Alan Mann “Christmas On The Block” (1983)

Rarebird’s Rock and Roll Rarity Reviews would like to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, or whatever you personally call this time of year.

I’m sure that most of you have been hearing plenty of holiday music lately. I’d like to share with you a Christmas song that most of you probably haven’t heard lately, if ever: “Christmas On The Block” by Alan Mann, from 1983.

This song was released only as a 7” single by a small indie label, and it is now very hard to find. However, the miracle of YouTube enables you and me to hear the song and watch its video right here and now.

Alan Mann was a musician based in the Philadelphia, PA area who was little-known outside of that region. But he did gain wider fame during the Christmas seasons in the mid-1980’s, when the then-young MTV network would air the video for “Christmas On The Block”. It’s a moving, one-of-a-kind song inspired by the people who then lived in a group house for the blind in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby. Each year, the residents of that home would decorate a Christmas tree that would be displayed in front of the house. Even though the blind residents could not see the lights and colors themselves, they still showed their holiday spirit by making this tree look pretty for others to see. Mann was so moved by this annual gesture that he wrote and recorded this song about it, and had this video filmed outside of the house.



This poignant Dylanesque song is a precious gift to the world from Mann, who usually displayed a more punk-like aesthetic (as evidenced by the single’s B-side “No Deal – No Sleep”). Tragically, Alan Mann passed away four years after the making of this song and video. In October 1987, at the age of 33, Mann apparently jumped from the second-story window of a burning building. Less than two weeks later, he died from complications caused by his injuries.

Alan Mann “Christmas On The Block” (single) (A&R 0020) 1983

Track Listing:

a. Christmas On The Block
b. No Deal - No Sleep

Comments

Anonymous said…
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sag1015 said…
Thanks for posting and telling the story of this wonderful holiday song (my all time favorite)...I'm so happy to show the video to my little boys!!
Squire McGuire said…
Great song! First heard it here locally on 93.3 WMMR. Lucky to have it in my library!
Doc Milnamo said…
I never miss an opportunity to share this song and the back story. At 56 years old as of this post, the song still brings tears to my eyes.
GH said…
This Christmas season, for some reason, I zeroed in on “Christmas On The Block”, and while I have known about it, and have been hearing it for years, always liked it, but it really hit me in 2021. I’d been hearing Pierre Robert expound on “COTB” for years, and I have always been a believer in local Rock N Roll/Pop, and that if a local band is good, get behind them, man… I’ve enjoyed The Hooters (and I’ve always been aware of Hyman/Bazillian appearing on others’ records, in varying capacities), always loved Robert Hazard, and acknowledge the impact these Philadelphia musicians have had on other artists’ records (the first/top two singles off of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She’s So Unusual’, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Time After Time”, bear the imprint of, respectively, Robert Hazard (GJWHF was his song!) and The Hooters (Hyman and Bazilian are all over the recording of Time After Time, and they may have helped write it, but not 100% sure about that at the moment)…

So to really get into the particulars of Alan Man’s career and life is something I am very interested in… Christmas On The Block really brightened my Christmas Season in 2021, and I absolutely LOVE “Fear Of Heights”, wow!! To have it sink in that Alan Mann was dead (he jumped from his burning apartment building and died of his injuries a couple weeks later) just 4 years after Recording/taping the video for “COTB”…well, it’s heartbreaking…

Just…Thanks, Alan!