The whole world should be singing 'Red Lights (Merry Christmas)' by Dreams So Real

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is such a classic — considered among the greatest American films ever made — it’s easy to overlook that it initially flopped at the box office and took 30 years to become a staple on television.

A little more than three decades ago, I discovered a Christmas song that has been my favorite ever since. You’ve probably never heard it, but it’s a catchy classic in waiting.

My gift to you this holiday season: “Red Lights (Merry Christmas),” by the alternative band Dreams So Real.

I first heard of the band in the documentary, “Athens, GA: Inside/Out,” about the mid-1980s music scene headlined by R.E.M.

I bought the cassette version of Dreams So Real’s record “Rough Night in Jericho” in fall 1988, at Streetside Records in Columbia, Mo., when I was a student at the University of Missouri. My recollection is that my purchase earned me a free copy of “Red Lights (Merry Christmas),” which was released on 7-inch green vinyl.

I didn’t have a record player, so I presume that I didn’t hear “Red Lights” until I brought the vinyl home with me to Maine for winter break.

Lead singer Barry Marler wrote the song, which clocks in at a tidy two minutes, 17 seconds. It’s jingle-jangly, evocative and sweet.

I tracked down Marler at the University of Georgia, where he holds the decidedly un-rock and roll position of scientific computing specialist in the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory.

From left, drummer Drew Worsham, bassist Trent Allen, lead singer and guitarist Barry Marler.

‘Telling secrets’

I asked him to share some insight into the origin of “Red Lights.”

“There was a period of time when I wrote a Christmas song annually,” he wrote in an email. “I'm pretty sure that one was partially written in an hour or so, and that it was recorded at John Keane Studios in Athens. …

“I had no plan for anyone outside the DSR circle to ever hear it, but our label [Arista Records] caught wind of it and released it. Originally, it was shorter than that; maybe about 2/3 the length. Arista liked it so much that they had us go into a studio in NYC to finish it. I wrote the remaining bits either in New York or somewhere on tour in the Northeast.”

I told him how much I love the song’s opening, including this gem: “Moms and dads are telling secrets in the kitchen.”

“The line you mention ... I thought it was corny, but it seems many like it,” wrote Marler, who hails from South Carolina. “I was really just conjuring up images of Christmas when I was a child; my brother and I would be ripping apart the gifts under the tree, while our parents would sit in the kitchen talking quietly and drinking coffee.

“It was almost always before daylight, when we would bolt out of our beds and rush into the living room to see what was there. Just sort of that childhood imagery that seems so golden when you're thinking about it many years later ... “

That’s kind of how I feel about “Red Lights (Merry Christmas)” all these years after first hearing it. It’s holiday music gold on green vinyl.

I recommend that you seek it out. Merry Christmas, to you.

If you want to dig deeper into Dreams So Real, listen to the Athens Music Project’s 2017 interview with Marler.