Comments on: SLADE – “Merry Xmas Everybody”

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:14:43 +0000

Hmmm, I’m watching it now – “Poirot” will have to be Sky-plussed I think. “Hey Mr Christmas” by the ‘Waddy sold 152,000 copies, yet only made number 13, sharing Top 20 space with Mud, the Rubettes and G Glitter.

And talking of GG, there was an ‘airbrush’ moment on Smooth last night – his 1984 hit “Another Rock’n'Roll Christmas” was referred to by name only, no mention of the artist. Will we be seeing it tonight I wonder?

By: whitfield1944

whitfield1944 — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:31:19 +0000

it was nice to here santo natale sang on channel 5s britains favourite christmas songs on christmas day channel 5 at 10pm.

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:00:55 +0000

“Dad trying to light all the candles with one match” – that’s more of a birthday party scenario, surely? “Dad trying to set light to,and then trying to extinguish, the Xmas pudding” is more on the mark. And did anyone have those rather underwhelming “indoor fireworks?”

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:38:49 +0000

Re 50/51: Channel 5 are doing an archive show this year which will apparently go back as far as (gasp) David Whitfield’s Santo Natale, including members of DW’s Appreciation Society and their plans for a statue of the rubbery-voiced one in Hull. So maybe the boundaries are being redrawn and MXE is no longer the beginning of the beginning for xmas pop.

Dickie V! Your time will come again!

By: enitharmon

enitharmon — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:44:48 +0000

@54

pee po belly bum drawers

By: fudge cake

fudge cake — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:19:54 +0000

penis

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:31:13 +0000

I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned Phil Spector’s ‘A Christmas Gift for You’ album from 1963. The Beach Boys released a Christmas album in 1964 and Wikipedia lists 40 Christmas albums from the 1960s alone.
Like Rosie I don’t remember Christmassy songs being played at parties (in the 1970s in my case) – they always seemed to finish with ‘Nights in white satin’ IIRC – with ‘Hi ho Silver Lining’ used as a floor clearer at the end.

By: rosie

rosie — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:36:53 +0000

Billy Hicks @ 50

Us wrinklies had lots of things to dance to, they just weren’t particularly Christmassy even at Christmas parties. Some of them we’ve dealt with; an awful lot were big big big but didn’t hit the top spot.. Tom has pointed out that very few Beatles tracks were particularly danceable. The Stones, on the other hand, could be relied upon to keep a good steady dance rhythm. At sixth-form parties Brown Sugar always went down well, I recall, and Stay With Me by the Faces. There was any amount of Motown and derivatives. Towards the end of the evening the smooching set in. Nobody much cared if it was Carole King or Leonard Cohen, they were too busy shuffling around with lips glued together.

Though on the whole dancing wasn’t especially high on the agenda at the sort of parties I went to.

By: Mutley

Mutley — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:23:13 +0000

#50 I think you are right about Slade (and Wizzard) being the beginning of time of Christmas records. There are probably three main reasons for that – first, older records have slipped off the edge of time (it will also certainly happen one day to Slade/Wizzard); second, Slade/Wizzard have appeared frequently on Christmas Top of the Pops over the years and have thus been heavily promoted over and over; and, third, they appeared in colour on TV (unlike the black and white of the 50s and most of the 60s) in “Christmassy” costumes, which, like Santa himself, don’t seem to date.

However, there have been Christmas-oriented records ever since these charts began in 1952. Here are just a few from the early years.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Jimmy Boyd (1952)

Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt (1953) (much better than the Kylie Minogue version and I don’t think it would have been permitted at a nursery school’s Christmas party!)

Let’s have another Party – Winifred Atwell (1954) (Christmas number one, although not specifically about Christmas, more about parties)

Christmas Alphabet – Dickie Valentine (1955) (Christmas number one)

Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte (1956) (Christmas number one)

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee (1958)

The only one of these 1950s numbers suitable for dancing at children’s Christmas parties in a Slade/Wizzard kind of way is the Brenda Lee, although the Winifred Atwell provides a better knees-up than any of them.

By: Billy Hicks

Billy Hicks — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:37:09 +0000

For those of us born after 1973 (in my case, fifteen years after), this song seems to have been around since the beginning of time. It always made me wonder – before this and Wizzard came out, what *did* people dance to at Christmas parties? Slow-waltz to ‘White Christmas’?

It contributes to my earliest musical memories anyway, as I remember it playing at my nursery school’s Christmas party in 1993. Then I knew it simply as the song from the Andrex advert, with the puppy running down the hill.

Haven’t got tired of this *just* yet, but I think it’s gradually starting to be overtaken in the general media by previously ‘underrated’ songs by The Pogues and Mariah Carey, in the last few years they’ve been getting more airplay. Always secretly preferred Wizzard, anyway.

By: Geir H

Geir H — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:25:19 +0000

It’s a disgrace when a great band’s (because a great band they were) greatest ever moment is a seasonal hit that you just don’t put on unless the calendar shows December.

Like with Wham! I have the same problem with Slade. This is their pinnacle. This is the one song where they got everything right. Sure, they were very close on several songs that would be released the following couple of years (none of them hitting UK #1), but they were never as great as this.

