Is “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg really a Christmas song?

It's a nostalgic song of remembrance. It probably was tradition to break it out for major holidays and it got associated with Christmas, or more to my generation, New Years Eve, when people get wistful about the past year.

[quote]Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For days of auld lang syne

[quote]Me and her would argue

Now, you're trolling.

If LOVE ACTUALLY is a Christmas movie - this is a Christmas song.

New Years and maybe weddings (bachelors toast).

No, it just used the melody or the song, and is about two people who were once “lovers” sharing a drink in their car and reminiscing about their shared past. It’s Christmas Eve, but I think it could be any holiday. I think it’s a stretch to call it a Christmas song, but possible.

The song was autobiographical.

See story below which shows the actual location where they ran into each other that Christmas Eve.

As a child I always thought of it as a Christmas song because it is a part of the Christmas music played on radios during that time of year.

Now as an adult I hear it and think of it as more of a “Holiday” song than a Christmas one. It takes place on Christmas Eve but has more of a NYE vibe to it.

It’s just a toned-down rendition of the finale from Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture:

I used to love the chorus to this song. It’s simple but poignant.

And, yes, he wrote the song after running into his ex from when he was very young, I believe in HS or college. It was late so places were closed so he found a liquor store and they shared a toast and beer together as they briefly caught up and reminisced. His youth came flashing back to him as they chatted and he felt like a teen again.

I don’t think he ever saw her again.

I think some of you are talking about Old Lang Syne, but OP is talking about Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg. Two completely different songs.

Thank you r10

There is a link right there and they still don’t know what they’re speaking about

bitches be stoned

If "My Favorite Things" is a Christmas song, so is this.

If “Bitch Better Have My Money” is a Christmas song, so is this.

Maybe it touched a nerve for your mom.

Its like my mother always said- "Face it, Yoko Ono IS Christmas."

R6 thanks for the video. I like Dan Fogelberg’s music and listen to it often. Cool to know the origin and see the memorial.

Bitches, there is ONLY one Christmas song.

If “Ice Ice Baby” is a Christmas song, so is this.

[quote]Is “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg really a Christmas song?

At this point I don't know if I'm laughing or crying.

Here’s a recently released live version that’s really good.

I never knew what he looked like. Kind of a Kenny Loggins sort.

He wrote some good songs. This was one he wrote while in high school. Good song about facing each day with courage.

I've heard some very persuasive arguments that "The Christmas Song" is not a Christmas song.

The only things Christmas about "Same Old LangSyne" is the opening line:

[quote]Met my old lover in the grocery store. The snow was falling Christmas Eve

The same is true of the Joni Mitchell song "River" which has the opening line:

[quote]It's coming on Christmas, They're cutting down trees, They're putting up reindeer

Neither song was released as a Christmas song, but because of those references to Christmas, radio programmers and audiences have made then into Christmas songs.

If My Ding a Ling is a Christmas song so is this.

R10 "Same Old Lang Syne" by Fogelberg wouldn't have been written if the classic Auld Lang Syne didn't exist and hadn't been used during the holidays for years. Come on now.

Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? My moron brother thinks it is.

If "Monster Mash" is a Christmas song, then, yes.

R28 a lot of people consider it a Christmas movie

I really can’t listen to it until it’s more inclusive and re-written to include more diversity. Why not make it “ran into my non-binary biracial lover in the grocery store”? As written it’s really hard to enjoy because it’s so cisgender and rife with heterosexualism —so much so that I don’t see myself in the people in the songs and therefore can’t relate.

If I'm Too Sexy is a Christmas song , so is this.

I loved Dan Fogelberg when I was young. Sadly, he died from prostate cancer when he was only 56.

Scary to think I've outlived him. RIP.

Christmas song or not, it is maudlin as hell. You know what's a song I'd like to claim for Christmas? "Let 'Em In," by Wings. It just reminds me of family gatherings.

[quote] Me and her would argue

Jesus Motherfucking Christ. Take the trash out.

It’s a New Years song but as there are only 7 days between the 25th and the 31st the song has a very short post-Christmas music shelf life. They throw it in the Christmas music mix so it can be played for more than one week a year.

