Vince Vance and the Valiants

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Vince Vance & The Valiants is a party band from New Orleans that tours the country performing concerts for events of all types including corporate gatherings, festivals, charities, and private parties. The band is best known for its song, "All I Want For Christmas Is You", sung by then-lead singer Lisa Layne. For many years, Billboard Magazine reported this song as Radio's most requested Christmas song. The song receives heavy holiday airplay on both adult contemporary and country music radio stations.

"All I Want For Christmas Is You" was inspired by a life experience by the group's founder and lead guitarist, Vince Vance (also known as Andy Shane). The single, first released in 1987 on a vinyl 45, came in a picture jacket with a photo of the band on the front, and on the back was the story that Vance told which inspired him to write the song.

Vance said in the notes that in 1973, he was touring with his band, and like most young bands, agreed to a heavy touring schedule as part of their album's promotion. The year ended with Vance spending his Christmas in a lonely motel room in Columbus, Ohio.

"For the first time in my life, I knew the meaning of emptiness," said Vance. "Since then, Vince Vance and the Valiants always spends Christmas with their families."

Founded in 1971, the band is known primarily for Vance's trademark beehive hairstyle, which reaches more than 18 inches in height "on a good hair day". The band is also known for its highly theatrical stage antics, with props like a six-foot head in Vance's likeness, and a John Deere five-wheel tricycle. Vance himself has 50 complete costume changes for each show.

Vince Vance & The Valiants is also well known for its 1979 song, "Bomb Iran," recorded at the height of the Iranian hostage crisis and sung to the tune of "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys and The Regents. The group also recorded "Bomb Iraq" in 2003, a song which supported the Iraqi War that was thought by many to be imminent.