It's that time of year again, where Mariah, Noddy, The Pogues etc blast from every shop door, where the festive hits of yesteryear enter the "singles" chart , where music fans take bets on what will be Christmas No.1. But where did it all start? Christmas Carols have been around in one form or another for a few centuries, religious and secular, but the Popular festive song seems to have come into being around the 1930's, with "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" first appearing in 1934. Other songs from the "crooner" era - "Winter Wonderland", "White Christmas", "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" etc - followed, usually from films and musicals, helping to spread their popularity. During the rock 'n' roll era the popularity of Christmas songs continued, with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Brenda Lee recording perennial favourites "Blue Christmas", "Run Run Rudolph", and "Rocking Around The Christmas Tree". Country music gave us the likes of *Frosty The Snowman", "Here Comes Santa Claus" and " A Holly Jolly Christmas", the first two being memorably covered on what is often considered to be the best festive album ever made, Phil Spectors' A Christmas Gift To You, which featured all the artists from his roster including The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Darlene Love. These songs, produced in Spectors' famous "wall of sound" style, have become yuletide radio mainstays over the years, in addition to numerous film soundtrack performances.
It has to be said that the notion of the Christmas pop song was mainly an American thing during the fifties and sixties. The importance of the Christmas number one took off in the UK mainly after The Beatles ushered in a new era of homegrown pop and rock music, but the Christmas-themed single was a product of the seventies and particularly the glam rock years. The anthemic songs, the glitz and glitter of the acts associated with the craze were a welcome distraction from the woes of the country at that time: three day weeks, union strikes, power cuts. The big acts of the day - Slade, Wizzard, Mud, Elton John - all released timeless Christmas songs, all vying for that all-important top spot on the big day itself. Slade and Wizzard famously recorded their efforts during the summer of 1973, Roy Woods outfit turning down the air conditioning to give the studio a wintry feel. "Merry Xmas Everybody", "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", "Lonely This Christmas" (with Mud frontman Les Gray giving it his best Elvis impression) and "Step Into Christmas" are still hugely popular, all re-entering the charts every year since downloads no longer needed an available physical copy. This is also true of John Lennons' Happy Xmas (War Is Over), and Paul McCartneys' "Wonderful Christmastime", two artists who scored 4 festive chart toppers as part of The Beatles. McCartney also had a Christmas number 1 with "Mull Of Kintyre" with his post- Fab Four outfit Wings., Less successful festive-themed songs from the seventies still get a look in though: in his earlier, pre-"Lady In Red" years Chris de Burgh was a serious artist with prog leanings, recording "A Spaceman Came Travelling" which followed the "alien visitor as Star Of Bethlehem" idea. It's a pretty decent song, (if factually incorrect - a light year is a measurement of time not distance) but failed to chart when it originally released in 1975, and a mid-eighties re-recording struggled to No.40. One of my all-time favourites, "Ring Out, Solstice Bells" by folk/ prog band Jethro Tull, made No.28 as part of an EP, prompting a typically eccentric Top Of The Pops performance. As the influence of punk rock spread out into the musically diverse post-punk and New Romantic era of the late seventies and early eighties the Christmas single began to wane - perhaps it was seen as naff amongst the new pop royalty. Of course, Shakin' Stevens and Wham! both carried on the tradition, as did Jona Lewie with "Stop The Cavalry", which wasn't actually about the festive season but an anti-war song, from the point of view of the eternal soldier down the ages, the line "wish i was at home for Christmas" striking a sentimental chord. Band Aid was the biggest selling Christmas hit of the decade, "Do They Know It's Christmas" raising awareness and money to help the starving in Ethiopia. It's not the best song ever written: factually incorrect and often lyrically crass, but it was simple and catchy and the public bought it in droves. There was a remake in 1989, Band Aid II, which replaced the iconic pop stars of the original with the current idols, produced by Stock Aitken & Waterman, the pop production powerhouse of the day. Featuring Kylie, Jason, Sonia, Bros, Lisa Stansfield, The Pasadenas, and that Christmas perennial Cliff Richard, it's rarely played or included on compilations, as is Band Aid 30 from 2004. Speaking of Cliff, he scored his first festive chart topper in 1988 with "Mistletoe And Wine", a more traditional themed song with Christian overtones. This wasn't Cliff's first crack at a Christmas hit: a live cover of the old doo-wop song "Daddy's Home" reached the runner-up spot in December 1981, and a new arrangement of "Little Town Of Bethlehem" peaked just outside the top ten the following year. He hit the yuletide pole position again in 1990 with the explicitly religious "Saviour's Day".
