‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ – Slade
Noddy Holder and his troupe of platform-wearers continue to blight our television screens each December with their frightening fashion sense. There’s a reason for that, of course. It’s the joyful simplicity of 1973’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, which is guaranteed to inject that euphoric, slightly drunken, Christmas-love vibe into the festive season.
Santa Claus’ – The Sonics
This super-charged ’60s garage rock tune reveals Santa for the nihilistic, no-nonsense ball-breaker he truly is. Lead singer Gerry Roslie drawls a list of Christmas requests (including a ‘twangy guitar’ and ‘cute little honey’). To which Santa responds: ‘Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing’. What a badman.
‘Christmas Time is Here’ – Mark Kozelek
We wouldn’t actually want to spend Christmas with Mark Kozelek: he’s the indie version of the miserable uncle who gave you that sexist joke book last year. But his 2014 version of the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s yuletide classic (written for the ‘Peanuts’ TV special ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ in 1965) is a real beauty. Maybe Uncle Mark can come round and play it on Christmas Eve, then get a cab home before he says something offensive?
