Why we still love Fairytale of New York, 30 years on (2024)

Every year, the Christmas song list is a predictable one – the bigger debate is over when it is acceptable to play the first tune.

Whether it’s the unforgettable raspy-voiced shriek in Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody orBing Crosby’s super smooth White Christmas, most of theenduring classics have one thing in common: they’re an upbeat tribute to Christmas spirit.

But one song shunned this ingredient, and 30 years since its release has proven to be an unlikely, perennial hit.

Fairytale of New York, by Celtic punk band The Pogues, was released as a single on 23 November 1987 and tells the story of a love gone sour as the two narrators bicker on Christmas Eve, resentful of their broken dreams.

“It’s not a blank, vacuous celebration of fun and over consumption, rather a human story that many people can probably relate to.”

Jem Finer, co-writer of Fairytale of New York

It was the decision to go rogue and ignore the usual Christmas spiel that has perhaps cemented the song’s place on radio stations’ festive tracklist for the last three decades, according to musician Jem Finer, who co-wrote the songwith Shane MacGowan.

‘Human story’

“It’s not a blank, vacuous celebration of fun and over consumption, rather a human story that many people can probably relate to,” he tells i, about why it is still so loved.

The gritty but oddly lovable lyrics start to a piano instrumental before the drums, banjo and accordion join in. The tempo quickens and bobbing to the folksy beat becomes irresistible.

“There is nothing about it musically to date it. It’s timeless,” says Finer.

How the song came to be is unconfirmed. MacGowan, The Pogues’ lead singer and quintessential rock and roller, has his own memory: former producer Elvis Costello challenged him to write a Christmas song. But according to Finer, he and MacGowan began writing Fairytale of New York in the autumn of 1985 when they were tasked with covering a Christmas song by The Band.

“Shane and I thought: ‘Sod that, let’s write our own.’

What is well-documented, however, is that two Christmases came and went before Fairytale of New York was ready. Finer puts the delay down to the “the ambition of what we were trying to do”.

He says the storyline of a couple, finding themselves in hard times and coming to resent one another came from his wife, Marcia Farquhar.

MacGowan then transposed the narrative from London to New York, and “rewrote it in his own inimitable style,” according to Finer. It was dubbed Fairytale of New York, after Irish-American authorJ.P. Donleavy’s novel A Fairy Tale of New York, a copy of which was lying around at the time.

‘It took a couple of years to get right’

“Musically it was a meeting of various melodies we’d both written. And then it took a couple of years to get it right.”

“Shane worked a lot on the lyrics and we kept tweaking the arrangement. And we probably, as a band, weren’t quite good enough to carry it off when we first started trying.”

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Until its release in 1987, the band tried recording the song on a number of occasions but part of the problem was that they didn’t have a female lead. Then singer Kirsty MacColl, wife of the song’s new producer Steve Lillywhite, took on the female vocals. “It never worked. Eventually it did,” says Finer.

For many, the song is the starting pistol to mark that Christmas is well and truly on its way.

“It’s got so much going for it – great lyrics, a great melody, themes of nostalgia and regret, love and dissolution,” says Rob Hughes a journalist and BBC 6 Music contributor.

“There’s enough romantic allure to make it a wistful Christmas song, even though, essentially, it charts the highs and lows of a turbulent relationship. Christmastime is secondary to the story, rather than its primary thrust.”

‘Beautiful, sour, poetic’

Hughes agrees the tune has a depth that goes beyond the traditional Christmas platitudes, commenting on the “beautiful, sour and poetic” lyrics.

He tells i Fairytale of New York appeals to Britain’s “immovable national trait” of “inherent cynicism”.

“Nothing is perfect – not least when it comes to Christmas – so the song has a quality to it that rings truer than your standard Christmas party song.”

“Nothing is perfect – not least when it comes to Christmas – so the song has a quality to it that rings truer than your standard Christmas party song.”

Rob Hughes, music journalist

“What other Christmas song (or regular duet, for that matter) would dare go for lines like ‘you’re an old slut on junk’ or ‘Happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it’s our last’.”

The one thing that does date the song is some of the choice words in the lyrics. As attitudes have changed, some words are now considered offensive.

BBC Radio 1 attempted to ban the words “faggot” and “slut” in 2007 but the station relented after widespread uproar. And after such a long creative process to finish the song, it’s unsurprising Finer views any attempt at censorship“absolutely ridiculous”.

Since founding The Pogues along with MacGowan, Peter “Spider” Stacy and James Fearnley in the early eighties, Finer has led a varied career including composing Longplayer, a piece of music lasting 1,000 years.

Does he ever get annoyed to be asked continuously about Fairytale of New York?“No,” he answers. “I think if what you do finds such popularity then you should be very happy about that.”

‘Will it make the top 40?’

In 1987 Finer never thought the song might become so loved.

“I don’t think one thinks like that when one writes a song – I certainly don’t. You hope it can make its way into the world and that it can find an audience. When it was released expectations were on a more day-to-day basis – Will it get played on the radio? Will it make the top 40? – rather than will it still be played in 30 years.”

It reached number two in the UK Singles chart in 1987, and every year since 2005 it has scored a place in the 20. Various polls have named it the best Christmas song all time.

Finer agrees but he is unlikely to get drawn into an argument about it. “There are better things to debate,” he says.

Regardless of whether it’s the best, it’s his favourite. “I like the one about a mummy kissing Santa Claus, too,” he adds.

Why we still love Fairytale of New York, 30 years on (2024)
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