River - Ellie Goulding (About Time 2013)

The song is about the recent breakup of a romantic relationship, with the singer longing to escape her emotional bonds as they are painful to her. Although the song is merely set near Christmas time, rather than being about Christmas, it has become something of a modern Christmas standard. The piano accompaniment to the vocal borrows heavily from the tune to the 19th century winter song ‘Jingle Bells’.

‘River’ has remained a popular festive track in the 21st Century. It was covered by Barry Manilow in his 2002 album A Christmas Gift of Love with only one verse change involving a gender flip.It charted as a single at No. 17 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary charts. Sarah McLachlan also covered it on her 2006 album Wintersong and released it as a single.

About Time is a 2013 British romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Curtis, and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy. The film is about a young man with the ability to time travel who tries to change his past in hopes of improving his future. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013.