Retro Video of the Week: "I Wish It Would Be Christmas Everyday" by Wizzard

It's the last Retro Video of the Week before Santa comes to deliver toys to all the good boys and girls, and because I'm in a festive mood, I'm going to give you a video that technically falls outside the parameters of Retro Video of the Week, as it was not released during the MTV Era.  But fuck it, it's Festivus, so I'll do what I please.

Roy Wood was a co-founder of the late '60s British rock band The Move, which was one of those bands that was popular in the UK, but never quite caught on in the U.S.  The Move kind of morphed into the Electric Light Orchestra, which we all know colloquially as ELO, and Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ELO in 2017.  Wood left ELO in 1972 to form Wizzard, one of the early British glam bands.

You may recall that last week, the Tuesday Top Ten was devoted to '70s British glam Christmas songs.  At the top of the list was Wizzard's 1973 hit "I Wish It Would Be Christmas Everyday."  As mentioned in my post and the article, there was a revival of holiday music in the early '70s in the UK, largely thanks to glam bands.  Wizzard's "I Wish It Would Be Christmas Everyday" and Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" were both released in December 1973 and became huge hits.  The latter hit #1 on the UK pop charts and the former hit #4.  "I Wish It Would Be Christmas Everyday" has been a British holiday favorite since then, ranking second in a 2012 ITV poll for the nation's favorite (or favourite, as it were) Christmas song.  It has also been a staple on the Christmastime UK pop chart, climbing into the Top 40 of the UK pop chart in 12 of the last 14 years (and the last ten), including #16 this year.

"I Wish It Would Be Christmas Everyday" has become one of my favorite holiday songs.  It's just so damn catchy and happy, and the video is equally as fantastic.  There's Wood, who's only 27, but looks like he's 127.  And there are two drummers, one of which is a nutcracker and the other of which looks like a super happy Gene Shalit.  And there are the sax players, one of which looks like Lenny from Laverne & Shirley and the other of which looks like a combination of the Maharishi and Merlin.  And there's the keyboardist, who looks like an arctic version of Carnac the Magnificent.  And there are the children.  We can't forget the children.  Sure, they're like 50 now, but then, they were playing their asses off on those toy saxophones.  Enjoy, and happy Festivus!