Singer Vince Vance and His Southern Music
His "All I Want for Christmas Is You" Is Most Requested Hit
Jan 13, 2009
All of the information in this article was gathered by Maryan Pelland in a personal interview with Vince Vance in December, 2008.
Christmas isn’t Christmas without some stray thought of Vince Vance, the Southern Gentleman who co-penned the song certified “most requested Christmas song” in the nation, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Vance and his dozen or so musicians and singers sing that song in every one of their 150 concerts a year in 13 countries and 34 American states.
At his Christmas show this year, Vance told his audience that the spirit of Christmas is a feeling – a warmth. It’s somebody walking up to someone and saying something simple and kind, like Merry Christmas. It is not, he says, about believing in a particular set of beliefs, it’s about believing in something.
“Even if you’re all alone, if you have a faith, that feeling, you’re never really alone,” Vance said.
Vince Vance, the Writer
His own story in music starts with his graduation from Southeastern Louisiana University and culminates in his current ability to make audiences happy. When he left college, he recalls, he became band director at Donaldsonville High in Ascension Parish, near Baton Rouge.
“My girlfriend desperately wanted me to be a band leader and she’d teach second graders. It was her dream but it just wasn’t in the cards for me. Two years later, I was playing at Andy’s Nest, next to My Father’s Mustache in New Orleans,” he tells.
One night, a group of guys from the Mustache came over to listen – amazed at his rock and roll stuff, they asked Vance to teach them.
“I taught a bunch of waiters how to be in a band,” he chuckles. “That was a fateful night and I have given up everything to keep doing this.”
His career blasted off and he says now his band has been together for 37 years, two months and some days. He calls them the history of rock and roll, a fun time and an extravaganza.
Vance's Show
Vance brings each audience an hour and a half of a crazy guy with 18 inch hair and 50 costume changes. Vance suits up as a Christmas tree for one number, a cop for another and Sponge Bob just for laughs. He’ll stick a mic in a listeners face and compel them to belt out “Let’s Go to the Hop.” He has three singing girls in cheerleader outfits roaming the audience, pulling listeners up on stage to participate.
“You can laugh and cry, enjoy it all and you will never forget the time you saw Vince Vance and the Valiants,” he proclaims, showing off the sparkling personality that has made him a star.
When he and his buddy Troy Powers sat sweltering in Pennsylvania heat wave 20 years ago, thinking of ways to keep cool, they penned a Christmas song, never dreaming it would be the most requested Christmas song for two decades. It is, he says simply, a song about every kind of love. He feels it has stood against time, as he has, because each listener hears it a different way. If you need the feel of Christmas, anytime of year, find Vance’s show.
Vance’s talent has put him in the Louisiana rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was recognized by the Louisiana Music commission for his lifelong contribution. He has made music at G.W. Bush’s inauguration, the Super Bowl and on television and radio. He has made 13 albums and 23 singles.
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