One of my favorite Christmas songs;
The first thing to say about The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” is that it is absurd when described in words.
Take an ever-soused Irish folk/punk band that includes a tin whistle player named Spider. Put them within a soaring orchestral arrangement, and task the shambolic front man with delivering a Christmas song. Make it a duet with a stage-fright afflicted singer who never quite became the pop starlet she wanted to be. The result is possibly the most sentimental Christmas song ever constructed, yet loved by people who spend December telling you, oh, how they despise sentimental Christmas songs.
When The Pogues teamed up with Kirsty MacColl to create “Fairytale of New York,” they made one of the only Christmas songs composed in the last 30 years that is likely to be heard and covered and beloved in another 50 or 100. If “Fairtytale” isn’t in your Christmas playlist, you’re doing something wrong.