Christmas music

At the risk of revealing that I am no longer in that phase of life where I can tolerate BBC Radio 1, I mention again (and for the second consecutive blog post) Radio 2, for the reason that I heard yesterday the Christmas No. 1 challenge being posed this year by Terry Wogan and Aled Jones. Entitled Little Drummer Boy, it is (unusually for this time of year) of course the traditional Christmas song, and a cover of the Bing Crosby / David Bowie version from a few years back. Which was itself a cover I think, but hey, aren't all traditional Christmas songs.

And not just because it is the adopted Children in Need song (and so "all in the name of Charidee"), I really hope that it makes it to No. 1 for Christmas. It's not actually the best Christmas song I've ever heard (I'd even go so far as saying that it's not actually that good), but the thing is I can't remember the last time a Christmas song was No. 1 at Christmas. But since it's only one week of the year, I have always been in favour of the novelty Christmas record, or the Cliff Richard festive favourite achieving the top spot on account of it being Christmasy and/or fun.

Yesterday of course was the final of the X Factor. Aside from the fact that I never quite understand why the second and third place finalists each year don't end up competing (and winning) in subsequent years, I abhore the fact that each series predictably finishes just in time to release the winner's song (which is never a Christmas song) the week before Christmas. But here we are again looking at, what, the 4th X Factor winner taking the Christmas No. 1 spot in a row? How very boring and un-Christmasy.

Sadly, I think that Terry Wogan and Aled Jones have missed a trick here, as their record was released last week and so will peak too early, probably claiming the No. 1spot today, before dropping off in favour of the new X Factor winner in the all important Christmas chart next Sunday. Shame that.

It is a sign of the times though that the Charts are compiled based upon nothing more than clever marketing/release date scheduling. And, even at this time of year, they are incapable of preventing some would-be sub-standard Mariah Carey from triumphing over something traditional.

When I was younger, part of the build up to Christmas was watching to see whether Cliff, Shakin' Stevens or whoever would top the Charts for Christmas Day. Sadly those days are long gone.

Perhaps I should just console myself with the assumption that music producers today recognise that since nothing could ever even come close to bettering Nat King Cole's 'The Christmas Song' for sheer yuletide perfection, there is no longer any point in even trying. Yes, I'm sure that's it.