This is how the Polish Christmas hit was born. “I was supposed to write about Christmas without religious paraphernalia”

“Day one a year”, also known as “There is such a day”, debuted in the performance of Czerwony Gitar in 1966. The music was written by the band’s later leader. Without Krzysztof Dzikowski’s text, however, it would be deprived of Christmas magic. How was the hit made?

This is the author’s favorite song

Although Seweryn Krajewski wrote “Long live the ball”, “Permitted from the age of eighteen”, “Don’t turn your nose” or “It’s still raining”, milestones in the history of Polish popular music, one of his compositions has a special meaning for him. The former leader of Czerwony Gitar in an interview for “Wieczor Wrocławia” in 2001 confessed that it is “Day one a year” – a Christmas composition, which in Poland is now on a par with classic Christmas carols.

For me, it is an ideal because of the melodiousness of this music, because it is impossible to tell about Christmas in simpler words. And then there’s the fact that “Day of the Year” didn’t catch on as well as “Anna Maria”.

Krajewski argued in 2001. However, the popularity of the hit surpassed even “Anna Maria”. More than 20 years have passed since this statement, and the song is still sung, be it during occasional concerts with the participation of stars broadcast during the holiday season, during school nativity plays or at home.

A secular carol

Although the author of the well-known melody is Krajewski, the text for the song was initially “ordered” by Jerzy Kossela, the co-founder of Czerwony Gitar, formed after the breakup of the Gdańsk Pieciolinia. Seweryn joined the group in 1965, a year before “One Day in the Year” was created. Initially, he could not openly act in the band, because at that time, being active in a big-bit band was punishable by being struck off the music school list.

I was convinced that Jurek would be the composer, so I was very surprised when it turned out that Seweryn had finally written the music.

– said Krzysztof Dzikowski, the author of the words to the Christmas song. None of the group’s members commented on the suggestion that Krajewski appropriated a text intended for a bandmate. Everything was done by mutual agreement.

I already had an idea for the opening beginning with the words “It’s such a day, very warm, although December” and actually the whole verse. But I didn’t have time to finish it. At that time I was everything, administrative, organizational and artistic manager. I asked Krzysiek Dzikowski for help. I gave him my part of the text and he added this “sky-Earth, sky-Earth”. I also had some melody ready, but I wasn’t very happy with it, and when I read what Krzysiek brought, I was even less happy. Then Seweryn took care of it and it was a bull’s-eye.

Kossel admitted. Dzikowski had collaborated with him before – together they wrote the songs “My road led me to you” and “Byczek Fernando”. He had a free hand then. This time, however, he gave the lyricist, as artistic director of Czerwony Gitar, specific guidelines.

Write – he said – a Christmas song, but make it more about the mood, about the atmosphere, without all those religious paraphernalia.

– recalled Dzikowski in an interview quoted by the Digital Library of Polish Song. So it happened. A text was created devoted to the December atmosphere and interpersonal relations (and, taking into account some fragments – one can say that also interspecies), omitting well-known rules already known from religious compositions that have been sung for years. It was supposed to be a “secular carol”.

Debut in top form

“Day One in the Year” made its debut on television in the same year when Czerwone Gitary released its first significant album – “It’s Us”. It was later certified gold.

Czerwone Gitary were the most popular group in Poland at that time. A certain summary of this popularity was inviting us by Irena Dziedzic to the Christmas edition, extremely popular at the time, today we would say talk show, “Tele Echa”. We prepared two traditional Christmas carols, one pastoral, but I wanted to use such a large audience to show something ” yours.”

– recalls Jerzy Kossela. The group performed “Mizerna Cicha”, “Przybieżeli do Bethlehem” and “Majesty of the host”. According to the musician, there was no pressure from the production regarding the selection of the repertoire, so he was all the more interested in presenting his own material that harmonized with the leitmotif. For the first time, “Tele Echo” was not broadcast live. The television bought new recording equipment, so the musicians had a few days to prepare for the session. The pressure was enormous, but despite this, Seweryn Krajewski managed to write music in one night. Red Guitars managed to present the future hit in the Christmas edition of the program. However, they did not manage to… learn the lyrics and during the recordings they sang from a piece of paper.

The holidays have not been kind to the band. Just before Christmas, on December 20, 1966, Jerzy Kossela resigned from his functions in the band and in the first half of 1967 he left Czerwony Gitar. However, the creativity of the group is still alive. “One day a year” covered m. Andrzej Piaseczny, Kombi or VOX. It is still performed by Seweryn Krajewski.