Song of the Day: 'I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You' by Saint Etienne

Thanks for your holiday-adjacent song ideas on Friday. Today's pick is a little gem producer Tommy LiPuma commissioned Margo Guryan to write in 1967 for Claudine Longet, aka the onetime Mrs. Andy Williams who later became a tabloid sensation after shooting and killing her Olympic skier boyfriend (Spider Sabich) in 1976. (Apparently she didn't intend to spend Christmas without him -- and certainly wasn't going to let him spend it with another woman.) With her high-priced lawyers and higher-priced connections, she spent a mere 30 days in jail. I first learned about the tune when Saint Etienne covered it for one of their Christmas fanclub albums, "A Glimpse of Stocking." Ms. Guryan died the day before Thanksgiving at 84 -- and you can read her fascinating NYT obit HERE, which details her circuitous road to acclaim.

Hear Claudine's version HERE -- which reminds of the band Ivy -- and Margo's original demo of her composition HERE, which was finally released in 2014.