One of the most celebrated Christmas songs of all time came out of the unlikely pairing of Irish folk-punks The Pogues and the hugely underappreciated Kirsty MacColl. "Fairytale Of New York" was originally conceived as a tale of two Irish immigrants in the new world, whose dreams of a new life haven't gone to plan. Amidst drunkenness, drugs and arrest, the bickering couple recall happier, more magical times. It took two years and many rewrites before the final version fell into place. With just the right balance of bile and sentimentality, and a fantastic production from Elvis Costello, it gives that happy/sad feeling that perfectly encapsulates Christmas: the laughter, the tears; the unspoken squabbles; the missing people who are no longer with us; the regrets; the hope that things will be better next year. It was kept off the top spot by Pet Boys cover of "Always On My Mind", and despite re-entering the charts every year since 2005 it has yet to hit number 1, a feat that hasn't evaded Wham! or Mariah Carey.
After 1990 the Christmas single pretty much disappeared. The festive top spot would be claimed by boy or girl groups - Spice Girls took the crown three years running -, novelty hits (Mr Blobby, Bob The Builder), and reality tv talent show winners from Pop Idol and X Factor. The occasional charity song got a look in but apart from chart-ineligible songs by Coldplay and The Killers it seemed that no artist would touch the idea of actually writing a song about Christmas. After all, Slade had loads of big hits and great songs but the general public only remember that song, so why potentiality ruin your image? That wasn't something that theatrical rockers The Darkness cared about; their punning 2003 festive anthem "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" recalled the glam rock yuletide hits of the seventies, even featuring a kids choir and chimes. Criminally denied the top spot by a very depressing piano-based cover of Tears For Fears' "Mad World", it seems to have been overlooked in recent years.
In the years since downloads, streaming, and even plays on YouTube have counted towards chart eligibility Christmas songs re-enter the singles chart every year from late November onwards. Songs that were never hits or even released as singles in their day have taken on new popularity. Some songs have beaten their initial highest position: both Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and Wham!s "Last Christmas" have become Christmas number 1, and Elton John's "Step Into Christmas" which, after reaching a paltry 24 on its original 1974 release and being largely forgotten until its inclusion on Christmas compilations over a decade later, finally cracked the top ten in December 2019. Vintage festive tunes from the pre-rock 'n' roll era that were only hits in the U.S have become yearly visitors to the UK singles chart. New Christmas songs have been a bit thin on the ground in the last decade; the last three years have seen sausage roll-obsessed charity act Ladbaby top the chart on the big day, with a fourth likely this year, a remake of Ed Sheeran and Elton John's new (and largely awful) "Christmas Time" which currently sits at the top as i write, one week before Christmas Day. It's a poor state of affairs indeed, but one that begs the question: do we need any more Christmas songs? With multiple versions of the same songs out there, there is something for everyone, regardless of your age or musical persuasion. I'm certainly quite happy to hear the classics, be it Phil Spectors' A Christmas Gift For You, a NOW! compilation, or the beautiful voice of the Barnsley nightingale Kate Rusby on one of her Christmas themed albums of folk songs and long forgotten regional versions of beloved carols. Maybe everything that can be said about the season has already been said.
Merry Christmas to you all, and a Happy New Year.
