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“Song for Ten” - Phil Spector, Doctor Who and The Christmas Invasion

Posted on January 12, 2006
Filed Under Doctor Who |

Ooohm the BBC are paying attention… a bit. Right at the end of “The Christmas Invasion” (David Tennant’s emergence as the Tenth Docotor on Christmas Day), when he’s choosing his costume and sitting down to his turkey there was a lovely pice of Phil Spector Wall of Sound ish music playing that sounded very Christmassy, slightly familiar, but no bugger online had any idea what it was. Beyond ‘gorgeous.’

So everyone started hunting. Lots of names bandied around (such as the Mull Historical Society) but the big clue was in the MP3 Directors Commentary published on the BBC website, where Exec Producer Russell T Davies let slip that the song was, in fact, an original piece by Murray Gold, composer for the new Series.

Ahhh! That means no hunting on the net is going to find a full version. It’s doubtfull there’s a full version anyway, it might just have enough to cover the 90 seconds it was needed for in the show. Pah.

But not all is lost. The BBC Doctor Who site has posted an interview with Gold, that features a link to a 30 second snippet of the track… which isn’t going to replace my audio grabbed version, but it’s a nice touch. Much like posting a clean version of the middle eight. Two things to point out. The first is when asked if it would ever be released, Gold said “If there’s ever an album of Doctor Who music from the series, I’m sure it would be on that.”

And secondly, the singer, Tim Phillips, has his own site, with more music, and he’s perfect for TPN Rock…

Comments

23 Responses to ““Song for Ten” - Phil Spector, Doctor Who and The Christmas Invasion”

  1. Lauren on January 21st, 2006 0:00

    Oh,aye.I gave myself a bloody migrane searching for that flipping song.There I was,thinking it was something from the flaming 70’s,when all along it was Murray Gold.Bet he did that on purpose,not publishing the name of the song on the Doctor Who Christmas Invasion credits.Just to get all us fanatics searching.Thanks Gold,love you oh so much for that.
    But anyway.You got me the name of the song.I honestly owe it to you.And if there IS an album of Doctor Who,it’d better be made quick.Lol.

    Lauren.xx

  2. The All New Ewan’s Musings » TPN Rock #43 - With Added Doctor Who Goodies on January 27th, 2006 12:39

    […] I’m most proud of snagging Tim Phillips (Cathead) in the show. He was the singer behind “Song for Ten,” the Phil Spector-like track in Doctor Who’s Christmas Invasion. Then there’s Drew Parker’s song about Charles Lee. Or Edinburgh based Another Volt, who did the “John Peel Route” by sending me a link to their tracks online and asking ever so nicely to be on the show… […]

  3. flo on April 28th, 2006 19:43

    finally found out what it is!! spent so long watching that part of the tape its all fuzzy!! =(

  4. ChrisH06 on June 18th, 2006 14:41

    Does any1 no where i can get a copy of ’song 4 ten’, if u do tell me where
    Cheers

  5. lisa on July 13th, 2006 18:47

    so is there anywhere to download the larger chunk of the song played in the episode? that little snippet isn’t enough for me :(

    thanks

  6. Tomalak Gere'tkal on July 17th, 2006 22:20

    Wooohoo!

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/07/17/33953.shtml

    “Who soundtrack soon”

    We’re pleased to tell you that Murray Gold’s wonderful soundtrack to Doctor Who will be making its way to CD in the near future.

    BBC Worldwide are working with the composer to release the highlights from his Doctor Who scores on CD.

    While we don’t have a release date, we felt we’d tell you as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone for the deluge of emails about the “singy lady”, the “beach thing (i cried)”, the “Christmas song”, and, of course, the theme courtesy of the National Orchestra of Wales.

  7. Calum on August 3rd, 2006 17:50

    I have song for ten! my friend sang it and played it and recorded it.. if you want i might be able to send you it if you want.. i have it on cd.. so can copy it!

  8. kt fitze on August 28th, 2006 18:18

    I really love doctor who i think it’s ‘fantastic’. and the songs they use are pretty cool especially song for ten. I have to say though BBC ORCHESTRA are so cool normally orchestras are boring but they’re sooooo cool seriously! Make an album!
    kt
    xxx

  9. Imi xox on September 27th, 2006 16:50

    Calum…
    >I have song for ten! my friend sang it and played it >and recorded it.. if you want i might be able to send >you it if you want.. i have it on cd.. so can copy >it!

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!! I would kill 4 that song! lol…your friend must b an amazin singer!!!

    and 2 kt - i luv dr who 2…my fave episode was “the lonely child” but the gask mask bit was freaki!!
    xx

  10. rez_frost on October 8th, 2006 16:58

    hi cani get that copy of song for ten i need it thanks

  11. bobby on October 27th, 2006 11:26

    yea

  12. bobby on October 27th, 2006 11:28

    Yeah Song For Ten’s a cool song,
    wat about the vocalised version of the main theme with that bass line when the doctor seals the bridge between the the two universes in Doomsday?

  13. DoctorMH on November 20th, 2006 5:43

    Does anyone have “Song for ten” or that soft vocal near the end of doomsday?

    If so, it would be greatly appreciated if you would send it to

    thedoctormh@yahoo.com

    thank you

  14. Kevin Larkin on December 5th, 2006 19:48

    You can currently hear the full version of “Song For Ten” - although not to download, unfortunately - on Day 4 of the Advent Calendar on the BBC’s Doctor Who website homepage… and it sounds “Fantastic!”.
    It’s just a shame they felt the need to re-record it for the version on the album : Neil Hannon’s voice doesn’t appeal to me.

  15. Al on December 27th, 2006 10:11

    Song for ten was ruined by changing the singer, why did they do that? A squabble over royalties or something. The album isn’t perfect because of this, oh so close. Great music for the rest of it though, fantastic scripts, brilliant music and top class acting, you Brits have it altogether. Keep it up guys.

  16. Hol on January 7th, 2007 14:03

    hi,
    just bought the dr who sounctrack by murray gold, and the song for ten is on it, its over 3 mins and it great! hope this helps!

  17. Alex on February 28th, 2007 7:07

    In response to Al’s comment from Dec. 27, there was no royalty dispute as far as I know. Gold is a big fan of Neil Hannon, the singer, and recorded it with him. And the reason why it was re-recorded was because Gold added a verse relating to the end of “Doomsday”, so it’s a revised version of the song. Personally I prefer Gary William’s performance at the Cardiff Doctor Who concert, but this version is fine, too.

  18. Geo on March 2nd, 2007 3:47

    I got the song its about 1:52 minutes long :) i got it off the BBC website and i know its not downloadable ;) Well if anyone wants it post ill upload it to a file server if you want :)

  19. Jane on March 13th, 2007 22:48

    Oh, please do post it! I love the original ‘Song For Ten’!

  20. Dennis on March 14th, 2007 6:04

    I second…I want the original, not that crappy version on the soundtrack CD.

  21. Ghost on April 17th, 2007 13:03

    Hi, just in case you still read this.. the original “Song for Ten” can be heard at

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/advent06/sft.shtml

    I am also looking at ways to convert the file into MP3, once i have done this i will give people links to a website that i will put it on for download (unless i get complaints from the BBC lol)

  22. Buckjarky on May 13th, 2007 12:35

    There’s a copy on bittorrent… It’s 3 and a half minutes long.

    [URL redacted, come onguys, it shouldn’t be that hard…]

  23. Dexter on May 14th, 2007 21:15

    Anyone know where I can get the downloadable version of this song?

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