With only seven days left until Christmas Eve, and seven months ago it was the 17th of May, which is a big day in Norway. So what could be more fitting than choosing a song of the day with a little Norwegian connection?

Girl in Oslo – Bigbang

The bonus track will be:

Ain’t talkin’ ’bout dub – Apollo 440 

Why? Come along on this journey…

…December 17th, 2003, the final part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy premieres worldwide…

…at that time, Peter Jackson was 42 years old…

…42 is also the famous answer to the question in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”…

…which was written by Douglas Adams…

…who, in addition to the aforementioned book (series) wrote episodes for both Dr. Who and Dr. Snuggles…

…and another famous doctor is Dr. Strange, who in recent films is played by none other than Benedict Cumberbatch…

…who also stars in the movie “Star Trek Into Darkness” directed by J.J. Abrams…

…who also co-wrote the screenplay for the movie “Armageddon”…

…which featured the song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith…

…which was Van Halen’s gateway and inspiration in the music world when they started playing Aerosmith songs in suburban clubs in Los Angeles…

…Van Halen also wrote the song “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” which was sampled by Apollo 440 for today’s bonus track…

Boom – what a chain! 😉

Enjoy!

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I can feel the Christmas spirit in the air, it’s almost as if there’s a faint scent of glögg and saffron buns creeping into my nostrils and a subtle taste of gingerbread in my mouth… Today’s song is a fantastic live performance by an incredibly talented musician and drummer. So cool with drummers who sing…

In the air tonight – Phil Collins Live

Bonus-track is the somewhat controversial song:

Banned in the USA – 2 Live Crew

Enjoy!

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Today’s song is another one that I, for many years, believed was by someone else, namely Jerry Williams. Though it apparently turned out to be John Lennon. But Jerry’s version is still the most powerful version I know, yet today I have chosen a different one:

Working Class Hero – Green day 

The bonus track is not a different version from the ones who made it;

Mama Said – Metallica

Enjoy!

^..^

Now! Guitars, finally, at least in today’s song… although there’s a bit of “not so heavy” in today’s bonus track as well. I first heard today’s song in Ironman – it was love at first listen… the same goes for the bonus track which I first heard one summer on Öland when I was there with my dad and we were listening to something on the car radio while driving around and checking out different things…

Back in Black – AC/DC

Bonus-track:

Little Willow – Paul McCartney

Enjoy!

^..^

When I was in school and participated in the Saint Lucia procession, I seem to recall being told that one of the reasons for it was that it was now the darkest time of the year and that things were about to turn towards brighter times. As I got older, I realized that this was probably not the case, and that I had either misunderstood or been led astray (which I often was, since I was a star boy and wasn’t allowed to carry a candle… but the star was great for sticking song lyrics on!). The winter solstice actually falls on December 21st, and after that, it turns towards brighter times, but today’s song still represents my younger self’s image of things now turning around!

Change on the Rise – Avi Kaplan

And today’s bonus track is from the movie Moulin Rouge:

Elephant Love medly – Moulin Rough

Enjoy!

^..^ 

For those of you yearning for some heavier guitars in this advent calendar, today could have been the day, but it’s not, so be patient, friend… Had I chosen the original, there would have been some nice guitars today with none other than Slash, but the choice falls on a completely different version.

Sweet child o’ mine – Jasmine Thompson

The bonus track will be a Goo Goo Dolls song, but also in a different rendition.

Iris – Natalie Taylor

Enjoy!

^..^

With only two days left until Lucia (Swedish celebration with bringing light in dark times), many of us are probably looking forward to a white Christmas. We’ll see if the weather gods are with us until then, but if nothing else, we have the Red Hot Chili Peppers with us!

Snow (hey oh) – Red Hot Chilipeppers

And the bonus track is for those who want to curl up on the sofa in the winter darkness and maybe watch a cozy movie, like The Hobbit.

Misty mountains – The Hobbit

Enjoy!

^..^

Ska inte dra upp mer synthlegender, men måste bara nämna Rop Papen. För mig är han en riktigI won’t bring up any more synth legends, but I just have to mention Rob Papen. To me, he is a true sound guru and is one of those who paved the way for the rest of us who are not as good at creating different sounds from scratch on synths. (I myself belong to those who are grateful that there are presets to use…) Rob Papen was part of the group Nova which was active in the early 80s.

Clear up – Nova

The bonus track comes with a little anecdote. When I was young (not in the dinosaur age, but shortly after, when vinyl records still existed, but CDs were the big thing – loooong before there was Napster and DC++ and even later Spotify) it wasn’t that easy to get hold of music, other than listening to the radio and recording songs on tape (which always ended up with the intro being cut off or talked over by some radio DJ). Another way was to subscribe to Mr. Music and get a CD in the mail once a month. For me, this was the highlight of the month! On one such Mr. Music disc I found a super cool song. Later I heard another version by Sting, but then thought that it was Sting who had plagiarized the first version I heard, and not the other way around. So the bonus track for today:

Jamaican in New York – Shinehead

Enjoy!

^..^

Today it was easy to decide on today’s song… harder was it to decide which version to share.

Imagine Dragons’ amazing Radioactive, so it had to be two different versions;

The Michigan G-men

Pentatonix in collaboration with Lindsey Stirling

And the bonus-track:

No Manana – Black Eyed Peas

Enjoy!

^..^

Alright, how can we make December 8th a better day?

Well, with some nice music, of course. Today’s song will be:

Pressure – Stereo MC’s

and the bonus-track:

Two Prices – Spin Doctors

Enjoy!

^..^