R36 there is no excuse for you. The first 10 posters get a pass due to the obvious confusion.

R26 - For you!

I think of it as a Christmas song. I like it. It's schmaltzy, but I like it.

Who is Dan Fogelberg?

"Me and her would argue"

Oh, dear! (assuming OP isn't a troll)

R28, I watch [italic]Die Hard[/italic] at Christmas. I have several non-traditional movies I watch, like [italic]the French Connection[/italic] and [italic]the World of Henry Orient[/italic].

There has been a debate about whether Die Hard is or isn’t a Christmas movie since the 90s.

Die Hard is as much as Christmas movie as The Poseidon Adventure is a New Year's movie

R25 mentioned "River." Good point. Seems like any fucking song that mentions fucking Christmas gets sucked into being commercialized as a Christmas song, showing up on those radio stations that play nothing but Christmas music from Halloween through MLK.

My favorite Independence Day movie is Born On the Fourth of July.

My favorite Easter movie is Steel Magnolias.

Again, who or what is Dan Fogelberg? Sounds like some 40 or 50 year old 70s thing.

I bet Dan Fogelberg and his heirs are glad it has become recognized as a Christmas song, because I'm sure they enjoy the checks every year.

Having an iconic Christmas song is one of the best retirement/estate investments in the music industry. Brenda Lee has been in the business since the mid-50s, she had many huge hits, but she has stated that every year the checks she gets from her Christmas recordings is enough, that she doesn't have to do any work the rest of the year unless she wants to. Bing Crosby was really the first international "pop star" who held onto the limelight for fifty years or more, but the only airplay he still gets, and what everyone associates him with, is his Christmas songs. That keeps his memory alive in the public's mind. It never really feels like Christmastide until I hear Der Bingle singing.

Mariah is in that category too r48

R49 I was going to mention her, but she still gets regular play on other formats. I was mainly focusing on legacy artists that aren't played on most stations anymore, outside of Christmas.

If "Alice's Restaurant" is a Thanksgiving song, then "Same Old Lang Syne" can be a Christmas / NYE song.

I was driving around doing errands a couple of Father's Days ago. "Cat's in the Cradle" (song about a negligent father whose son repeated a bad cycle) came on the radio and I burst out laughing.

Isn't the song somewhat tawdry? I mean, they did have sex in the car in the parking lot of the grocery store, right? That's why I love Dan Fogelberg. He's celebrated as an adult contemporary darling, but his lyrics frequently veer beyond the earthy and into the morbid. And even though most of his songs were (weird and) maudlin, he was actually a very cheery, upbeat soul.

Yes, I did get the feeling that there was sex in the car, along with alcohol drunk from a paper bag. Tawdry and sappy at the same time.

[quote]I think some of you are talking about Old Lang Syne,

That would be AULD Lang Syne.

"Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland" have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, but are always considered Christmas songs. I guess it sort of makes sense, but only in the northern hemisphere.

Same with Wham’s “Last Christmas”. It’s not a Christmas song, but they always play it then.

It technically is a Christmas song r56

It's a terrible song. Who puts "met my old lover in the grocery store" to Tchaikovsky? Dan does, that's who. Most of his stuff sucked. But he was gorgeous, I'll give him that.

THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT is a good movie. I'd watch that at Christmas.

Who can’t find an open bar on Christmas Eve? I don’t think they were trying very hard.

[quote] It technically is a Christmas song

It doesn’t mention Jesus, Santa or Rudolph so it’s NOT a Christmas song.

R59 ummmmm this was the 70s. Bars closed early on holidays then in most of the country.

Sometimes you people place modern days on things of the past.

Ummmm that’s not how it works r60

One thing’s for sure, her Swanson’s frozen dinner didn’t make it home.

They didn’t have sex. Nothing in the lyrics indicate that.

If “Back That Thang Up” is a Christmas song, so is this.

R64 he’s spoken about this and you’re right, they didn’t have sex. They spoke for a few minutes but it was awkward but it felt like old times.

R59 In the South, it isn't uncommon for bars to close early on Christmas Eve, so it never seemed out of the ordinary to me.

Folgelberg ripped his song off from this one.

