It’s often difficult to place the exact moment you first hear it. You may be scanning the supermarket shelves for your favourite Pot Noddle or filling up your car in the station forecourt.
And then, all of a sudden, it happens . . . a solemn chime and a pounding beat breaks the silence and before you know it the opening bars of Do They Know It’s Christmas? are in full swing.
Saint Bob and co are back in time-honoured tradition to remind us that famine is your problem, when all you really wanted was a Chilli Beef flavoured snack.
Having married a dedicated follower of all things Yuletide, I have embraced the season to be jolly with a kind of resigned equanimity – more ho-hum, than ho, ho, ho. Santa lite, you could say. In my previous life as a singleton, I would often place a lone straggle of tinsel on the bay tree, in a sort of ironic nod to Mr C.
However, there are some aspects of the run up to the big day that I’ve always secretly quite liked, and yes, the music is one of them. The Best Christmas Album in the World Ever CD made an early appearance this year, and by the time of writing has been on seemingly constant rotation in the house for about a month.
There are a few favourites. The sublime acapella cover of Only You by The Flying Pickets is nothing short of genius. And the uplifting Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie, which combined “umpa, umpa” brass band with the tinny beat of an early electronic synthesiser, still evokes happy childhood memories.
But where are all the modern-day equivalents? In the past 10 years John Legend, Sia and Kelly Clarkson have all jumped on Santa’s sleigh and jingled a few bells, while Kate Rusby appears to record a festive album every other year. Aiden Moffat and Sufjan Stevens have offered their alternative spins and Annie Lennox recently re-released her Christmas Cornucopia with a 10th anniversary edition. And let’s not forget Mr Christmas himself, Michael Bublé.
However, is it just me, but none of these worthy efforts have quite embedded themselves in the collective public conscience the way Slade, The Pogues or John Lennon did. In short, is the festive song dead?
Top of the Pops returns on December 25, wheeled out from the BBC retirement home for worn-out TV formats for its annual sympathy outing. But with performances from Joel Corry ft. MNEK, Clean Bandit & Mabel, Celeste and Aitch x AJ Tracey I doubt it will be considered quite the essential viewing for families that it was in the 70s and 80s.
Changing musical tastes, a multitude of alternative entertainment sources and a vast catalogue of old recordings hogging the airwaves (Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You is topping the charts after 26 years) have left any new songs quivering in the snow like a half-starved robin.
So maybe it’s time to regard the Christmas song as an old relative, slumped in the armchair after a heavy turkey dinner, with little new to say or prove. If it’s nostalgia you want, there’s plenty to choose from, just don’t ask St Nick for anything new or original.
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