Apparently we all have Elvis Costello to thank for today’s Happy Medium Song of the Day. Not because he wrote or recorded it, but because he bet Shane MacGowan that he and his band, The Pogues were incapable of writing a Christmas hit single “that wasn’t slushy.”
As the story goes, it wasn’t an easy bet to win. The song was originally planned as a duet between MacGowan and Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan. However, O’Riordan married Costello and left the band in 1986, before the song was recorded. Another version had Shane himself doubling up on both sides of the conversation. Chrissie Hyde was in the running for a while too, but finally, and thankfully, producer extraordinaire Steve Lillywhite took the song him and asked his wife to have a go. The resulting sandpaper and silk duet between Shane MacGowan and the sadly missed Kirsty MacColl became a huge hit.
As the story goes, it wasn’t an easy bet to win. The song was originally planned as a duet between MacGowan and Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan. However, O’Riordan married Costello and left the band in 1986, before the song was recorded. Another version had Shane himself doubling up on both sides of the conversation. Chrissie Hyde was in the running for a while too, but finally, and thankfully, producer extraordinaire Steve Lillywhite took the song him and asked his wife to have a go. The resulting sandpaper and silk duet between Shane MacGowan and the sadly missed Kirsty MacColl became a huge hit.
Although it never reached the coveted #1 spot on the UK charts at Christmas, “Fairytale of New York” has reached the UK Top 20 on fourteen separate occasions since its original release in 1987, and according to the London Daily Telegraph it is “the most played Christmas song of the 21st century.” Not bad for a song that’s not really about Christmas, but just uses Christmas as a backdrop for a “tragicomic Irish tale of shattered dreams and love gone sour.”
Several versions of this video were produced, including a couple of live performances. However, my favorite is still this one, featuring MacGowan’s buddy Matt Dillon as one of the NYC cops. The Happy Medium Song of the Day is “Fairytale of New York” from the classic album by The Pogues released in 1988, If I Should Fall From Grace With God. (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.) |