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Certain to make many a merry reveller moist-eyed at closing time.
It didn't hurt that it was also a tremendous pop song, with a heartbreaking lyric about the suicide of chief songwriter Tony Mortimer’s brother. With a few token bells chiming in towards the end, and a crudely prepared video where the quartet prance around in duffel coats and ski-boots while fake snow falls behind them, Stay Another Day managed to spend five weeks at the top of the charts over the festive season in 1994. 93. Stay Another Day (1994) – East 17Ī lustrous ballad from the Walthamstow boy band that has become a durable festive favourite despite having no real Christmas connection in the song itself. The mood of joyous glee perfectly demonstrates how Christmas brings out the child in everyone, even the Boss. Sleigh bells are jingling and Springsteen is giggling as he romps through the Crystals classic with the E Street Band. “Maybe I’ll clear my junk / Maybe I’ll just get drunk on apple wine / Me, I’ll be just fine.”ĩ4. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1985) – Bruce Springsteen Written by Carol Hall for musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, Hard Candy Christmas finds the fluttery voice of the country dame channelling the fatalistic optimism of hookers putting a brave face on the loneliest season. 95. Hard Candy Christmas (1982) – Dolly Parton Bells jingle jangle incessantly but otherwise its pure Tamla, slippery Funk Brothers bass propping up a prominent snare drum, and the 17-year-old letting fly on an upbeat melody before blowing us out with harmonica playing that is ripe with earthly rather than angelic delights. Little Stevie Wonder grooves through a Motown Christmas. 96. What Christmas Means to Me (1967) – Stevie Wonder Paul Simon’s sound of silence made manifest. It is American broadcaster Charlie O’Donnell reading the news from the day of recording, August 3rd 1966: the death of Lenny Bruce, Civil Rights marches, multiple murder indictments, anti-Vietnam war protests. At first, it is just a piano and two beautiful harmonies united in hymnal reverence, until you notice the sound of a speaking voice chattering in the background, growing slightly louder throughout the track.
97. 7 O’Clock News / Silent Night (1966) - Simon & GarfunkelĪ potent, politicised Christmas carol, poised between hope and despair.
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The kicker is that the song is full of the kind of parental warnings ("he knows when you've been naughty!") that keep kids wide-eyed with Xmas tension, wondering if Santa is actually going to turn up. Sleigh bells jingle all the way through this racy little pop number breathlessly anticipating the arrival of Santa, while the drums go ba-boom and the New York girl group trill away like overexcited Carol singers. The reverb-heavy, wall-of-sound production sounds as packed with delights as an overstuffed stocking. Mad production genius Phil Spector really set the standard for seasonal records with his 1963 Christmas Gift For You album. 98. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1963) - The Crystals Shot through with Wheeler’s coruscating melodies, Christmas Day finds the pair “dreaming of the breakers” amid warming ooo-aah harmonies and power-pop bounce. Firstly, because no one makes them anymore, secondly because both looked brilliant in snug Christmaswear on the album’s cover – but also because the album featured songs like this. That is a brilliant song.” 99. Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing) (2011) - Emmy the Great & Tim WheelerĪsh frontman Wheeler and his folk-singer girlfriend Emmy the Great teamed up in 2011 for one of the finest albums of Christmas originals in recent memory.
When asked about the inspiration behind the song, the keyboardist said: “Although I don’t really like John Lennon's music, I was thinking of his signature tracks like Imagine.
According to Erasure’s Vince Clarke, the track was his response to John Lennon’s Imagine. With lyrics that include the line “I don't believe in your religion/ I only know what I can see”, Bells of Love – from Erasure’s minimalist, determinedly secular 2013 Christmas album Snow Globe – offers an unusual, synth-pop take on a seasonal song. 100 best Christmas songs of all time 100. Bells of Love (Isabelle's of Love) (2013) - Erasure Whether you prefer classic to country, pop to soul, or simply want something jolly to play in the background while you deck the halls, The Telegraph have compiled the 100 best yuletide songs from throughout the decades.
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Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You may have dominated festive sonic fare and the charts since its release in 1994, but her nostalgic love song is just one Christmas cracker in a long line of festive musical offerings.
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Nay-sayers and Scrooges will say that Christmas music is the scourge of the high street and TV advertising from November onwards, but few can truly resist the cockle-warming powers of Wham!'s Last Christmas or The Pogues' Fairytale of New York.