It’s a ubiquitous trick in a lot of pop music, to shift up a semitone every verse, possibly most memorably used in Stevie Wonder’s hit ‘I just called to say I love you’. This is the Blaydon Races tune exaggeratedly given the same manoeuvre, with the John Iveson middle section thrown in as well (see ‘Deck the Halls’).
A very old favourite tune of mine, this is a version arranged for ten piece brass group, and recorded by Barbican Brass. I updated the arrangement and added percussion in 2019.
