| "Fairytale of New York" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Single by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl | ||||
| from the album If I Should Fall from Grace with God | ||||
| Released | December 1987 | |||
| Format | CD single, 7" and 12" Vinyl, Cassette | |||
| Recorded | August 1987 | |||
| Genre | Folk-rock | |||
| Length | 4:33 | |||
| Label | Pogue Mahone | |||
| Writer(s) | Jem Finer, Shane MacGowan | |||
| The Pogues singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Fairytale of New York" is a song by Anglo-Irish folk-rock group The Pogues, released in 1987 and featuring the British singer Kirsty MacColl. The song is an Irish folk style ballad, written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan, and featured on The Pogues' album If I Should Fall from Grace with God. The song features string arrangements by Fiachra Trench. It is frequently voted the Number One Best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Contents |
Background
"Fairytale of New York" was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts over Christmas (the time of peak sales). The song has become a festive classic in Ireland and the UK over the years, and was voted the best Christmas song of all time three years running in 2004,[1] 2005[2] and 2006 in polls by music channel VH1 UK, despite not achieving Christmas Number One in the UK when it was released. It was also voted as the 27th greatest song never to reach UK#1 in another VH1 poll, and also voted as the 84th greatest song of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners in their "Sold on Song" top 100 poll.
The song takes the form of a drunken man's Christmas Eve reverie about holidays past while sleeping off a binge in a New York City drunk tank. After an inebriated old man also incarcerated in the jail cell sings a passage from the Irish drinking ballad "The Rare Old Mountain Dew", the drunken man (MacGowan) begins to dream about a failed relationship. The remainder of the song (which may be an internal monologue) takes the form of a call and response between two Irish immigrants, lovers or ex-lovers, their youthful hopes crushed by alcoholism and drug addiction, reminiscing and bickering on Christmas Eve in New York City. MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice, and the lyrics are sometimes bittersweet—sometimes plain bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse/ I pray God it's our last". The lyric "Sinatra was swinging" is likely an allusion to Sinatra's "New York, New York," which was very popular in Ireland at the time, a reference to the problem of emigration. Others have suggested it refers to an unspecified period after World War II; however, it is possible that the song is actually set in the early 1980s, when one of Sinatra's last chart hits, his 1980 recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb's theme from the movie New York, New York, was a fixture of New York City airwaves and a standard singalong record in the city's many neighborhood bars. The title, taken from author J. P. Donleavy's novel A Fairy Tale of New York, was chosen after the song had been written and recorded.
Twice Shane and Kirsty sing, "The boys of the NYPD choir still singing "Galway Bay". The New York Police Department does not have a choir, but it does have a Pipes and Drums unit that is featured in the video for the song. The NYPD Pipes and Drums did not know "Galway Bay" and so played a different song for the music video, and the editor put it in slow motion to fit the beat. The video featured the actor Matt Dillon as an NYPD patrolman who arrests the intoxicated MacGowan.
MacColl was not originally intended to appear in the song. Instead, the female vocal was meant for the band's bassist, Cait O'Riordan. However, she left the band in 1986, before the song was completed. The Pogues were at the time being produced by Steve Lillywhite, MacColl's then-husband, who asked his wife to provide a guide vocal of the female part for a demo version of the song. The Pogues, however, liked MacColl's contribution so much that they asked her to sing the part on the actual recording.[3]
Performance and recording history
The song was released in the United Kingdom in early December 1987, and swiftly became a hit. On December 17, 1987, the Pogues and MacColl performed the song on the BBC's popular television show Top of the Pops, and it was propelled to #2 on the UK charts. For the Top of the Pops appearance, the BBC insisted that MacColl's singing of "arse" be replaced with the less offensive "ass", although as she mimed the word MacColl slapped the relevant part of her body to make it clear what was meant.
Although the song finished 1987 as the 48th best seller of the year despite only a single month's sales, it was denied the Christmas #1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan commented on this in his typically forthright manner: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine." MacColl later said that she did not feel they were really in competition with the Pet Shop Boys as they were doing a completely different kind of music.
The song was re-released by The Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005,[4] reaching #3 in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of homeless charities and "Justice for Kirsty", a campaign to find out the truth behind Kirsty MacColl's death in 2000. The song has re-entered the Top 40 every December since 2005, its most recent appearance in December 2009 marking its seventh chart run since its release. Furthermore it has now made the Top 10 on four separate occasions including three times in successive years, a feat no other single can match. Its seven visits to the chart now total 40 weeks on the official UK Top 75.
On December 22, 2005, The Pogues performed the song on a Jonathan Ross Christmas special on BBC One in the UK, with the female vocals taken by singer Katie Melua. This was The Pogues' first television performance of the song since 1988.
The song featured in the 2007 film P.S. I Love You.
In recent years, the song has featured in many UK-based surveys and polls, most notably topping the VH1 greatest Christmas song chart three years running, featuring at number 11 in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Christmas Moments, Number 27 on VH1's Greatest Songs Never to Make Number One, number 23 on VH1's greatest lyrics, Number 83 in Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Ever Songs, and number 84 on BBC Radio 2's top 100 greatest songs of all time poll. The Hits music channel rated "Fairytale of New York" number one in 'The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song' countdown. In December 2008 The Music Factory UK did a poll which found that the song was the favourite Christmas song.[5] It was voted the best song of the 80s by voters of The Radcliffe & Maconie show on BBC Radio 2 & BBC Four's Pop On Trial season in January 2008. In November 2009 a facebook group was set up with the express intention of getting the single to number one for Christmas. This was in response to a growing trend of XFactor finalists dominating the Christmas singles market.
