Christmas Playlist
Thursday December 17, 2009 in music |
This year’s playlist of Christmas songs is a little offbeat. It’s interesting that although most of these records are well known, none of them were particularly successful when they were first released. None of my choices have ever (yet) made the UK top ten.
Kate Bush: December will be Magic Again
Released in 1980 and only reached 29 in the charts. Perhaps one of the reasons for this single’s relative failure was that it was too sophisticated for an audience that put There’s No-one Quite Like Grandma by the St Winifred’s School Choir at number one.
Worth catching is the BBC Christmas special by Kate Bush from a year earlier, which features performances by Peter Gabriel.
Strangely, a lot of Kate Bush material cannot be acquired digitally, so this song is not available as a legal download.
Saint Etienne: I was Born on Christmas Day
Released in 1993 and only just scraped into the top 40 at 39. I fail to understand why this song wasn’t a massive hit, and it is still only played rarely (although hats off to Next in Bristol for blaring it out to their shoppers). 1993’s Chirstmas number one was Mr Blobby.
The Greedies: A Merry Jingle
The Greedies were a short lived band featuring members of Thin Lizzy and The Sex Pistols. This was considered somewhat throwaway at the time, but Phil Lynott is still a superb vocalist and the Cook/Jones rhythm section is worth turning up loud.
A Merry Jingle reached 28 in December 1979, the Christmas that record buyers preferred the depressing and very unseasonal Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd.
This record is now almost totally forgotten, and ownership of a digital version of A Merry Jingle is by no means legal. In fact it’s taken me two years to find a mere two thirds of the track!
Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
Number 42 in 1982. Although a flop at the time, Christmas Wrapping has ended up on many a Christmas compilation album and provided writer Chris Butler with a modest pension. Probably the most consistently played Christmas single that was not a hit record.
Number one that year was Save Your Love by Renée and Renato.
Merry Christmas I don’t want to Fight Tonight by The Ramones
Released in 1987 and failed to chart, the year where The Pet Shop Boys took the Christmas number one with Always on My Mind.
Gaudete by Steeleye Span
Number 14 in 1973.
Step into Christmas by Elton John
Number 24 in 1973. Eclipsed, like the Steeleye Span record, by the infinitely more irritating Slade and Wizzard dirges.
God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen by Ella Fitzgerald
From her 1967 Christmas album. Not released as a single. The Beatles had their fourth and last Christmas number one this year with Hello Goodbye. Oddly, none of The Beatles Christmas hits were Christmas songs, a tradition Paul McCartney continued with Mull of Kintyre in 1977. His only proper Christmas song, Wonderful Christmastime, made number six in 1979. John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over) reached number two in 1980. The winter that Lennon died saw the charts flooded with his solo records, but it wasn’t enough to beat the St. Winifred’s School Choir.
White Christmas by Otis Redding
Failed to chart in December 1968. Lily the Pink by The Scaffold was the preferred, sillier, choice for Christmas number one.
Here Comes Santa by Bob Dylan
From Dylan’s 2009 Christmas in the Heart.
What will be this year’s chart topper? The manufactured drivel of the X-Factor? Rage Against the Machine? Or perhaps Mr Dylan…
And for the Final Choice…
Probably something from A Christmas Gift for You by Phil Spector, released in 1963, at the time when The Beatles were just securing their dominance on both sides of the Atlantic. At least Mr Spector had his revenge seven years later when a deranged John Lennon enticed him to ruin the Let it Be tapes…
After looking at Wikipedia’s list of Christmas number ones I have realised that I’m more familiar with the chart toppers from the late 70s and early 80s than I am with the ones from recent years. In fact, after 2004 when Band Aid came back again I have no familiarity at all with any of the number ones. The likes of X-Factor really are producing disposable pop as flimsy as a cheap toy in a Christmas cracker.