There are many things that we may appreciate about Christmas but there is something that all of us think about when it comes to the holidays. Of course, I’m talking about music and it doesn’t matter if you are listening to it at home on your headset or if you are hearing it on the radio, it is something that is both nostalgic and, at times, a little irritating.
Even though many people enjoy Christmas, the stores really overdo it when it comes to playing the music. It really begins sometime in October and we start hearing the Christmas carols played at one store after another. It isn’t long before the radio chimes and before you know it, we are being bombarded with that music on an ongoing basis. It is really something that gets in your head.
It’s interesting that Christmas music seems to come back year after year and it is different than other types of music that may be here today gone tomorrow. Sometimes, Christmas song may be popular for decades and that is the case with Fairytale in New York, which has been voted as the most popular Christmas song of all time.
Of course, everybody is going to have an argument over their own favorite Christmas song but most people would agree that The Fairytale of New York is certainly something that is well deserving of praise. Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the fact that it is quite popular.
Some of the groups that held the lead for many years have been knocked down by this popular song. They include Adele, Wham! and Mariah Carey. So why is that the people love the song so much? Perhaps because it is a little more down to earth than the other Christmas songs that seem to fill the airways.
According to Sam Sutton, a senior lecturer at the London College of music, “It’s the distinctly edgier offering from The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl that most appeals to our sensibilities.”
“Perhaps the rousing squabble between the two appeals to Brits because it’s somehow more real and closer to our actual experience of Christmas – a heady and sometimes tense mix of friends, family and booze.”
The song was released in 1987 and after going through a number of rewrites, it was launched into our lives and our hearts. Even though it was quite popular, it was still knocked out of the top slot by the Pet Shop Boys.
“Every night I used to have another bash at nailing the lyrics, but I knew they weren’t right,” says Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan to the Guardian. “It is by far the most complicated song that I have ever been involved in writing and performing. The beauty of it is that it sounds really simple.”
Even though Fairytale of New York didn’t get the top spot previously, it is now the top song played in the UK in the 21st century.
Regardless of your feelings on the song, it is a Christmas song that is going to be here for a very long time.
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