Happy Holidays! Since it’s the first year of my blog, and since it’s the last year for my Annual Holiday Show on my little 20-year-old 80s radio program, STUCK IN THE 80s (on WMPG community radio in Portland, Maine), I wanted to present to you THE 31 DAYS OF 80s XMAS SONGS, or, 31 of my favorite 80s holiday musical treats.
For Day 17 of the 31 DAYS OF 80s XMAS SONGS, it’s a 1983 gem that wasn’t intended as a Christmas song – it’s just the way it worked out: “2000 Miles” by The Pretenders.
“2000 Miles” was released in late 1983 in some parts of the world (here in the U.S., it was the B-side of the single, “Middle Of The Road”), in advance of The Pretenders’ amazing third album, LEARNING TO CRAWL.
James Honeyman-Scott and Chrissie Hynde.
While some folks misconstrued the lyrics of the song to mean that 2000 miles is the distance between two lovers who miss each other over the holiday season, Chrissie Hynde actually wrote the song for the band’s original guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott, who died in 1982.
The song reached No. 13 in Holland, No. 15 in the U.K., No. 30 in Australia and No. 36 in New Zealand. It’s been covered by the likes of Coldplay, KT Tunstall, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Kylie Minogue, and even Chrissie Hynde herself did an update of the song in 2014.
Xmas song or not, “2000 Miles” struck a holiday chord and more with listeners, and as for me, “2000 Miles” is never really far away, this time of year and then some…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5G2dyA8JxY
FOREVER YOUNG 