Surely, the lyrics are Christmasy enough and sort of only annoys you because it means this song may only be played at that particular time of year. But the rest is oh so perfect, with a great tune, there greatest ever chorus, and one of the best middle-eights ever written The harmonies at the end of the chorus were even remiscent of The Beatles at their best.

One of my all-time-favourite Christmas songs, and surely the best thing Slade ever did.

By: Kit in Sydney

Kit in Sydney — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:02:16 +0000

“will be a number one for Robbie if he’s got enough sense to cover it)”

He should use it as the follow-up to his number one achieved by covering Never Loved As A Child from the 1998/2000 Wah! elpee though.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:50:46 +0000

OK Marcello, you’re scaring me now. :-)

I hated that bloody Chill Fac-Torr single, as championed by dear old Dale “Godfather of Hip Hop” Winton on his Monday night Soul Show at Radio Trent.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:43:53 +0000

The giveaway was that the alleged duet – a cover of Shakin’ Stevens’ “You Drive Me Crazy” peaked at #37 in 1983 when any fule kno that only seven singles achieved that peak in that year and these were as follows:

Wah! – Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me) (this SHOULD have been number one for 98 weeks, especially the full-length 12″ version with acoustic “Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory” prelude, and will be a number one for Robbie if he’s got enough sense to cover it)
Chill Fac-Torr – Twist (Round ‘N’ Round) (Mike A is hating me already for reminding him of this)
Toto – I Won’t Hold You Back (exquisite and the foundation of a future number one)
Level 42 – Micro-Kid (Adornoite jazz-funkers identify contemporary isolationist consumerist entrapment A GENERATION AHEAD OF THEIR TIME)
AC/DC – Guns For Hire (big 1973 shoutout for Geordie btw, esp. “All Because Of You” with scary sped-up vocal intro)
Hot Chocolate – Tears On The Telephone (rather boring)
Jingle Belles – Christmas Spectre (guess)

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:18:45 +0000

The regular “Nod-slot” on Stuart Maconie’s R2 show was a gem last night – Noddy was debunking inaccurate information on his Wikipedia entry (e.g that he’d made a record with Anna Ford), and they looked again 20 minutes later to find it had been corrected complete with a reference to the show! Maybe someone should tell him about this site sometime.

By: Clint75

Clint75 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:59:59 +0000

I don’t care what anyone says, whether it’s the local supermarket stocking christmas mince pies in September with a use by date of a week! Or the ads on the telly trying to get you to buy stuff 3 months in advance.
When you have the radio on at work all day, in mid-december they can play that bloody “Stop the Cavalry” record as long as they want…

But it’s not Christmas until they play Slade!!!

By: mike

mike — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:36:19 +0000

Can’t offer a Slade-PiL link, but I can do you a Slade-Devo: compare and contrast the opening of “Do We Still Do It” (from Old New Borrowed & Blue, repeated in the middle and at the end) with the main descending riff in “Jocko Homo”.

By: byebyepride

byebyepride — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:48:01 +0000

thanks mike! I am totally unschooled in Queen, so had no idea.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:56:31 +0000

Uncle Noddy’s annual pension and surely the ultimate Xmas chart-topper, although I have already aired a hankering for The Wombles, which, as regular contributors will recall, cost me a rather unexpected and uncharacteristic mauling from one of you when I coupled this with my extreme dislike of another much more recent yuletide staple. Those ecology-loving aardvarks fell just short of the top, in fact, whereas Slade gloriously flew straight in at the top in mid December and didn’t budge until February was well in sight, an incredible stat for a seasonal hit.

The song is so happy and good natured, it’s impossible not to like it. The lyric throughout is a charming family overview of the festive season and it bounces along up to it’s delirious conclusion when Noddy screams out at the top of his lungs a reminder of what it’s all about. A heart-warming offering. Eternally may it remain included amongst our annual Christmas fare.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:07:29 +0000

This is my favourite Slade track and my favourite Christmas track: zero mention of organised religion, hitherto mythical figures derobed to reveal it’s actually someone’s dad in a big red suit (ha and not your own!), and above all a good tune. It’s all about the bassline, going up and down the stairs like it’s forgotten to pick something up then once it’s returned it can’t remember why but remembers something else it needed, and so on.

And there’s NO FVCKING SLEIGH BELLS.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:03:39 +0000

Nice theory, but I dunno that I buy it, byebyepride. The episodic theatricality of Bo Rap can at least be traced back to “March of the Black Queen” on Queen II, which pre-dates the Mott tour in early 74.

By: byebyepride

byebyepride — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:34:36 +0000

those in the know feel free to tell me if this is obvious / totally wrong!

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:34:01 +0000

The semi-unruly violin links “Coz I Luv You” to “Flowers Of Romance.”

By: byebyepride

byebyepride — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:33:59 +0000

I’m enjoying the Mott talk! I seem to remember reading long ago that Queen supported Mott, and I’ve often thought that some of the more stagey Mott numbers (Violence, Crash St Kids, Stiff Upper Lip) might have been the first blueprints of what would eventually blossom as Bo Rap.

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:17:33 +0000

i’m being perverse i expect but i am much more interested in mining a pil/slade lineage!