A SINGER from Pen Llyn has spoken of his delight that Gary Barlow has recorded one of his songs, but a mix-up meant he and his writing partner were not originally credited for it.
Take That star Gary Barlow has recorded A Child’s Christmas in Wales for his new album, Dream of Christmas.
It features singer Aled Jones and is credited to Barlow and Dylan Thomas, but Al Lewis wrote the song with Arwel Lloyd in 2012.
The pair are delighted their track has been used on the Christmas album, and got in touch with the record label, Polydor, to explain the song belongs to them.
Al said: “It’s been a bit of a strange week!
“It’s a real honour to have a song on Gary’s album, and all the other songs on it are either huge Christmas songs or written by him, and then the album closes with our song. It really is an honour!
“There’s a bit of a mix up with the crediting but we’ve been in touch and that will be corrected, I hope.
“I’m not sure if he thought it was an old song, out of copyright, and it’s unfortunate but it’s hopefully getting sorted and people will realise it’s an original by me and Arwel.”
Al and Arwel released the song in Welsh in 2012 and in English in 2013.
“They released the track under Al’s label, Al Lewis Music.
“Gary Barlow tweeted at the time he liked the song and it’s obviously stuck in his mind since then,” said Al.
Arwel said: “It’s great news that such a massive artist is covering our song, though it did come as a bit of a surprise as his team hadn’t contacted us prior to the release of the album.
“We were shocked to see that the song writing credits are attributed to Gary Barlow and Dylan Thomas.
“That’s completely incorrect. Myself and Al Lewis, the co-writer of the song, have approached Gary’s label Polydor for this to be corrected.”
Al added: “They’ve acknowledged us getting in touch and, like any other big organisation, it takes time to hear back, but I’m sure we will be credited for the song soon.”
The lads have finally heard from Polydor and it is good news for the songwriting duo.
“We’ve had confirmation that this has now been corrected by the label and the credits on Spotify / YouTube etc now have us down as the writers,” said Al.
However, Arwel is keen for them to make one more change.
He said: “They have corrected it online now, though [they] have got my name wrong! It says Al Lewis and Arwell Owen. It should be Arwel Lloyd Owen as it’s registered with the PRS.”
Despite the mix up the boys are thrilled to have their track out there, and Al is gearing up for a busy weekend.
He has just released his new EP, Moving on, Moving Past, and this weekend he will play two sold out concerts in Cardiff. He will play Cardigan Castle the following weekend, coronavirus restrictions permitting.
“I’m crossing my fingers that all the gigs go ahead,” Al said.
“Cardigan Castle is a lovely venue.”
Polydor has been asked to comment.