31 May 1973
Christmas already, is it? At this point, in May 1973, the Wizzard sound wasn’t yet synonymous with the festive classic they would release at the end of that year. Here on the far side of ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’, though, it’s a challenge for me to peer through the artificial-snow spray of its annual ubiquity and pick out ‘See My Baby Jive’ on its own terms. Truth be told, they’re fairly similar; you can pretty much sing the chorus of one over the other, and you even get the same little “de-dum de-dum de-dum!” rock n’ roll rhythm flourish at the end.
If ‘See My Baby Jive’ has anything different to its seasonal sibling, it’s in the verses that imitate the echoing orchestrations of the epic ’60s US girl-group studio pop sound. The pre-chorus makes a sharp turn into more sentimental Beach Boys melodic melancholia, but then for the chorus our rock n’ roll Christmas comes again. Where ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’ has the organic, likeable feel of a unified song, this thing’s cut-and-shut of styles comes across as an overboiled pastiche medley of classic ’60s American pop dressed up for a ’70s British light entertainment TV audience. 1973 is the year glam’s stardust and tinsel are melted down and moulded into the lunchbox plastic of UK bubblegum pop; ‘See My Baby Jive’ in particular I find wearying and clunky.
But what do I know? Within a year of ‘See My Baby Jive’ topping the Irish and UK charts, we get the breakthrough record of the most influential, lauded, beloved and enduring ’70s pop act of them all, and it sounds like Wizzard. My, my.
