Fairytale of New York

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"Fairytale of New York"

Single by The Pogues
from the album If I Should Fall From Grace with God
Released	1987
Genre	Anglo-Irish folk-rock
Length	4:33
Chart positions
#1 Ireland (1987) #2 UK (1987) #36 UK (1991) #3 UK (2005) #6 UK (2006)
The Pogues singles chronology
Irish Rover	Fairytale of New York	If I Should Fall From Grace With God

This article is about the song. For the novel by J. P. Donleavy, see A Fairy Tale of New York.

"Fairytale of New York" is a popular Christmas song by Irish folk-rock group The Pogues, and featuring the British singer Kirsty MacColl. The song is an Irish folk style ballad, written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan, and featured on The Pogues' album If I Should Fall From Grace with God. The song features string arrangements by Fiachra Trench.

1 Overview
2 Cover versions
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Overview

"Fairytale of New York" was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts, over Christmas (the time of peak sales). The song has become a festive classic in the UK and Ireland over the years, and was voted the best Christmas song of all time three years running in 2004^[1] and 2005^[2] and 2006 in polls by music channel VH1 UK. It was also voted as the 27th greatest song never to reach UK#1 in another VH1 poll, and also voted as the 84th greatest song of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners in their "Sold on Song" top 100 poll.

The song features two Irish immigrants, lovers or ex-lovers, their youthful hopes all but crushed by alcoholism and drug addiction, reminiscing and bickering on Christmas Eve in New York City. MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harsh sound of MacGowan's voice and the lyrics which are sometimes bittersweet, sometimes plain bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse/ I pray God it's our last". The lyric "Sinatra was swinging" suggests an unspecified period after World War II. The title, taken from author J. P. Donleavy's novel A Fairy Tale of New York, was chosen after the song had been written and recorded.

MacColl was not originally to have appeared on the song, the female vocal being intended for the band's bassist, Cait O'Riordan. However, she left the band in 1986, before the song was completed. The Pogues were at the time being produced by Steve Lillywhite, MacColl's husband, who asked his wife to provide a guide vocal of the female part for a demo version of the song. The Pogues, however, liked MacColl's contribution so much that they asked her to sing the part on the actual recording.

The song was released in the United Kingdom in early December 1987, and swiftly became a hit. On December 17, 1987, the Pogues and MacColl performed the song on the BBC's popular television show Top of the Pops, and it was propelled to #2 on the UK charts. For the Top of the Pops appearance, the BBC insisted that MacColl's singing of "arse" be replaced with the less offensive "ass", although as she mimed the word MacColl slapped the relevant part of her body to make it clear what was meant. Although it finished the year as the #48 song based on a single month's sales, it was infamously denied the Christmas #1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan commented on this in his typically forthright manner: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine."

The song was re-released by The Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005 ^[3], reaching #3 in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of homeless charities and "Justice for Kirsty", a campaign to find out the truth behind MacColl's death in 2000. In December 2006 the song entered the UK Top 10 for the third time.^[4]

On December 22, 2005, The Pogues performed the song on a Jonathan Ross Christmas special on BBC One in the UK, with the female vocals taken by singer Katie Melua. This was The Pogues' first television performance of the song since 1988. It was also their first ever live television performance of the song, previous television performances having been lip-synched.

In recent years, the song has featured in many surveys and polls, most notably topping the VH1 greatest Christmas song chart three years running, featuring at number 11 in Channel 4's 100 greatest Christmas Moments, Number 27 on VH1's Greatest songs never to make number one, number 23 on VH1's greatest lyrics, Number 83 in Q Magazines 100 greatest ever songs, and number 84 on BBC Radio 2's top 100 greatest songs of all time poll.

[edit] Cover versions

Since its original release, "Fairytale of New York" has been covered by numerous artists, including Ronan Keating and Maire Brennan, Christy Moore, Third Eye Blind, Pilot Speed (formally Pilate), No Use for a Name, The City on Film, Stars, Johnny Borrell of UK band Razorlight, Kevin Evans, Dustin the Turkey with Dervla Kirwan, and the Irish Tenors (who leave out some of the racier verses). There is a German version featuring Wolfgang Niedecken from BAP and Nina Hagen. At the Kirsty MacColl tribute concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 2002, the song was performed by Mark E. Nevin and Mary Coughlan. It has been covered live by artistes such as The Chavs (a one-night only supergroup including Carl Barat and Andy Burrows), Dirty Pretty Things, Razorlight and Lisa Moorish.

There is also a live version by Swedish pop singer Håkan Hellström on his 2005 album "Nåt gammalt, nåt nytt, nåt lånat, nåt blått" from 2005, which is not a Christmas album. In 2001, Swedish quartet Ainbusk covered the song in Swedish as "En julsaga" ("A Christmas fairy tale"). There is a spoken version, adapted and performed by Gerry McArdle, with Colette Proctor and Aodán O'Dubhghaill, released by EMI, which reached no.7 in the Irish Top 10 Christmas 2000, and is requested every year on Irish radio.

[edit] Trivia

Despite the lyrics "The boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay", the New York Police Department does not have a choir, though they do have a Pipes and Drums unit that is featured in the video for the song. According to the BBC documentary "Fairytale of New York" the band didn't know the words to "Galway Bay" and sung the Mickey Mouse Song instead, although you can't tell in the video.
The song's music video features actor Matt Dillon playing a policeman. Dillon claims that the part was the best moment of his career.[1]
MacGowan cannot play the piano, but in the video (at the urging of record company executives) James Fearnley reluctantly wore MacGowan's jacket and rings [2].
The song was referenced in the song "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night" on the album Separation Sunday by the Hold Steady. (They faked their way through "Fairytale of New York"/When the band stopped playing we howled out for more).
The first Christmas strip of the popular webcomic Megatokyo featured two of the characters singing the song at a karaoke bar, while the other characters looked on drunkenly.
One issue of Preacher by Irish author Garth Ennis is titled "Fairytale of New York." The issue takes place in New York City around Christmas time.
Dirty Pretty Things performed this song on the 22nd December 2006 episode of The Russell Brand Show.
Is The Favourite Christmas song of Cliff Richard, Matt Dillon, Dermot O'Leary, Pete Doherty, Carl Barat, Bob Geldof and The Office creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, to name a few.