Australia's Santa Claus

I saw the song and the clip put to it on you tube so went searching for the original film(and it is - 30mm -before the days of video!). The clip was done in 1/2 a day to run on the final Frank Jones Xmas Show on channel 7 Canberra in 1974 and was produced by John Tutty of 7 and myself(if you can call it produced!?and is an excellent excuse for the less than smooth presentation). The song was written(or maybe thrown together)by Peter Wynne(ex guru national channel 9 producer), Norm Bennell(political reporter in Canberra in the 70's) and myself. We had a lot of fun with it over 3 years and made $99 all up.(hence why none of us pursued recording as a career). It was truly a "one hit wonder" and looking back now, I hope we didn't ruin too many young minds and warp their innocent views of Xmas and the big feller in red! . I notice by the comments, somebody has kept some sort of track of my "career" which, not surprisingly, after several years in radio moved away to now owning 2 coffee shops in Brisbane called 'Hard Coffee' and jointly bookmaking at the Gold Coast with my son Richard and daughter Alexandra(who also works in REAL movie making), and(not through any royalty payments)now also enjoying a holiday in London...there is no truth in the rumour I'm here to get us a start on Xfactor. Merry Xmas to all.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• The
• biggest
• Xmas
• song
• ever...in
• Canberra!

[mjf1811]

glad you enjoyed it WAY back then...not too sure we'd find anyone keen to release them these days!! they may have had their day in the 70's! They were fun though.

[todles18184]

This was just played on 2ca by Greg Robson, it's a pity he didnt track you down for an interview

[datto10]

Hey MJ you are still a talked about legend down here in Canberra is there any truth in the story I heard about you and Blackman doing crank things to each other while changing shifts ?? Cheers mate

[sortashaman]

Hah!! What fun to find the original video to this! I'm a Yank who had the privilege of hearing this on Radio 2CA in Canberra when we lived there '74-'76. I also recall "Chewy on Ya Boot" (released late '75?), and have an off-radio recording of it on an ancient cassette someplace. The video reminds me of playing around w/ 8mm film and some video w/ the Childrens' Film and Television Council...

Didn't 2CA DJ Mark Slater do a song in early '75, called "Inflate 'em"?

Thanks for the memories!

[mddawson1]

This song was legendary when I was in high school, a definite highlight of the festive season. Any chance of re-releasing it on CD with Chewy on Ya Boot and Sort of Auld Lang Syne?