Within the pantheon of pop, certain names are forever tarred with the festive brush of forced frivolity – hardy annuals whose shopping mall ubiquity over Christmas is like musical waterboarding. But this is to cruelly overlook their other, less seasonal work. So for the uninitiated, here are six artists who, like cute little puppies, are emphatically not just for Christmas.
CLIFF RICHARD ‘Move It’
Despite seemingly owning Christmas music for what felt like an interminable age, there’s plenty of plump meat in Cliff’s early catalogue. Originally billed as the British Elvis in the 50s, Cliff may have lacked the authentic rock’n’roll chops of his trans-Atlantic cohorts, but his neatly homogenised translation of black American attitude was perfect for wary UK audiences. Cliff’s quiff and sneer were wholesome and ultimately unthreatening, but a song like ‘Move It’, a Shadows-backed classic and a genuine UK music mould breaker, more than makes up for ‘Mistletoe & Wine’. (NC)
SLADE ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’
Authors of probably the most famous Christmas record – 1973’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ is a guaranteed life-long pension of riches and cigars lit with £50 notes for all concerned – Slade began that particular year with an absulute belter. ‘Cum On…’ was a lyrical tribute to the band’s matchless live experience, which eschewed the poncing and polish of their glam image for a far heavier take on their misspelled magic. You might only know this one from Oasis’ rather lumpen cover version – if so you need to feel the noize as it was originally intended. (NC)
WIZZARD ‘See My Baby Jive’
Another 1973 perennial (beaten to the top spot by Slade), ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’ helped define the festive season for a generation. Then another one, and then another one. While we’re sure Roy Wood’s glad of the eternal income, he’d probably be quick to point out that this was far from the only string to his bow. ‘See My Baby Jive’ was Wizzard’s first number one single, hogging the spot for a month with its lush Phil Spector-esque take on glam rock. (NC)
JONA LEWIE ‘You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties’
While ‘Stop The Cavalry’ is actually one of those Christmas songs you kind of don’t mind hearing year in, year out, it’s nonetheless destined for Jona’s eulogy headline. Which is a shame, as ‘Kitchen…’ is a proper pop classic from 1980, an era when eccentric nonsense was welcomed by the record-buying public with open arms. Its Polymoog patronage is perhaps less remembered than other synth pop hits of the time, but the good people at Ikea at least recognised its brilliance when choosing the song for this year’s kitchen TV adverts. (NC)
THE POGUES’The Old Main Drag’
Fans of Shane McGowan’s Anglo-Irish crew of punk-folkers will be aghast that such a classic band should make this list but the simple fact is that people love ‘Fairytale Of New York’ but imagine they won’t like the Oirish-ness of the band’s other material. Nick Cave will tell you that McGowan is a true poet, and this simple banjo’n’accordion ballad lets the lyric scream. A shocking tale of a teenage runaway pulled into a world of selling handjobs for a fiver, being beaten up by the police and begging for drugs. It’s so harsh it makes ‘Fairytale’ sound like a, er, fairytale. (JK)
THE WAITRESSES ‘I Know What Boys Like’
Of all the record labels to put out a Christmas album, New York no wave imprint ZE had to be pretty low down the list, being better known as the home of Suicide’s Alan Vega and punk-saxophonist James Chance. ‘Christmas Wrapping’ is a jolly little slice of new wave fun, and has moved from alt.Christmas to the mainstream but it’s not all The Waitresses did. ‘I Know What Boys Like’ joins the dots between the New York Dolls’ reclaiming rock’n’roll and the lo-fi pop of the C86 genre. (JK)
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WORDS BY NICK COQUET, JAMES KENDALL
