Walking in the Air

Walking in the Air is a song by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film The Snowman based on Raymond Briggs' 1978 children's book of the same name. The story tells the adventures of a young boy and a snowman who has come to life. In the second part of the story, the boy and the snowman fly to the North Pole. "Walking in the Air" is the theme for the journey. They attend a party of snowmen, until they meet Father Christmas with his reindeer, and the boy is given a scarf with a snowman pattern. In the film, the song was performed by St Paul's Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty, and reissued in 1985 and 1987
In 1985, an altered version was recorded for use in a TV advertising campaign for Toys "R" Us. When Auty's voice is broken, Auty claimed in an interview with BBC Breakfast News on 2nd December 2022 that his voice is not broken and he was never contacted for the recording. Blake recommended the 14-year-old Welsh chorister Aled Jones, whose recording reached number five in the UK Singles Chart, and who became a popular celebrity on the strength of his performance. The association of the song with Jones, with Auty not being credited on The Snowman, led to a common misbelief that Jones performed the song in the film. "Walking in the Air" has been performed by over forty artists, in a variety of styles. the Aled Jones version was voted 13th on the ITV television special The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.