Just like with last year’s decision on the best UK Christmas Number One of all time, I probably ought to add “so far”, but I won’t. It’s implied. I have thrown far too many hours into the seven pieces that make up this decision, so with very little pomp and circumstance, let’s get to it…
As with last year, I’ll summarise and link to the posts that make up the finalists, so that you can read the thinking behind each if you want, otherwise just go ahead and see as I rank them all with an explanation as to why they make the spot they make.
1950s – Bill Haley & His Comets – Rock Around the Clock
1960s – The Foundations – Build Me Up Buttercup
1970s – The Village People – Y.M.C.A.
1980s – The Housemartins – Caravan of Love
1990s – Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
2000s – The Darkness – Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)
2010s – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
These songs are all, genuinely, absolutely magnificent. They all have their highlights, they all have their low points, but together they’ve all been determined (by me) to be the best UK Christmas Number Two of their decade. But there can only be one best of the best. I’m going to do this slightly differently this year, and rather than go ahead and use the scores as a foundation for their placement, I’m going to rank them by personal feeling.
In 7th place, we have Build Me Up Buttercup from the 1960’s, narrowly beaten by Rock Around the Clock in 6th. Both great, classic, songs, but in terms of Christmas time, they just don’t fit the bill for me in terms of being good enough to claim the top spot. Outside of Christmas time, they don’t have enough going for them that I would want to listen to them all that often either.
In 5th, we get Uptown Funk and in 4th, Y.M.C.A. Again, both brilliant songs, and in a way there’s some vague likenesses between the two, but as with the previous, these are not songs that I would really associate with Christmas time, be overly inclined to listen to around this time of year, but I would be more willing to listen to them throughout the year. Indeed, Uptown Funk is on my master playlist, and Y.M.C.A will be when I get round to going through the Village People discography.
We are, now, left with the entries from the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s, all fighting for the top spot. I pride myself with being consistent where possible, but the problem is, that there’s no arrangement of these songs that I am overly happy with, so I’m going to go ahead and go with my gut feeling.
In 3rd, we have Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End). It’s a great, festive song, and it’s my go to for listening to at Christmas by choice. Indeed, it’s the first Christmas song I chose to listen to this year as part of my non-writing musical experiences, so it could very easily have earned the top spot, but I just couldn’t place it there in good conscience, even if it did inspire this series in the first place.
I think second place has to go to Caravan of Love. I love the song, I’ve listened to it so damn much outside of the 1980’s writing, and I expect I will listen to it a lot more as the days, weeks and months go by. It’s a fantastic song. But it’s not Mariah Carey, is it? I think deep down, we all knew that this results was going to happen, and that I would crown the “queen of Christmas” as the singer of the Best UK Christmas Number Two of all time.
That’s right, I’ll repeat it again. The Best UK Christmas Number Two of all time goes to Mariah Carey with All I Want for Christmas is You. Feel free to comment, share your thoughts and thinking as always, I love knowing what you all think and given we’ve had so few comments from you all this year, it would be very nice to end the year with a chat or two. But for now, that’s me done with the series. Have yourself a very Merry Christmas, keep an eye out for my piece on the Best UK #1 of 1963 which is publishing tomorrow, the review of the the Christmas #1 for 2022 which is publishing on Monday and hopefully enjoy them both between various festive activities.
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