CHRIS REA I was on a ban when I wrote Driving Home for Christmas

Chris Rea's festive classic Driving Home For Christmas was written by a man who could do no such thing and went on a journey of its own before becoming a hit.

- BY JOHN EARLS

Chris wrote the merry tune in 1978, originally for Van Morrison.

But the now-famous song ended up as a B-side on one of Chris's own singles and did not make the top 10 until 2021...43 years after it was penned.

Chris, now 74, says "It's funny because I'd just been banned from driving when I wrote it. But I was feeling good at the time, too, and people say they can hear that infectious feel-good mood when they hear it." He still has a soft spot for the number and if you're stuck in traffic trying to make it home this Christmas, you may just see the star belting it out.

He says: "I still sing it at other drivers when I'm stuck on the motorway.

"They love that. It's got a story everyone can relate to. You're stuck in traffic when all you want to do is to get home and be with your loved ones.

"Everyone in the country is doing the same thing at the same time. It's a frustrating song, but it's also hopeful and comforting. The singer and guitarist.

who wrote it with longtime keyboard player Max Middleton, initially thought it would be Van Morrison's "kind of thing".

Chris says: "That's why we wrote it in Van's key to sing - not mine. We only recorded it just to hear what it would sound like." The melody was inspired by easylistening tune A Walk in the Black Forest, composed by German pianist Horst Jankowski in 1965.

Chris never got a reply from Morrison and thinks the Brown Eyed Girl singer may never even have heard what he sent.

Chris says: "I wrote Driving Home For Christmas in 1978 and it sat on the shelf for eight years until someone at my record label, Magnet, put it on the B-side of my single, Hello Friend. Then a DJ picked up on it and started playing it instead of Hello.

Friend and I still don't know how or why they did that." T 'he singer then realised its potential and re-recorded it as a single in 1988. It only reached number 53. In 2007, it reached 33.