Welcome to Wednesday 21 December 2022, the day I heard the actual worst Christmas cover version I’ve ever encountered: Kelly Clarkson (whom I normally like well enough)’s horrible jazz rendition of Last Christmas. I’m not linking to it; if you want to hear it you can seek it out for yourself. (You don’t want to hear it.)

Luckily I can bleach my ears of the memory with this: a fantastic cover of Darlene Love’s 1963 hit by Queen Christmas herself, Mariah Carey, which benefits from an authentic Wall Of Sound without the involvement of Phil Actual Murderer Spector, and should therefore be listened to in lieu of the original where possible, although I did discover today that one of the backing vocalists on the original is Cher, which sort of makes me want to go back and listen. I won’t, though. (I will.)