Aled Jones has revealed that he was "never meant to" record a full version of Christmas classic Walking In The Air – the song that would go on to make him a household name.
The singer and television personality was hired to sing the song for an advertisement in 1985 when Peter Auty – the choirboy who recorded a version of the song for the 1982 movie The Snowman – was unable to because his voice had broken.
"I was never meant to sing the whole song; I was down to sing maybe 10 or 12 bars of it for an advert," Jones told RTÉ Entertainment.
Jones was called on to record the song by songwriter Howard Blake who "knew of my singing because I think at that point I'd released maybe 10 albums."
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"Off I went to the studio and as you can imagine, I was a quick worker, so I think they'd allowed maybe 4 hours for the session and a quarter of an hour later I'd recorded it," he recalled.
Because there was so much time to spare, the producer asked him to sing the entire thing.
"He said, 'Well, let's have a little play now and then we'll record it and you never know what'll happen'. So we recorded the song, not thinking anything would come of it, and next thing I'm singing it on Top of the Pops, so yeah, who'd have thought it?" Jones said.
The song has become a staple over the Christmas period and Jones laughed that he used to get embarrassed when he would hear it being played when he was out shopping.
"There isn't a Christmas where it doesn't get mentioned, and there isn't a store it seems, a big shopping mall or whatever, that doesn't have it on continuous loop," he said.
"There was a time when I'd go bright red if I'd be handing someone my credit card and hear [the opening bars] and I'd be like, 'I'll come back' but I'm old enough now to front it out and the kids know not to point or laugh when it comes on because there was a time when they used to do that."
Jones has just launched a new album One Voice at Christmas, which sees the singer duet with his young self, including a special arrangement of Walking In The Air.
On Saturday, October 22 Jones will take to the stage at the National Concert Hall for You Raise Me Up – An Evening of Spiritual Hits with Aled Jones. Tickets are on sale now from usual outlets.
