"I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" is possibly my favorite Christmas song, written by Margo Guryan for Claudine Longet. Longet have always loved Christmas, marrying singer Andy Williams on Christmas Day (December 25th, 1961) and naming two of their children Noëlle and Christian.
Their marriage didn't last long, they separated in 1969 (officially divorced in 1975). By this time, she was seeing Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich, who was fatally shot in 1976 by Longet.
In the trials, she claimed it was an accident, for which she was acquitted for felony manslaughter.
The irony she had made a recording of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)". It was later asked that she removed her song from public circulation.
Margo Guryan wrote "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" and as you can hear in her demo recording, it's slightly different (and I think superior to Longet's recording, even though she's lacking that French accent).
Guryan never toured or actively promoted her debut album Take a Picture (1968), so it failed to make much impact in the music charts. She retired and ended up being a music teacher and songwriter for other artists.
Here's an excerpt of an interview regarding her writings for Claudine Longet:
Excerpts from an August 23, 2001 phone conversation with Margo Guryan
Q: Tell me about writing songs for Claudine Longet.
A: Claudine Longet is the only artist that I ever wrote a tailor-made song for. With all my other songs, people ask me if I wrote them for different artists. I never did. I just wrote what I felt like writing. But Tommy LiPuma called David [Rosner, her husband/publisher] one day, and said "Can Margo write a song for Claudine? A Christmas song. No snow, no mistletoe, no presents under the tree. No mention of any of that stuff." So David asked me, and I wrote "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You." As I was finishing the demo, there was a guy from UPS or some air-freight company standing in the studio, waiting for it. I was putting on a last vocal, and then they had to go out and make an acetate of it. They flew it to California, and she recorded it. Later, the group Saint Étienne heard it on Claudine's record, and they recorded it a year ago last Christmas for their fan club. It wasn't released commercially, but it was like the Christmas card they sent out to their fan club. And I've got a copy of that.Q: What did you think of Claudine's versions of "Think of Rain" and "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You"?
A: Well, obviously, I was very pleased that she did both of them. I was less than pleased with the Christmas song, because she didn't get the time right. But that may not have been her fault as much as the producer's. But ehh, I'd have to go through it, send you a lead sheet and show you where.It's not worth it. Just say I loved it.
- From home.earthlink.net/~elbroome
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St Etienne needs no introduction (in fact, Maggie did a wonderful article on them previously), they recorded "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" (based on the Longet version) and was made available to their fan club in 1998.
St Etienne must really love Christmas too, every couple of years they put out a Christmas EP for their fans. If you were interested in collecting them here are all their Christmas releases:
[1995] Xmas '95 (3-track CD single)
[1998] Xmas '98 (2-track CD single)
[2003] Xmas 2003 (3-track CD single initially given away free at Xmas '03 gigs then given out free to fanclub members in 2004)
[2006] Merry Xmas 2006 from Saint Etienne (2-track CD single given
away free at the Saint Etienne Xmas Party Turntable Cafe on 21 December
2006)
Bonus: As I previously mentioned Longet being married to Andy Williams, he's quite the Christmas man himself! After giving up his The Andy Williams Show in 1971, he agreed to do Christmas specials in 1976. Throughout the years, he's released over eight Christmas albums, and I'm including a song from the re-issued The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963).
This recording would've been pretty much around the time that he was married to Longet.
12/25/2007 13:20:15
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