Thank f**k. I literally cannot listen to those old 8 - 10 that get played to near death every year any longer. The newest is "Fairytale of New York" and that's 30 bloody years old.. no more plays PLEASE!

K wrote:
Thank f**k. I literally cannot listen to those old 8 - 10 that get played to near death every year any longer. The newest is "Fairytale of New York" and that's 30 bloody years old.. no more plays PLEASE!

Actually "all I want for Christmas" by Mariah Carey is newer than fairytale. The reason why they keep playing the same songs every year is because the new ones are crap and completely unmemorable and lack any kind of melody.

Oddly the only Mariah track I've ever liked - loved, even.

There are quite a few really good new original Christmas songs this year (as well as a few awful ones), it's just that the main line radio / TV stations prefer to ignore them. Fresh vibrant original music by independent artists is, as usual, driven underground.

What do you expect?! Christmas is about tradition

PaulB wrote:
There are quite a few really good new original Christmas songs this year (as well as a few awful ones), it's just that the main line radio / TV stations prefer to ignore them. Fresh vibrant original music by independent artists is, as usual, driven underground.

4music is currently playing the top 50 christmas songs. The ones at the lower end of the chart are mostly newish ones, the reason that they don't catch on in the way that the Slades, Wizards, Whams, and Mariah's do is because they are not catchy and in are instantly forgettable.

I think this one, which I recently tipped on here, is quite chatchy.

PaulB wrote:
I think this one, which I recently tipped on here, is quite chatchy.



Do you seriously think that this could compete with the slades, wizzards, whams, and Mariahs of this world.

robbiex wrote:
PaulB wrote:
I think this one, which I recently tipped on here, is quite chatchy.



Do you seriously think that this could compete with the slades, wizzards, whams, and Mariahs of this world.


Maybe not Slade or Wizzard. I never rated Wham or Mariah but, if they were released now by unknown artists, not many other people would either.

PaulB wrote:
Maybe not Slade or Wizzard. I never rated Wham or Mariah but, if they were released now by unknown artists, not many other people would either.

... you could say that about many records from that time !

PaulB wrote:
robbiex wrote:
PaulB wrote:
I think this one, which I recently tipped on here, is quite chatchy.



Do you seriously think that this could compete with the slades, wizzards, whams, and Mariahs of this world.


Maybe not Slade or Wizzard. I never rated Wham or Mariah but, if they were released now by unknown artists, not many other people would either.

I think that they would be very successful now if they were released by unknown artists today. The fact that they they are re-charting today shows that. Two millenials at my workplace state Last Christmas as their favourite christmas song. To them Wham are unknown artists, as they are too young to remember them when they were successful. A good tune with melody and a good hook is always going to be successfull. There is hardly much competition in the charts these days.

Some of the best songs associated with Christmas don't even mention Christmas - e.g., Frankie's "The Power of Love", here in all its 9 minute extended version glory:

Another good Christmas tune is Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas" :



It's quite subversive, when you listen to the lyrics. He is attacking the commercialisation of Christmas.

K wrote:
Thank f**k. I literally cannot listen to those old 8 - 10 that get played to near death every year any longer. The newest is "Fairytale of New York" and that's 30 bloody years old.. no more plays PLEASE!

A little known fact about Kirsty MacColl is that she chose the tracklist for U2's "The Joshua Tree", also thirty years' old this year.

Kirsty's husband Steve Lillywhite was working with U2 on the album. Kirsty herself was not particularly enamoured of U2's music, but she was with Steve in the studio, bored, and went to Bono, "well, might as well give me something to do". Bono said "ok, can you pick the tracklist for us? It's something we struggle with, for some reason". So she did!

Should have added, U2 returned the favour, in a way, with this version of 'Springhill Mining Disaster' (their version was influenced by the Dubliners, but the song was originally popularised by Kirsty's dad Ewan):

robbiex wrote:

I think that they would be very successful now if they were released by unknown artists today. The fact that they they are re-charting today shows that. Two millenials at my workplace state Last Christmas as their favourite christmas song. To them Wham are unknown artists, as they are too young to remember them when they were successful. A good tune with melody and a good hook is always going to be successfull. There is hardly much competition in the charts these days.[/quote]


We can never know anything based on IFs. That an old song is re-charting might be more to do with the volume of publicity generated through decades of high profile hyping, or it might be that it is just good. A friend of mine spent a couple of years busking and doing coffee shops, singing both originals and covers. Most people just passed him by. Some who did listen said that he was average and nothing special. Then he won NBC's The Voice. The same people who dismissed him (New Yorkers) suddenly decided he was awesome and that they had always liked him.

(I don't think he was the best voice on that show, but he was different and the producers liked the fact that he was the youngest entrant ever. They saw dollar signs.)

People are fickle and easily persuaded when the crowds are going in the same direction.

One of my favourite Christmas tracks, which was not a hit and has been long since deleted, is "Make Someone Happy (This Christmas)" by Sheri Dean (With The Sobell Skaters). It always raises a smile.

We are all different ... thankfully.

One of my favourites is christmas wrapping by the waitresses, because it has the credibility of an indie song and also the Christmas sentiment. Also it has become a Christmas standard without any video or filmed performance from the band.