Festive Tunes: The Yellow Boat Music Twelve Tracks Of Christmas

We compose, arrange and produce music for commercials. This year we got into the Christmas spirit early by doing just that for the Morrison's Christmas Campaign.

But when the quills are laid to one side and the Yellow Boat sleigh-bells are back in the percussion box, when the recording kit is switched off and we emerge, blinking, from our Soho bunker into the festive holiday proper these are some of the things we'll be listening to:

Track 1 - Greg Lake, top man, top song, even quotes Prokofiev. Nuff said.

Track 2 - Nickel Creek, wonderful musicians get us in the mood for Christmas.

Track 3 - Diana Krall, produces a beautiful rich performance.

Track 4 - Tom Waits, this guy is the heart & soul of Christmas....hmmmm

Track 5 - Sam Smith takes on a classic song, and pulls it off great. Plus it shows that we don't just listen to stuff from several decades back!

Track 6 - Maria Mena gets us thinking about Christmas in Norway where this track was a number 1 hit  just a few years ago.

Track 7 - Steeleye Span. Speaking of things Scandinavian 'Gaudete' was first published in a collection of Finnish/Swedish songs in 1582. Just 400 years later this version of the Carol appeared on Top Of The Pops. Cool!

Track 8 - a fantastic modern song featuring the words of E E Cummings and the gorgeous music of the composer Eric Whitacre

Track 9 - OK we're moving into serious Christmas mode bringing out the heavy guns of a certain Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky no less!

Track 10 - the barrage reaches a crescendo with the input of Sergei Prokofiev. This dude even inspired Greg Lake...

Track 11 - Nat King Cole, brings us back to the more modern nostalgic Christmas, USA style.

Track 12 - Well we have to leave you with Louis - Merry Christmas!