Singer Aled teams up with pianist on Christmas charity tune
ALED Jones has joined forces with a man living with dementia to create a Christmas song for charity.
The Welsh singer joined Paul Harvey, an 81-year-old former music teacher and composer who became well known after his son, Nick, shared a video of him playing piano that went viral.
In the video, Nick challenged his father, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2020, to improvise a tune using the notes F, A, D and B, and the video’s popularity prompted an appearance on BBC Breakfast.
Daniel Whibley, of the BBC Philharmonic, arranged for the orchestra to virtually record the song, Four Notes, to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society and Music For Dementia.
The song went to number one on iTunes and Amazon music charts in October 2020.
The new single, Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day, was created specifically for Music for Dementia by Paul Harvey, his son, Nick, and his long-time friend and lyricist, Pete Talman.
Mr Jones, who provided the vocals, said: “I recall the first moment I saw Paul Harvey on TV and like the millions of others who saw it, I was blown away by his amazing talent, I remember being in tears watching his story.”
He added: “Music has been a huge part of my life, I truly believe it has healing powers, we just need to look to Paul to see how transformative it can be, he comes alive when he’s in front of a piano.”
The charity Music for Dementia is campaigning for music to be an integral part of dementia care and aims for this song to help raise awareness of this issue.
Speaking about the single, Mr Harvey said: “Writing a new Christmas song isn’t as easy as you might think – there’s a lot of expectation that comes with it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.”
The song also aims to raise awareness of a specialist radio station, Music for Dementia’s m4d Radio, which offers a group of five themed radio streams playing music designed for people living with dementia.
The song can be found at www. m4dradio/Christmas and downloaded for free until Tuesday, January 4, 2022.