Yes, ir feels like like their reminiscing about their past together made them nostalgic for what they had, but realized their was no going back.

The only thing that’s tawdry is assuming they just hooked up in the car.

R67 actually all over the country back then that wasn’t certain cities.

There is no sex in the car, God. What's wrong with you guys?

Is The River the one RDJ sang in Ally McBeal before he left her and ruined the show? I will never forgive him.

R47: I get that this is a chat/discussion website but repeating a question (with an annoyed tone: ‘Again’) asking who this guy is seems a bit pointless and lazy. Just Google him and you’ll find out who he is.

I actually find it a bit disturbing that these men on this site don’t know what it’s like to have an adult conversation and it not be sexual. They think everything has to be sexual. It’s strange.

At least it’s not The Christmas Shoes.

It is a Christmas song, they did talk backstage once after it was released, they didn’t have sex, she heard on the radio while going to work. She divorced and has remarried.

Here is a pic of her (Jill)

Not once did I imagine they'd had sex...until reading this thread. Now when I hear this song, I will wonder if she bumped her head on the steering wheel while servicing his "candy cane" in a dark convenience store parking lot.

Oh for God's sake, NOWHERE in the song does it say they had sex in the car! Get your minds out of the gutter!

He did sing that they " couldn't find an open bar" so they got a six pack and "drank it in the car." I did find that to be tawdry and made them seem like assholes. Drunk driving isn't romantic.

They took a shot and had a beer.

It’s a sappy song, but once you’re over 30 or so the melancholy of it does ring true. There’s obviously a lot of melancholy as well as cheer around the holidays; so I think it’s a good counter-punctual Christmas song - like the bleaker original lyrics of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”

Technically, “We Need A Little Christmas” is NOT a Christmas song.

How on earth am I confused? My post was referring to the Dan Folgelberg song, as that’s what this thread is about. I stand by my assessment that his song is one of the few New Years pop songs in existence. Another would be ABBA’ s Happy New Year, which isn’t played enough unfortunately. Fogelberg’s song is lumped in with Christmas music on the radio, etc. You’ll notice it’s played more towards Christmas, rather than the weeks just after Thanksgiving, as people start contemplating the coming end of the Christmas season and the end of the year and cold January days that lie ahead.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

How on Earth do you think this is a New Years song? The entire story of the song takes place on Christmas Eve.

Can we count "It Doesn't Have to Be That Way" as a Christmas song?

If WAP is a Christmas song, so is that.

R82, Auld Lang Syne (a different song) is a traditional NYE song.

And what does that have to do with the story that is told in this song?

R86 - the song musically quotes Auld Lang Syne in the closing bars and directly connects / comments on the meaning of ALS - did you actually ever listen to either song?

I can relate to the song.

Yes, dickhead. I've listened to both songs.

By the way "Auld Lang Syne" lyrically doesn't reference New Year's Eve or any other specific time. But it has become associated with that holiday because it's traditionally heard at that time. By that logic, Fogelberg's song has become associated with Christmas because it's traditionally heard along with the other music of that holiday. So it seems that the question is answered. What are we arguing here?

If detected early while still localized prostrate cancer has one of the highest survival rates. Sadly Dan Fogelberg along with (far) too many men didn't discover they had disease until it has spread. Mr. Fogelberg also suffered from a very aggressive form of prostrate cancer as well.

Upshot is men over 40 should get PSA and finger up butt test regardless. More so if there is a family history of prostrate cancer.

I didn’t call you a dickhead, dickhead, just suggested you were perhaps a bit obtuse.

The real argument in this thread is that some people seem to be so literal minded that they can’t conceive of a Christmas song that isn’t explicitly about mistletoe and holly; while another literal minded camp feels that if a song takes place on Christmas Eve it can’t be a Christmas song, it has to be a Christmas Eve song — as if the whole blurry shitshow between Thanksgiving and New Years Day isn’t just one long undifferentiated sleigh ride straight to Hell.

Same Old Lang Syne always seemed more upbeat than Harry Chapin's song on a similar theme, Taxi.

I watch Bell Book and Candle on Christmas Eve because it takes place on Christmas Eve. It’s one of my unconventional Christmas film traditions.

