This recording was extremely controversial and was widely panned by those in the Northern Soul scene, who described it as a 'terrible cover version of The Invitations' classic', 'trash', 'bad for Northern Soul', ' embarrassing novelty single', 'crassly commercial', 'selling out', 'horrible', 'even worse than Footsee', 'dire', 'awful', 'annoying', 'our Vietnam flashback moment', and 'a fucking travesty'. They appeared in baggy trousers decorated with Northern soul badges, and the performance was widely derided as 'uncool' and 'an imitation'. On 20 March 1975, the band performed the song on Top of the Pops, and went on to perform on the show 13 times.

In an attempt to capitalise on the song's popularity in the Northern soul subculture and 'put Northern Soul on the music map for the industry', Russ Winstanley met up with a pop group from Wigan called Sparkle, who renamed themselves Wigan's Ovation and covered the song (with slightly modified lyrics) in 1975. Wigan's Ovation version 'Skiing in the Snow' The group also recorded 'What's Wrong With Me Baby', 'Written On The Wall', and 'Hallelujah', none of which were successful, however 'What's Wrong With Me Baby' did receive some radio play in the US on release and was also used in the Northern soul subculture in the UK later on. The Invitations (at the time of the song's release) consisted of Roy Jolly (lead singer), Billy Morris, Robert Rivers, and Wilson 'Gary' Gant. Even though the song was nominally about skiing, many of those in the clubs interpreted some of the lyrics as drug references, perhaps a reason for its popularity. In the 1970s, this song was rediscovered by Ian Levine while in Miami and became an extremely popular dance track in Northern soul clubs in England, and was subsequently re-pressed in the UK unofficially. It is unclear whether it ever obtained any radio play at the time of its release. The song was then forgotten and became 'rarer than a green dog', according to one source 'no one had actually seen a copy or heard it', and it was only 'rumoured to exist'. The song was then re-recorded a year later by American group The Invitations in a Black soul style, and released on Dynovoice Records (an alias of Dynovox) a year later.

The Invitations version 'Skiing in the Snow'

Did it snow january 5 2017