I recently contributed to a feature on the best and worst Christmas songs for Fuse (the University of Sheffield’s independent magazine), so thought I’d share it with the blogosphere. However, I’m not going to bother with the other contributors’ opinions. They can lick my snowballs.
THE ONE WHICH FILLS ME WITH CHRISTMAS CHEER. OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT:
‘White Wine in the Sun’ by Tim Minchin
It won’t be played in a department store any time soon, but my favourite Christmas song is ‘White Wine in the Sun’, by Australian comedian and musician, Tim Minchin. Stepping back from the witty iconoclasm of the majority of his work, this song shows a much softer side of Minchin, singing to his daughter about the importance of family at Christmas. What starts off as Tim alone with a piano flows through to a modern-day carol, with a beautiful string section to boot, giving the passionate last verse that extra-special Christmasy tingle. Although he stays true to form, with rants about the institutionalisation of Christianity, getting freaked out by churches and “… the westernisation of a dead Palestinian / Press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer”, he always, bashfully, returns to the refrain “but I still really like it”. Overall, it’s an atheist ode to the festive season. and all the new socks and boxes of chocolate that come with it.
Honourable Mentions:
- ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ by Slade
- ‘Fairytale of New York’ by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
- ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’ by Chris de Burgh
IF THE GRINCH AND SCROOGE WERE TO DO A DUET, IT WOULD SOUND ONLY HALF AS PAINFUL AS THIS:
‘Have a Cheeky Christmas’ by The Cheeky Girls
Need I go on?
Honourable Mentions:
- ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ by Mariah Carey
- ‘Christmas Conga’ by Cyndi Lauper
- ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ by Cliff Richard
So tell me, dear reader, what seasonal songs get you all smiley or despair-y?
I like Proper Chrimbo by Bo Selecta, Wham’s Last Christmas and The Pogues(ft Kirsty MacColl) Fairytale Of New York.
The one i cant stand is Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie, its terrible
[...] to my friend Abbie Days for making me aware of Tim Minchin’s White Wine In The Sun, she described it as: …an [...]
Thanks so much Abbie for making me aware of the Tim Minchin song, I was so impressed I just wrote a blog post about it myself.
As for honourable mentions “Merry Christmas Everybody” by Slade is a classic Christmas song! My intense hatred of Cliff Richard grew almost solely from his release of “Mistletoe and Wine” – so glad to see him on the list of bad ones.
Cheers!