Month: December 2010

Advent song for December 4

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground, in 2002, was the first reality TV Christmas number one. None of us realised then that Cowell would have the slot sewn up for most of the rest of the decade.

I like this song a lot, but I think the video is misjudged. It should have been cool and edgy, not slow-motion and faux-sexy, although faux-sexy seems to be what Girls Aloud mainly do, stylewise, which is a shame because if they weren’t forced into dressing like a teenage boy’s idea of a prostitute they would all be – they all are – properly sexy anyway. At least they all have their own hair in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnLrNHCQPP0

Advent song for December 3

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

This was originally on the rejects pile, but the song I was going to have today isn’t on YouTube, except in a long and tedious version, so instead here’s Whitney, UK Christmas number one in 1992, when she was still insanely beautiful. I hope that whoever  cast Kevin Costner, the most insipid man in the world, as (a) a bodyguard and (b) Whitney Houston’s love interest has since found a job better suited to their talents.

This version cuts the song off a little before the end, but if you’re like me you’ll find you won’t mind that a bit. Perhaps you can use the spare time to listen to Dolly Parton’s superior version (just don’t read the comments underneath).

Advent song for December 2

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music

2003 was a vintage year for Christmas songs. We were treated to Avid Merrion’s Proper Crimbo, which was fun, but which I now discover has a very long and mostly stupid video, and The Darkness’s Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End), which was properly brilliant. And instead we chose to make Gary Jules’ melancholy and slightly drab version of Mad World our Christmas number one. The two reasons to be grateful for this are that (1) it gave us a mesmerisingly terrifying performance from the much-missed Aiden in this year’s X Factor, and (2) it’s given me a reason to check out the video, which is actually quite lovely:

(Also, just be pleased that the other two inhabitants of that week’s top five, Happy Christmas (War is Over) by the Pop Idols and Changes by Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne, missed out on the top slot.)

Advent song for December 1

On By Laura MorganIn Christmas, Music4 Comments

I’ve been so busy with real life (about which more in the new year, I expect) that I’ve barely had a chance to post recently, so it’s with a sigh of relief that I realise it’s time to resurrect the annual Gladallover musical advent calendar. I’ve already used up all my favourite Christmas songs, so rather than resorting to all my least favourite Christmas songs, this year I’m introducing a theme. All the songs this year will be UK Christmas number ones from my lifetime, counting down in order from the 24th-best to the best. Since I have been alive for 34 Christmases I have dropped the ten worst, but I’m not going to tell you which they are until Christmas Eve, otherwise you’ll be able to work out what’s coming.

So without further preamble I present the UK Christmas number one from 1980, The St Winifred’s School Choir singing There’s No-One Quite Like Grandma. It’s pretty awful, but it’s sort of mesmerising at the same time. I was four that Christmas, which means these children are probably only a couple of years older than me. What strikes me, when I watch the video, is how completely of their time they look. You could date it to within a couple of years just by the haircuts. Good old the 1980s.