People tinink "Turkey Lurkey Time" is about Thanksgiving, but it's actually a Christmas song.

Is 1993's Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie?

If “White Christmas” is a Christmas song, so is this.

[quote] There is no sex in the car, God. What's wrong with you guys?

God is here? And you’re speaking to him?

[quote] If detected early while still localized prostrate cancer has one of the highest survival rates. Mr. Fogelberg also suffered from a very aggressive form of prostrate cancer as well.

[quote]More so if there is a family history of prostrate cancer.

Oh, fucking dear!

Is this a cancer that is lying down?

[quote]Is “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg really a Christmas song?

About as much as Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

Until this enjoyable thread, I didn't know Fogelberg is dead.

I see what you did there, Della.

You’re like a rapper.

Maybe he was under the power of gold.

Winking at r101.

The Pogues "Fairytale in New York" is much more of a Christmas song. I'm waiting for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to cover that one.

Or Pentatonics.

We drank a toast to innocence, We drank a toast to Now…

r25, you forgot "Celebrate Me Home" by Kenny Loggins. Other than the opening line (Home for the holidays, and I believe I've missed...), there's nothing Christmas about it.

We sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on December 25. Is Happy Birthday a Christmas song?

"My Favorite Things" has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, but it seems to have become a holiday perennial.

I love "My Favorite Things," but I don't think of it as a Christmas song.

“Same Old Lang Syne” was released as a single in late November 1980, and it charted at #34 two days after Christmas. So it was ALWAYS a Christmas song.

I think the fact that the Sound of Music has now become an annual Christmas time movie on tv, it has helped to make "My Favorite Things" into a Christmas song, because it's the only one in the film you could really incorporate into the festive period.

As asked above, who the hell is Dan Fogelberg?

If only there was some way to find an answer to that question, R113. Like if there was website or something where you could type in "Dan Foglelberg" and it would return results with info that would help you figure out who he was. Maybe even give the search website thingy a unique name, like Gaggle or Googly or something.

I post on a website where people share posts recognizing the particular achievements of individuals of different minority groups. Asking who they are in the comments is a way bigots passive aggressively negate them. Obviously if they really wanted to know, they’d read the link or Google the perso.n. Here it’s probably just a backhanded swipe at eldergays talking about an artist from the 70s/80s.

*person

Nice comments. So who is Dan Fogelberg?

Baby, It's Cold Outside is regarded as a Christmas song though never once it mentions any holidays. Just because it's cold in winter.

And the flimsy cover for wild humping, R118. Illicit pre-marital sex is a big part of Christmas.

Baby, It's Cold Outside Is a SJW annual holiday gift. The other side are the people that claim each year that by saying Happy Holidays, liberals trying to cancel Christmas.

*liberals are

Dan Fogelberg had some good songs. That wasn’t one of them. I could never hear it without thinking of buying groceries.

I can't hear it without thinking "This is the cereal that's shot from guns."

Uh, what?

[quote]My favorite Easter movie is Steel Magnolias.

Better not say that to Annelle, seeing how she went to the fire sale at the Baptist Book Store in Shreveport where they had mismatched manger scenes at incredibly low prices and she cleaned them out of Baby Jesuses, which Truvy's husband helped her turn into a Christmas wreath.

R21 Wow, you’re right, that’s a really good version of that song. Never knew it existed. Thanks for sharing that.

No problem—it’s especially good if you’ve heard the original a million times.

R124, r123's comment was the lyric from an ancient commercial set to Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture about Quaker's Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice cereals.

Amazingly I couldn't find an example of it on youtube although I found other non-musical commercials for those cereals.

Can someone here do better?

Dan Fogelberg at 9m10s

I thought it was very funny

R128 - I found a version of the commercial featuring the cast of "F Troop" on YouTube and posted it here last night. It seems to have disappeared from here. "F Troop for Quaker's Puffed Wheat Cereal."

(I'd post a link but, apparently that would guarantee _this_ post gets taken down.

This is the cereal that's shot from guns [boom, boom]

This is the cereal that's shot from guns [boom, boom]

Whatever the rest of it was. Sung to the tune of the 1812 Overture.

They should've shot the Puffs from Forrest Tucker's massive manmeat.

