Paul Harvey – who captured the nation’s hearts with his Four Notes composition – collaborates with Aled Jones on new Christmas song
Paul Harvey – who captured the nation’s hearts with his Four Notes composition – collaborates with Aled Jones on new Christmas song
Music for Dementia has brought together Paul Harvey and Aled Jones to launch a heart-warming, festive song ‘Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day’
Song can be heard for first time on m4dradio.com/Christmas at 11am on Monday 20 December
The song is available as a free download from Music for Dementia, who want to give the gift of music this Christmas
2020 and 2021 saw 81-year-old concert pianist, composer and music teacher, Paul Harvey, lift the nation with his spontaneous Four Notes composition that featured widely on BBC Breakfast. Paul lives with dementia.
2021 has been another magical year for 81-year-old Paul Harvey who captured the nation’s hearts on BBC Breakfast with his Four Notes improvisation. Paul, who lives with dementia, is now set to end the year on a musical high with the launch of Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day, a poignant new Christmas song he has specially composed for Music for Dementia with his son Nick, featuring Aled Jones on vocals.
The collaboration is to raise awareness of Music for Dementia’s m4d Radio, a group of five themed radio streams playing a daily mix and era-specific music, specifically designed for people living with dementia, their loved ones and carers.
Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day can be heard, for the very first time, at 11am on Monday 20 December by visiting www.m4dradio.com/Christmas The song will also be available to download free of charge at m4d Radio until Tuesday 4 January 2022 to help raise awareness of the specialist radio station.
Music for Dementia brought together the composer, Paul Harvey, his son Nick and his long-time friend and lyricist Pete Talman to create Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day and – on Paul’s request - Aled Jones kindly took time out of his busy schedule to complete it with his legendary baritone vocals.
Campaign Director at Music for Dementia, Grace Meadows said: “Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day is a warm and moving song, with Paul’s personality shining through. We’re sure it will delight everyone who listens to it this festive season, particularly those people who love what Paul and Aled do. Music has the power to create beautiful moments of togetherness, to enliven, stimulate and enable people to express themselves. We really hope this new song will do this and more, regardless of whether they have experience of dementia or not.”
Commenting on the collaboration, Paul 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 working alongside my son Nick. From the start I wanted to team up with Aled Jones on this project. He has a wonderful voice. And he brings back fond Christmas memories!”
Aled Jones, who has followed Paul’s inspiring story from his first TV appearance, added: “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. It remains one of the most positive rays of light during lockdown. I was so excited when I got the call to work with Paul to raise awareness of m4d Radio, which I’ve supported in the past. 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.
“Meeting Paul was fantastic. I’ve watched him from a far so many times now and when I was given the song, I could feel Paul’s personality in the music. Singing this new song, with him playing the piano, has been a dream come true. I’ve been very fortunate to work with some amazing musicians during my life and Paul is definitely up there. Christmas Isn’t Just Another Day has a catchy melody that you can’t get out of your head and it’s a tune that will resonate with everyone. I hope everyone loves it as much as we do.”
Paul brought joy to many people in the UK in both 2020 and 2021 when his son, Nick, videoed his spontaneous Four Notes improvisation, which then went viral across social media in September 2020. It was arranged by a BBC Philharmonic player, Daniel Whibley and recorded virtually by the BBC Philharmonic in October 2020 at the height of lockdown. By September 2021, Paul was able to fulfil his lifelong ambition of conducting a symphony orchestra when Music for Dementia brought him to Manchester to conduct the BBC Philharmonic playing Four Notes.
Music for Dementia was introduced to Paul and Nick, when their BBC Breakfast TV appearance caught the eye of philanthropists Sir Tom and Lady Marion, who then made a donation to them of £1m. Paul and Nick subsequently nominated Music for Dementia to receive £500,000 grant to offer to musical services working with people with dementia throughout the UK.
There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK today and Music for Dementia is campaigning for music to be an integral part of dementia care. It believes that everyone living with dementia should be able to access music and musical services to improve their quality of life and wellbeing.
m4d Radio can be found online at https://m4dradio.com/, plays 24/7 and is free for everyone to use. It has five themed music streams to choose from, the 1930s and 1940s, the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s and m4d Mix. Listeners can tune in via any internet-enabled device including Amazon Alexa and they can also listen again to selected playlists using the unique newly-launched ‘Build your own playlist’ feature.
The platform won the Dementia Care Award at the Merkel 3rd Sector Care Awards in Dec 2020, where the judges praised it for delivering reach and impact at a national level. It also won the Outstanding Arts and Creativity in Dementia Care Award at the National Dementia Care Awards 2020.
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For further media information or to set up interviews please contact Paula Hunter or Sam Jones at Big Bang PR on paula@bigbangpr.co.uk 07739 989915 or sam@bigbangpr.co.uk 07531 625233.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About Paul & Nick Harvey
Paul Harvey is a former classical pianist and music teacher, now in his 80s, who lives with dementia. His spontaneous Four Notes composition, videoed by his son Nick, went viral across social media in September 2020; it was orchestrated by a BBC Philharmonic player and recorded by the BBC Philharmonic in October, then made available as a single. Music for Dementia was nominated by the father and son to receive half of the sales proceeds alongside Alzheimer’s Society.
About Music for Dementia
Music for Dementia, funded by The Utley Foundation, campaigns for people with dementia to have music as an integral part of their care whatever their circumstances. We are calling on the music industry, philanthropists, and the health and social care sectors to help make this possible.
The campaign offers several invaluable resources for people living with dementia and their carers:
M4d Radio – launched in June 2020 to bring meaningful music direct into people’s homes, this group of five online radio stations plays tunes from the 30s to the 70s. m4d Radio won two dementia care awards in 2020.
The Musical Guide – a 2-page leaflet listing a range of musical activities for people with dementia and their carers to incorporate into the lives during COVID-19 and beyond.
About The Utley Foundation
The Utley Foundation was founded in 2014 by Neil and Nicky Utley. The Foundation exists to advance social causes and to act as a catalyst for greater funding and wider action for the causes it supports. Music is a personal passion of the founders and trustees and underpins many of the key funding areas of interest to the foundation. The trust has other charitable objectives including Armed Forces Veterans, Children and Overseas Aid.