So this is Christmas And what have you done....well....since the beginning of November we've been confronted by early decorations and toy adverts on the telly. Yet, hiding, just around the corner, in December, are the Xmas singles, as they were once referred to back in the day when vinyl ruled.
There's a long list of former hits that are guaranteed to drive you to drink at this time of year, Boney M's 'Mary's Boy Child', Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas' (A staggering £39m in royalties and Maria's cut? £376,000 per annum), Wham's 'Last Christmas', I could go on...and on...and on.
The big sing-along daddy of them all is Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody' which sold over 1.2m million copies and reputed to earn songwriters Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea £512,000 a year in performing rights and what Holder often refers to as his pension fund.
But what about Wales? Do we have any contenders? Well the answer is yes. Ely boy Michael Barratt better know as Shakin Stevens scored an enormous hit with 'Merry Christmas Everyone' a top ten hit all across Europe as well as a UK Christmas No 1, produced by another Cardiff lad Dave Edmunds, who himself had a Christmas No 1 with the not so festive 'I Hear You Knocking' in 1970.
Another one to grace the charts with another Xmas ear worm was little Aled Jones with 'Walking In The Air'. Jones is best-known for being the voice of The Snowman, and the song the highlight from of the animated classic, and, even though the original recording was actually sung by Peter Auty, it's become known as Aled's song after his version of it topped the charts in 1985.
Cardiff-born Catatonia warbler Cerys Matthews collaborated with Welsh legend Tom Jones to record a version of Frank Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" another Christmas classic yet it did upset a Cleveland radio station who subsequently banned it from the play-list saying that listeners said the song was inappropriate, and stood against the #MeToo movement.
Radio host Glenn Anderson said that although the song was written in a different time, the lyrics felt "manipulative and wrong". However, a poll on the station's own Facebook page showed that most people did not want the song banned.
Whilst hardly tinsel-themed, the Flying Pickets scored a Christmas number one with a acapella cover of Yazoo's 'Only You' in 1983, but there was a Welsh connection in the shape of Ebbw Vale-born actor singer Brian Hibbard. Hibbard who formed the group the year before with a group of actors from a fringe theatre group, took the lead vocal for the song that regularly gets dusted down this time each year, with no doubt Vince Clarke of Yazoo, rubbing his hands in glee in anticipation of a Xmas bonus.
I'm pretty sure there are more to add to this small list of Xmas hit makers from the Principality so please let us know of any that require a honourable mention.
Right, I'm off to find a dark, quiet room to hide in. See you in January!
Merry Christmas Everyone.
T. Woolway