Christmas is coming and Christmas music is everywhere! Today, 10 facts about the Christmas classic, Fairytale of New York.
The song is allegedly the result of a bet. Pogues producer Elvis Costello bet Shane MacGowan and co-writer Jem Finer, the band’s banjoist, that they couldn’t come up with a Christmas record that wasn’t slushy.
Initially the song was going to be about a sailor in New York looking out over the ocean and reminiscing about being back home in Ireland. Finer's wife Marcia didn’t like that idea and suggested new lyrics regarding a conversation between a couple who’d fallen on hard times at Christmas.
Originally the female vocalist was going to be Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan. However, she left the band before the song was recorded. MacGowan suggested Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde as a possible replacement. However, for a test recording, producer Steve Lillywhite, who asked his wife, Kirsty MacColl, to sing the part to get an idea of how the duet might work. They liked her performance and so she got the job. Since MacColl's death in 2000, other vocalists to sing the part Katie Melua, Sinead O'Connor and banjo player Jem Finer's daughter Ella.
The lyrics mention: “The boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway Bay.” However, there is no such thing as the NYPD choir. The NYPD doesn’t have a choir, but it does have an Irish pipe band who featured in the music video. Only they didn’t know Galway Bay and so they played the Mickey Mouse Club March instead.
The title is lifted from J. P. Donleavy’s novel A Fairy Tale of New York, which was chosen after the song had been written and recorded. Finer was reading this book at the time and had left it lying around the recording studio. The plot concerns Irish-American Cornelius Christian's return to New York after studying in Ireland.
Shane MacGowan doesn’t actually play the Piano in the video. The pianist is James Fearnley, who had to wear Shane’s rings for the close-up shots of his hands.
The cop who arrests MacGowan in the video is played by Matt Dillon.
The song was recorded in July, in sweltering heat, and not in New York, but at RAK Studios near Regents Park in London.
Shane MacGowan was born on Christmas Day.
The song went to number two in the UK charts when it was first released in 1987. It was kept off the top spot by the Pet Shop Boys’ Always on my Mind. MacGowan commented: “We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine.”
A Very Variant Christmas
Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.
The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?
Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.
Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.
Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.
Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.
Themes Christmas; superheroes; reunions; parties; life choices; shocking surprises; mistaken identity; kidnap and rescue.
Reasons not to read it
- It's a bit short. You could probably read it in one sitting.
- Most of the action takes place at a Christmas party. In a palace.
- It's all about Christmas but there doesn't seem to be a schmaltzy moral message.
- There are a couple of babies and some small children in it - and one nearly gets eaten.
- Santa appears in it, but he isn't really Santa.
- Superheroes. Again.
- Not to mention a whole bunch of super-villains. Again all new ones and not the ones we know from Marvel or DC.
- It's a bit short. You could probably read it in one sitting.
- Most of the action takes place at a Christmas party. In a palace.
- It's all about Christmas but there doesn't seem to be a schmaltzy moral message.
- There are a couple of babies and some small children in it - and one nearly gets eaten.
- Santa appears in it, but he isn't really Santa.
- Superheroes. Again.
- Not to mention a whole bunch of super-villains. Again all new ones and not the ones we know from Marvel or DC.
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