Released 1976 (1976) Length 5:10 Writer(s) Chris de Burgh | Format Vinyl Label A&M | |
Genre Rock, Christmas, Art rock | ||
"A Spaceman Came Travelling" is a song by Chris de Burgh. It first appeared on his second studio album, Spanish Train and Other Stories, which was released in 1975. It has been released numerous times as a single, becoming a popular Christmas song, and has appeared on many festive compilation albums.
Contents
Single release
The song was not an initial success in the UK and failed to chart. After its first release in 1976 it reached the top position of the Irish single charts staying 15 weeks in the Irish charts and climbed to number 22 in the Canadian airplay charts. However, in 1986, following de Burgh's huge success with "The Lady in Red", its reissue reached number 15 in Ireland charting for only 1 week. The song was also issued as a double A-side with the song "The Ballroom of Romance" and charted for the first time in the UK in 1986, reaching number 40 and staying on the chart for five weeks. It was also released as a single in the Netherlands in 1985.
Song history
De Burgh, who had just signed his first recording contract with A&M Records, was broke and "staying at a friend's flat" when he read Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken. The book made him think "what if the star of Bethlehem was a space craft and what if there is a benevolent being or entity in the universe keeping an eye on the world and our foolish things that we do to each other?" A fan of Irish poet William Butler Yeats, whose work "The Second Coming" avers that every 2,000 years or so there would be a major cataclysmic event happening, de Burgh saw the birth of Christ as "such an event and then 2,000 years later there would be a similar" one. He imagined "the nativity scene, the thing hovering over and I could see the shepherds in the fields and this weird, ethereal music was drifting into the air and they were 'what the heck is that'?" But he "had no ideas about trying to write a hit record." The song failed to chart when it was first released as a single, but De Burgh says it's been "much better to have a regular recurring song than a hit for three weeks."
1989 version
A reworked version of the song was released on de Burgh's 1989 compilation album Spark to a Flame. This version features a re-recorded vocal track (highlighting de Burgh's more mature voice, thus matching the style of his 1980s work) overlaid with a remix of the original backing, and has a slightly different rendition of the final chorus. On subsequent compilation albums it is credited as "A Spaceman Came Travelling - 89" to distinguish it from the original 1975 version.