It’s Christmas!: Whatever Happened to the Christmas Single?

Whatever happened to the Christmas Number One?

Holder and Lea, that well known tunesmith duo, here on a gentler, more melodic, less rumbustious, guaranteed number one than usual. It is included on numerous Christmas-themed compilation albums and several of Slade's subsequent compilation albums. It can be heard playing in the background during five episodes of the British television programme Doctor Who: The song has also become the last song that Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie play before Christmas on their BBC Radio 6 Music show and on a number of occasions Noddy Holder has been a guest on the show to introduce it.

  • The Uncycle;
  • Robert Burns : Ten of His Best.
  • !
  • A Prescribed Healing.

Noddy Holder has referred to the song as his pension scheme, reflecting its continuing popularity and the royalties it generates. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This short excerpt is from the song's chorus. Retrieved 8 October Retrieved 11 May The Official Chart Company. Retrieved 25 December Archived from the original JPG on 23 April Retrieved 9 July Retrieved 13 November Retrieved 21 November Retrieved 15 November Archived from the original on 9 July Retrieved 27 March The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles.

Phil Spector A Christmas Gift for You (1963)

Retrieved 6 December Guardian News and Media Limited. Guinness British Hit Singles. Archived from the original on 15 July Retrieved 10 August Archived from the original JPG on 1 May Retrieved 4 September Merry Christmas Everybody ' ". Retrieved 16 November The Rough Guide To Rock. Retrieved 26 December Retrieved 23 August Archived from the original on 2 February Retrieved 6 April Retrieved 7 April Archived from the original on 6 December Retrieved 12 December Tout les Titres par Artiste". Archived from the original on 26 October Archived from the original on 19 December Archived from the original on 3 June Polish Airplay Top Retrieved 23 December Retrieved 19 December Retrieved 27 December Slovenian official singles weekly chart" in Slovenian.

Retrieved 17 December UK Christmas number-one singles in the s. Complete list s s s s s s s. Retrieved from " https: All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from May CS1 maint: Archived copy as title CS1 Slovenian-language sources sl Use British English from May Use dmy dates from November Articles with hAudio microformats All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December Singlechart usages for Poland Singlechart called without artist Singlechart called without song Singlechart making named ref.

Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 16 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Rock , Christmas , Glam rock.

Noddy Holder , Jim Lea. Problems playing this file? Belgian Singles Chart [65].

Navigation menu

(), "Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want)" (). "It's Christmas Time" is a Christmas song recorded by the British Rock band Status Quo in Think of Christmas chart-toppers and classics like Merry Christmas Everybody, Do They Know It's Christmas? and Mary's Boy Child come to mind. “You would maybe only hear a number one single in the 60s about a dozen.

Eventually, he held out his hand and said: I prefer your record. We both called our daughters Holly, but his is Holly Wood. The sentiment of this song makes me laugh as well. I remember him saying to me, early in his career: I got home the other day and there was a cheque for 64 grand. Chosen by Neil Diamond, who released two best-selling volumes of The Christmas Album in the 90s, and whose Acoustic Christmas album is out now.

A Christmas Gift for You has many of my favourite songs, sung by some of my favourite singers of the time, such as Darlene Love, the Ronettes and the Crystals. They are all up-tempo songs, and I like that. It was as close to being next to a genius as I had ever been. His records were all great and original, and this one brings back memories. Everybody knew about it in Tin Pan Alley, where the heart of the music business was beating and where I heard it first. It was a happy time for me. As a struggling songwriter, I fell in love with it. Now, it brings back all the memories of the hungry songwriter living off his dreams, and what great records could and should sound like.

My love for Christmas music began when we sang in high school.

To make a great Christmas record, you have to love the music, and feel the warmth and passion of the songs. Chosen by Jona Lewie, who brought us the perennial Stop the Cavalry. But this is raw and wild, about women, sex and cars. Elvis was just being natural, but it was seen as rebellious and probably sounded like an assault on the pop establishment.

I would have heard it around and it bowled me over, because it was the real Elvis, like on the Sun Records cuts. It has great right-hand blues piano and a rough edge, with great humour. He comes down the chimney and says to the woman in the house: Kurt was the first to have a dope-ass hip-hop Christmas song.

This is so creative and clever, and so funky, that it transformed into a universal breakbeat that MCs would use at live performances. Plus the bassline is tremendous. His lyrics are incredible: Christmas Wrapping is one of those Christmas tunes that tells a story. While you might hear Slade or Wizzard times over Christmas, you might hear the Waitresses once, but it has become a slightly more selective Christmas standard. The oddness makes it great. They were in their prime, playing and singing brilliantly, and the chord changes are sensational.

Wizzard I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (1973)

Our record, Christmas Wrapping, has got that New York snotty attitude, which gets its comeuppance in the end, but this is totally sincere from start to finish, which is very endearing. If I had one Christmas wish, it would be for Andy Partridge to get the band back together.

The song is based on an argument in a drunk tank, and I used to see all that when my dad had a coffee bar next to the unemployment exchange.

I was a sitting duck. I must have had my nose broken 10 times. One Christmas, there was so much mayhem, it was like Beirut. It gets to me, and Kirsty MacColl was just fantastic. I met her loads of times, bless her. I once did a TV show in Hamburg with the Pogues and we were all on the same flight back, and when you did TV on weekends in Europe it was just one big party. Shane MacGowan was in duty-free.

It's Christmas! The best festive songs, chosen by Slade, Neil Diamond, the Waitresses and more

I bought it for him and he downed it straight away, the whole lot. I first heard this in Japan, in a coffee shop that had a mocked-up American radio station playing Christmas songs on a loop. I loved it straight away and searched it out when I got home. Never trust the critics. In the song, Elvis is away from home, as he frequently would have been in I picture him driving back on a dark, empty highway, trying not to fall asleep at the wheel. She has sung with the best, and sung lead on a lot of hits, uncredited.

She puts so much pure energy into this performance that I cannot think of a more uplifting Christmas song. I dare anyone to put it on and not either sing along, or move to it. I love this song because of the sheer goodwill and warmth that comes from it. Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield, who wrote it, claimed it was an objection to the commercialisation of Christmas, but still about the joy of the season and the innocence of believing. I love the Slade and Wizzard singles, and when we did the Jive Bunny record we had the pleasure of working with Noddy Holder and Roy Wood, who knocked on the studio door with crazy purple hair and pink glasses and ended up getting leathered with us after the recording.

It was one of those brilliant, memorable moments with a legend, although some Christmas records can repel you as much as draw you in. Mike Batt has chosen it as well?