For the 10th anniversary of Kirsty MacColl's death there is another attempt to get the song to number one for Christmas in the UK. Once more this is being carried out using the social media of Facebook and Twitter.
Censorship
 |
Wikinews has related news: BBC Radio 1 reverses "faggot" ruling hours after initial ban |
On December 18, 2007, BBC Radio 1 put a ban on the words "faggot" and "slut" from "Fairytale of New York" to "avoid offence".[6] The words, sung as Kirsty MacColl and MacGowan trade insults, were dubbed out. MacColl's mother, Jean, called the ban "too ridiculous", while the Pogues said they found it "amusing". The BBC said: "We are playing an edited version because some members of the audience might find it offensive." However, that evening Radio 1 backed down and said that after a day of criticism from listeners, the band, and MacColl's mother, they reversed the decision.[7] The unedited version was then played later on that day. Other BBC radio stations, including the typically conservative Radio 2, had continued to play the original version throughout this period, the ban having applied to Radio 1 only. The MTV channels in the UK also subject the song to censorship by removing and scrambling the words "slut", "faggot" and "arse".
In his Christmas podcast, musical comedian Mitch Benn commented that "faggot" was Irish and Liverpudlian slang for a lazy person, and was unrelated to the derogatory term for homosexuals.[8]
Charts
| Chart (1987) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Irish Singles Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 2 |
| Chart (1991) | Peak position |
| Irish Singles Chart | 10 |
| UK Singles Chart | 36 |
| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
| Irish Singles Chart | 3 |
| UK Singles Chart | 3 |
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
| UK Singles Chart | 6 |
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
| Irish Singles Chart | 3 |
| UK Singles Chart | 4 |
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
| Irish Singles Chart | 8 |
| UK Singles Chart | 12 |
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
| Irish Singles Chart | 13 |
| UK Singles Chart | 12 |
Notable cover versions
Since its original release, "Fairytale of New York" has been covered by numerous artists, including:
- Christy Moore on Smoke and Strong Whiskey and Live at the Point
- Sinéad O'Connor
- Damien Dempsey
- KT Tunstall (on the Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas EP)
- Third Eye Blind
- Razorlight
- Dustin the Turkey with Dervla Kirwan
- The Irish Tenors (who leave out some of the racier verses)
- Karine Polwart
- No Use For A Name
- Erik Petersen of Mischief Brew
- Jesse Malin
- Stars
- Dustin Kensrue
- Ronan Keating and Moya Brennan, the word "faggot" is written out of this version.
- Amy MacDonald
- Florence Welch and Billy Bragg
In the fall of 2001, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasted a Norwegian version[9], performed by Adamseplene.[10]
There is a German version featuring Wolfgang Niedecken from BAP and Nina Hagen. At the Kirsty MacColl tribute concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 2002, the song was performed by Mark E. Nevin and Mary Coughlan. It has been covered live by The Chavs (a supergroup including Carl Barât and Andy Burrows), Dirty Pretty Things (on The Russell Brand Show), Razorlight, Lisa Moorish and Coldplay.
Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, creators of the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros., recorded a version in character as The Monarch and Doctor Girlfriend for Quickstop Entertainment, as part of their 2007 "Holiday Havoc" series.[11]
There is also a live version by Swedish pop singer Håkan Hellström on his 2005 album Nåt gammalt, nåt nytt, nåt lånat, nåt blått from 2005, which is not a Christmas album. In 2001, Swedish quartet Ainbusk covered the song in Swedish as "En julsaga" ("A Christmas fairy tale"). There is a spoken version, adapted and performed by Gerry McArdle, with Colette Proctor and Aodán O'Dubhghaill, released by EMI, which reached no.7 in the Irish Top 10 Christmas 2000, and is requested every year on Irish radio.
On 10 December 2007, a Christmas Special of the Australian television show RocKwiz was broadcast featuring Tex Perkins and Clare Bowditch performed the song, accompanied by Jo Camilleri on clarinet[12].
See also
References
- ^ BBC News, December 16, 2004. Pogues track wins Christmas poll. Retrieved November 17, 2005.
- ^ BBC News, December 15, 2005. Fairytale still the festive pick. Retrieved December 19, 2005.
- ^ Connor, Alan (2007-12-21). "Smashed Hits: Fairytale of a fairytale". BBC News Online Magazine (British Broadcasting Corporation). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7155581.stm. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
- ^ Entertainment Wise, November 1, 2005. The Pogues Re-release 'Fairytale of New York'. Retrieved November 17, 2005.
- ^ MTV UK: Nation's Favourite Christmas Song Results
- ^ Daily Telegraph, December 18, 2007. BBC censors The Pogues' Christmas classic. Retrieved December 18, 2007.
- ^ BBC News, December 18, 2007. Radio 1 backs down in Pogues row. Retrieved December 18, 2007.
- ^ The Mitch Benn Christmas Podcast
- ^ Adamseplene (2001-12-20). "Norwegian lyrics". NRK. http://www.nrk.no/programmer/tv_arkiv/full_pupp/1526379.html. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Full pupp for siste gang [Full tit for the last time]". NRK. 2001-12-11. http://www.nrk.no/programmer/tv_arkiv/full_pupp/1502652.html. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2007/12/23/holiday-havoc-the-venture-bros/
- ^ "RocKwiz Xmas Special; Tex Perkins & Clare Bowditch". YouTube. 2007-12-10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBfnOZmWrX8. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
External links
- BBC article on Fairytale
- Fairytale of New York lyrics — The Pogues' discography
- "Sold on Song" article — BBC Radio 2
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
