“Have Yourself a Very Punk Rock Christmas”

• By Simon Raymonde
• Pitchfork
• 22-Nov 2016

Cocteau Twins put their own dreamy spin on holiday classics—a bit of a family business for the band’s Simon Raymonde, who shares his memories of one particular Christmas circa 1977.

Growing up in the UK during the ’60s and ’70s, the concept of “holidays” meant trips to decaying, windswept seaside towns or, if you were very lucky, a week on a beach in Spain or Portugal. In 1962, on one such seaside visit to West Wittering near Bognor Regis—both real places, I should add—my father Ivor Raymonde wrote a melody that would change his and his young wife’s lives forever. He had been working with a country-folk band called the Springfields, but with singer Dusty about to launch her solo career, together with lyricist Mike Hawker, he presented her with the song “I Only Want to Be With You.” The rest is history. In 1962, Dusty’s parents moved to Hove, Brighton in East Sussex, and it is a delightful coincidence that I was born the same year. Fifty years later, I moved to within 100 meters of that very house, and here I remain to this day.

Along with his work producing, composing and arranging for Dusty Springfield, my father wrote string arrangements for the Walker Brothers (“The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,” clearly not a holiday song), a young David Bowie (“Love You Till Tuesday”), and many others. At the time, he was one of the top three arrangers in London.

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