The Playlist at Christmas

Mud - Lonely This Christmas

Leona Lewis – One More Sleep

 

 

 

The race to be no.1 at Christmas used to be an event before Simon Cowell made it his own personal fiefdom by firstly getting the public to vote for which artist they liked best just in time for him to release a  record by them and sell them back their own product all over again. It worked for him but it ruined the sport. The charts don't count for much any more since one artist, like Ed Sheeran, can occupy the whole top 10.

I have all the time in the world for Slade and Wizzard but a Christmas without them wouldn't be unwelcome; I remain entirely unconvinced by those who make The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl the 'cool' choice on account of them making their name by being dissolute and Irish, or Greg Lake's shamelessly meaningful effort. I'd rather have that peacenik, John Lennon, than him. I would be with George Michael but he has records to be included elsewhere, as has Michael Jackson whose Little Drummer Boy is an under-rated, under-played masterpiece.

Also under-rated, although hugely successful in their day were Mud who grasped that pop music didn't have to take itself so seriously. Among the legions of Elvis impersonators, Les Gray was not at all bad and the kitsch of Lonely This Christmas gets it exactly right ahead of Gilbert O'Sullivan's I'm Not Dreaming of a White Christmas, Dana's winsome It's Gonna be a Cold, Cold Christmas without You and, worth looking up, Joseph Spence's Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Leona Lewis is, by rights, out of my comfort zone, being an X Factor winner and her One More Sleep being from 2013. It came as a rare bit of heartwarming reassurance that the pop industry could still come up with something convincing and with no downside. It's a joyful thing and officially my favourite Christmas record.