Friday, November 23, 2007

Cocteau Twins - Frosty the Snowman





Cocteau Twins - Frosty the Snowman



Here's a little history on this unexpected proto-shoegaze cover by the Cocteau Twins:

"The only sounds heard from them between Heaven or Las Vegas and Four-Calendar CafĂ© were "Frosty the Snowman," which was originally recorded for the Volume CD Magazine Issue 5 in 1992, and the Guthrie/Fraser version of "Be Still"—a song on the Peace Together compilation, which was a benefit album for Northern Ireland.

Simon explained "Frosty...": "There's a Christmas record that comes out on Capitol Records (the Cocteaus' US label) every few years. And they were trying to get all their bands to do a cover version of a Christmas song. I didn't think that's what it was at the time. I thought it would be like sitting next to Frank Sinatra. But in fact it would've been, y'know, Skinny Puppy, doing 'Merry Xmas Everybody.' Anyway they'd said, Would you do one? And Liz suggested—it must have been for a joke—'Frosty The Snowman.' Then Robin went, Yeah, good title, people will think it's a normal Cocteau Twins song with a title like that."

"Once we'd got the music down, I wrote down the lyrics on a piece of paper and said to Liz, Hey, look at these, and we were laughing away. As we were going through it I was listening to Liz's reactions and thinking, this is never gonna get done. She was going, 'He's a very happy soul'—me sing that?! No way, I could not in a million years... 'with a broomstick in his '—you've gotta be fucking kidding!'"

"I just didn't think she'd do it." [Volume 5, 1992]

...But she did, and "Frosty the Snowman," which eventually appeared on the very-limited release, Snow, with "Winter Wonderland," was a "Holiday '92" favorite, and can still be heard at Gap stores around the world at Christmas time!"

Cocteau Twins Official Website

1 comment:

Arran Walker said...

I hear it all the time at TJ Maxx stores around xmas time, too! The store I work at is in Austin, TX. I imagine all other TJ Maxx stores and TK Maxx up in the UK plays it, too....