Walking in the Air
A seasonal song from The Snowman, widely covered.
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"Walking in the Air" is a song by English composer Howard Blake, written around 1970 for the 1982 animated film The Snowman, based on Raymond Briggs's 1978 children's book. It serves as the theme for the flight sequence in which a boy and a living snowman journey to the North Pole. The film has become a seasonal television staple in Britain and Finland.
Controversy
A 1985 cover by Aled Jones was recorded for a Toys "R" Us TV advertisement after Howard Blake recommended the 14-year-old Welsh chorister, believing Peter Auty's voice had broken. Jones's version reached number five in the UK singles chart on 28 December 1985, and he became a popular celebrity. In a 2012 UK poll, Jones's cover was voted 13th on ITV's The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.
Cover versions
Rainbow recorded an instrumental cover titled "Snowman" for their 1983 album Bent Out of Shape. Tangerine Dream produced an ambient cover for the end sequence of the 1983 film The Keep. Aled Jones's 1985 cover reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart; he later released a duet with his adult self on his 2007 album You Raise Me Up: The Best of Aled Jones, and a 2022 duet with tenor Russell Watson on Christmas with Aled and Russell. Irish treble Chloë Agnew covered the song on her 2004 debut solo album Walking in the Air, which reached number 13 on Billboard's Classical Albums Chart and number 4 on Billboard's World Music chart.
Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish released a cover on a 1998 single and on their album Oceanborn; the single was certified gold in Finland in August 1999. Former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen covered the song on her solo Christmas album Henkäys ikuisuudesta, also certified gold in Finland. McFly released a cover on 2 December 2021, which peaked at number 25 on the UK Downloads chart. Teitur Lassen, Dreamers' Circus, and Mads Kjøller Henningsen released an English-language cover on their 2024 album Yule.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Walking in the Air (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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