Thanks, r128!

It’s that time of year again, where 106.7 plays Christmas music 24/7 and this is on rotation.

[quote]"Me and her would argue" Oh, dear! (assuming OP isn't a troll)

Or fifteen.

Die Hard is a Christmas movie to a lot of people now.

R136 someone brought this up a few days ago. The whole Die Hard being a Christmas movie argument. It kind of is.

If that fat drunken blob Mariahmoo can declar herself the queen of Christmas, then yeah this can be a churros song.

^ Christmas, autocorrect.

Insufferable dreck.

Unexcusable.

All I know is if I was home for Christmas and I went to the store to pick up whipped cream, and it was snowing, and I didn’t return home for hours, my mother would have had the cops out looking for the car wreck I had obviously had.

Then she probably would have beaten me with the can of whipped cream for ruining Christmas Eve.

Yes, things were probably a wee bit frosty in the house shared by "my old lover" and the architect she married for at least a few days after.

R142, do you think the architect even noticed his wife’s disappearance on Christmas Eve, or that she cared if he did?

Are you people ok? The song makes it clear that they ran into each other whiling grocery shopping on Christmas Eve. They then sat in her car and drank some beers. They then parted ways. I don’t think she was gone for 5 hours.

She could easily say that the grocery store was crowded with a lack of employees on Christmas Eve.

They sat in the car for three hours: “We got a six pack at the liquor store and we drank it in her car … We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast an hour … the beer was empty and our tongues were tired and running out of things to say…

I worked with a woman who knew Dan Fogelberg and she said he was really nice.

Great song

"After Fogelberg's death from prostate cancer in 2007, the woman in the song, Jill Anderson Greulich, came forward with her story. Greulich told of how she and Fogelberg dated in high school. As she explained to the Peoria Journal Star in an article dated December 22, 2007, the pair knew each other in Peoria, Illinois as part of the Woodruff High School class of 1969. After graduation, each attended different colleges. Following college, Greulich married and moved to Chicago, while Fogelberg moved to Colorado to pursue a music career. While back in Peoria visiting their respective families for Christmas in 1975, Fogelberg and Greulich ran into each other on Christmas Eve at a convenience store located at 1302 East Frye Avenue in the Abington Hill district. Greulich confirmed that they bought a six-pack of beer and drank it in her car for two hours while they talked. Five years later, after the song was released, Greulich heard the song on the radio for the first time while driving to work, but kept quiet about it, as Fogelberg had not disclosed her identity. She stated that her reason for remaining quiet about her involvement in the song's narrative was that coming forward might have disrupted Fogelberg's marriage"

There were definitely backseat shenanigans.

I didn't know there was another Dan thread.

I find it interesting that us pile of gays, both elder and probably my age group (26) know of him. My mother introduced me to Dan's music at a young age, which I like to think started my own musicianship. He was a gifted and talented artist and musician who won't be forgotten. Attached is probably his most profound song, at least to my ears:

Song From Half Mountain also deserves mention.

R149 not that shocking as his song plays on radio stations and playlists every Christmas season.

Dan Fogelberg looks like Caucasian Jesus so I can see how you made that association.

R145 he says “We drank a toast to now”, not “an hour”.

Here are the official lyrics of the chorus,

“We drank a toast to innocence

We drank a toast to now

And tried to reach beyond the emptiness

But neither one knew how

We drank a toast to innocence

We drank a toast to time

Reliving in our eloquence

Another auld lang syne

They drank, then they fucked. They drank, then they fucked. After three hours of that, she was sore and ready to go home.

How is Good King Wenclasaus a Christmas carol?

Dan wrote dumb songs, but he was hot as fuck.

I'm guessing they were in the car for at least an hour. Whether they had full-bore sex, I don't know. They probably did kiss. I'm guessing they were gone long enough for the architect to ask: What took you so long?

R157 anyone would know the supermarket on Christmas Eve would probably be busy.

I love Joni Mitchell and have for eons, but that damn River song can eat a bag of cold shit. Hate it.

[quote] I worked with a woman who knew Dan Fogelberg and she said he was really nice.

I knew a woman who knew Dan Fogelberg.

And then he DIED.