Chris Rea

Driving Home for Christmas

Driving Home for Christmas is a Christmas song written and composed by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea. The first version was originally released as the B-side to his single "Hello Friend" in 1986. In October 1988, a re-recorded version served as one of two new songs on Rea's first compilation album "New Light Through Old Windows". It was issued as the fourth single from the album in December 1988.

In interviews for the BBC Radio 4 programme "Today" in 2009, and "The Guardian" in 2016, Rea said he wrote "Driving Home for Christmas" many years before its first recording; this was in 1978 when Rea needed to get home to Middlesbrough from Abbey Road Studios in London. His wife had come down to drive him home in her Austin Mini to save money because it was cheaper to drive than travel by train. Rea was recently out of contract and the record company was unwilling to pay for the rail ticket. The inspiration for the song came as they were getting stuck in heavy traffic, while the snow was falling. He started looking at the other motorists, who "all looked so miserable". Jokingly, I started singing: "We're driving home for Christmas..." "Then, whenever the streetlights shone inside the car, I started writing down lyrics". Rea said "Driving Home for Christmas" is a "car version of a carol".

Anton Burger made a version for concert band, with optional vocal part. The Tierolff website has a version with, as well as without vocals, so you can get a good impression of what the piece sounds like.
Source: Wikipedia

This composition was created with the help of a contribution from the Music Investment Fund, an initiative of Buma/Stemra in cooperation with Voi(C)e, the Copyright Interests Federation and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands.