song

“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. It is sung by Aled Jones. The song forms the centrepiece of The Snowman, which has become a seasonal favourite on British television. 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 and reissued in 1985 (on Stiff Records) and 1987. 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.

The Snowman – The Shape

This record has been modelled into the silhouette of the snowman that comes to life from the animated film of the same name. A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture of a man often built in regions with sufficient snowfall and is a common winter tradition. In many places, typical snowmen consist of three large snowballs of different sizes with some additional accoutrements for facial and other features. Due to the sculpt ability of snow, there is also a wide variety of other styles. Common accessories include branches for arms and a rudimentary smiley face, with a carrot used for a nose. Clothing, such as a hat or scarf, may be included. The low cost and common availability of materials mean snowmen are usually abandoned once completed.

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