h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dublin has a new radio station, Xmas FM, which broadcasts continuous Christmas Music. People text in requests at a premium rate of €1 and the money goes to charity.

Yesterday I heard the worst Christmas song of my life. I would have put my face in my hands and cried, except that I was driving at the time. It's called "Christmas Shoes".

http://peachpatch.com/shoes.html

Has anybody else got a Christmas song they love to hate?

Wizzard - "I wish it could be Christmas every day"

I don't *love* to hate it, I avoid it as much as possible. I used to hate the bad miming to it on Top of the Pops as well.

GB

Oh god, all of them, especially Phil Spector.

On the carol side, Silent Night is a dirge.

That's an easy one. 'Happy Christmas (War Is Over)' - John Lennon.

On the other hand...I disagree entirely about Spektor. That album's the only Christmas record. Especially the ones sung by the selicious Ronnie.

A controversial choice, I know, but I absolutely cannot stand "Fairytale of New York". A combination of Magowan's awful vocals, and just the sheer giddy enthusiasm with which DJs greet it and its oh so shocking irreverence

Oh I like the "Fairytale". Everybody I know likes it too. It's a good tune and a nice antidote to the kitsch, but it has a good Christmas message too.

Surely Mistletoe & Wine takes some beating in these stakes?

I'd second that with Lennon's dirge and then probably Roy Wood & Wizzard.

B

I think Christmas songs should be taken in the spirit they're meant. So even the cheesy stuff is OK just once a year. After a few Christmas there's nothing more uplifting than joining in with "Mistletoe and Wine" or Fairytale in New York - even if you don't like the songs.

And now I'll have the "Fairytale" on my mind for the rest of the day. !! Christmas is here!

Anyway you can all thank your lucky you don't live in Germany, where ALL the Carols sound like dirges. They take Christmas so seriously. They're going on about being joyful and everything being wonderful, but you'd think they were accompanying a funeral if you couldn't understand the words.

I haven't heard Gnomon's "Christmas Shoes" but I'll have a look when I get home - don't have sound on my PC now at work. I can't think of a Christmas song where I'd switch off the radio in disgust - it's all just a bit of fun.

For my money, it's 'Little Drummer Boy'

I wonder if the harm from exposure is cumulative so that my head might eventually explode from it.

For me, it's that Johnny Mathis dirge "A Child is Born" or somesuch

Pailaway, I would agree with you except that I have a sentimental memory of my then six year old singing it in a Christmas concert to a real baby.
The Christmas Shoes thing is pretty dire, rather like the Scarlet Ribbons thing which isn't really a Christmas song, but always seems to turn up at this time of year.

I'm a Queen fan but for me it's Thank God It's Christmas which was obviously just an attempt to get a few quid on the back of the Christmas single craze ...... it's an awful song and even the band knew that - you just need to listen to hear they have no interest in it.


.... and Mistletoe and Wine isn't half as bad as the Christmas Prayer.

The film "Love Actually" had a great sequence in which an ageing rock star (Bill Nighy) re-recorded one of hits with the word "Christmas" really clumsily stuck into the words in order to make a few extra millions.

although not quite as clumsily as that last posting.

I tell a lie - there's another Christmas album:
http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Vince-Guaraldi/dp/B000ICLSMY

Feck! I like Leonard Cohen's 'Halleluiah'. I like the covers by John Cale, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright.

There's nothing *wrong* with Alexandra Burke's version. Except that from now on, for two months every year, we're going to hear it *everywhere*. In between Jonah Louie and Wizzard.

I've just been subjected to 'Little Donkey'. That's definitely the worst.

Avoid like the plague that album of neo-Nazi thrash-punk Christmas songs. It's called 'Oi! To The World.'

Holly Jolly Christmas re-hashes the cliches in all the other songs.

Here's Burl Ives singing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGyGNxHtvRk

I've just heard the new Status Quo Christmas song. It's dreadful.