The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale Of New York’ is to be released on seven-inch vinyl in a bid to get it to Christmas number one for the first time. A smart plan. The only issue is that the same is being done for ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham!
The campaign to get ‘Fairytale Of New York’ to Christmas number one has been hotting up following the recent death of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan. It has now been announced that the song will be released on seven-inch vinyl in aid of homelessness charity the Dublin Simon Community.
With the song currently at number four in the UK singles chart, MacGowan’s widow Victoria Mary Clarke recently told BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ of the possibility of the song hitting the festive top spot: "It would be nice, wouldn't it? It should be the Christmas number one. It absolutely should”.
Despite being a perennial and very popular Christmas hit, the track, which was originally released in 1987, has never actually been at number one on Christmas Day. The year it came out, it was held off by the decidedly less festive ‘Always On My Mind’ by the Pet Shop Boys.
Could a new physical release help to finally push it to the top spot? Absolutely, thanks to the way physical versus digital stats are counted when the charts are totted up. Not to mention the handicaps placed on older tracks when it comes to streaming - although these don’t seem to affect the Christmas classics much.
Either way, the Dublin Simon Community will receive £6 for every copy sold. Available for pre-order now, the seven-inch record will be released on Monday 19 Dec, putting all of its initial sales toward the Christmas chart.
"We would like to say a huge thank you to The Pogues and Shane McGowan's family for their generosity in creating such a special legacy for Dublin Simon Community with this release”, says the charity’s Head Of Fundraising, Emma Kilkenny. “Music is an emotional and visceral gift that can lift spirits and bring hope to people at their lowest point”.
So that’s a heartwarming endeavour. But this is the Christmas number one battle. It’s ruthless. And nothing is guaranteed. Especially when there’s a very similar campaign being run for another festive classic that’s never topped the chart in Christmas week. That being the song currently at number one, ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham!
That song - originally released in 1984 - will be available on seven-inch and CD from tomorrow, in a bid to keep it at the top through December. So this year’s Christmas number one really could all come down to the number of physical sales of two 1980s tracks. What a daft world we live in.