On the second day of Christmas

Slade never hit it really big in the US but this song is a standard in many other parts of the world.

"Merry Xmas Everybody" is a single by the English glam-rock band Slade. Written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea, and produced by Chas Chandler, it was the band's sixth and final number one single in the UK. It held the coveted UK Christmas Number One slot in December 1973, beating Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" into fourth place, and was still number one in mid-January. In fact, it did not leave the top 40 until after Valentine's Day. It is affectionately held in similar regard by UK residents as Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" is by Americans.[1] The song is particularly memorable for frontman Noddy Holder's typically screeching delivery of the line “It's Chriiiiiiist-maaaaaaaaaaas" towards the song's close.

The song is still a regular feature at UK nightclubs around the Christmas season, especially on Christmas Eve where midnight is signalled by Noddy's screeching finale. The song re-entered the UK Top 40 singles chart a further four times - 1981, 1983, 2006, and 2007 - it eventually sold one million copies. There was also a dance remix made by Swedish dance duo Flush that was a UK top 30 entry in 1998. However, the ubiquitity of the song is also the largest source of criticism for the single. In December 2008, the Holiday Inn hotel in Kensington removed Merry Xmas Everybody from the lobby's playlists following "overwhelming" customer feedback that the song was "too irritating".

Slade's frontman Noddy Holden once said of the tune

"I wanted it to be a working-class British Christmas song. And it fitted right with the political and social things going on at the time. It was very grim: there was the Three-Day Week, power cuts at 10 o'clock at night, television finished early because there was no electricity, there was a miners' strike... the whole country was in turmoil. That's why I came up with the line 'Look to the future now It's only just begun.' That's what everybody had to do. The country couldn't have been at a lower ebb. In times like that, people always turn to showbiz."

Fitting for times like now.



Here's Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" (the other Christmas song in the UK charts that year).

"I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" is a popular Christmas song in the UK, first released in 1973 by Wizzard, when it reached #4 in the singles chart, famously beaten to #1 by Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" which remained there for five consecutive weeks. As with all Wizzard songs, it was penned and produced by Roy Wood, who played most (if not all) of the instruments too.

The song features the lead vocals of frontman Roy Wood but also contains backing vocals by The Suedettes as well as The Stockland Green Bilateral School First Year, with additional noises being produced by "Miss Snob and Class 3C", as credited on the sleeve.

Many children actually thought that Roy Wood was indeed Santa Claus as he had the white hair and beard in the music video.



A year later Mud topped the UK charts with this song (which also has somehow escaped the US shopping mania psyche)

Written and produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, "Lonely This Christmas" was Mud's second number one single in the UK, spending four weeks at the top in December 1974 and January 1975. It was the third number one single that year for the ChinniChap writing and production team, and was performed in the style of Elvis Presley's slower songs from his later career.