The Christmas Number One classics of Slade and Shakin Stevens have gone and been replaced with X-factor winners

Few seasonal songs now top the charts – so in a fit of festive nostalgia Rhian Jones recalls three of the most memorable

Drummer Don Powell, bassist Jim Lea, guitarist Dave Hill and singer Noddy Holder of Slade performing 'Cum on Feel the Noize' on the BBC television show Top of the Pops in 1973. (Getty Images)

The cult of Christmas may seem to get stronger every year but when it comes to pop music, we’re becoming decidedly less festive.

In times gone by, winter would mean a flood of new Christmas songs competing to inspire the most commercial cheer – whereas these days, the December charts are dominated by pop releases noticeably lacking in sleigh bells and the like.

Indeed, the last Christmas-themed Christmas No 1 was Band Aid 20’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in 2004, and since then, Simon Cowell’s Sony label Syco has dominated the top spot with the debut release from that year’s winner of his X Factor hitting the top spot seven times out of 10 (all of which have been covers of non-Christmas-related ballads).

Top British musical artists come together for Band-Aid (Getty Images)

However, we still have the magic of the old standards to fill our party playlists.

And so, feeling nostalgic at this time of year as we do, we have talked to the writers of a few of these classic tunes to find out the secrets behind the festive hits.

Jim Lea

Bassist and chief songwriter of Slade, who penned 1973’s No 1, “Merry Xmas Everybody”

“In the middle of 1973, our manager, Chas Chandler, booked some studio time in New York at the same place John Lennon had just finished recording his album and said it would be nice to have something to record, and to be in the charts at Christmas. ‘Jim, we need a golden egg,’ he told me.

The year before, my mother-in-law had read an article about how ‘White Christmas’ sells every year, despite the fact that it was released decades ago. ‘Why don’t you write a Christmas song?’ she asked. I was a young man in a rock and ’n’ roll band, and I’m sure she could tell that I was not pleased about being told to do that!

“But I was in the shower after speaking to Chas, my brain was going all over the place to anything I’d got lying around and I just stuck the melody together in my head. I came to the chorus, remembered what she’d said, and thought no one will expect us to release a Christmas song and it could be a great thing. Over the moon with my idea, I told [lead singer] Noddy Holder about it; avoiding expletives, he basically told me to go away and have sex with myself… but eventually came around to the idea because we didn’t have anything else to record in New York.

“In the recording studio, we used the drum beat that we had on all our records and I had a certain way of playing the bass that would go along with it. The Beatles had this song called ‘We Can Work it Out’ and there’s a harmonium on it that sounds like an old church organ. I got one in the studio and that’s what you hear at the beginning of ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ – it gave a chapel feel to it.

“The single came out in the Christmas of ’73, went in at No 1 and stayed there for five weeks. We all thought that was that, but this thing never stops. It’s 42 years ago now and I’m told that it gets more royalties from more countries than any other song that has ever been recorded in the history of music.

It seems to have struck a chord with the good old-fashioned idea of Christmas at the time and that’s continued to this day.”

Bob Heatlie

Songwriter of Shakin’ Stevens’ 1985 No 1, “Merry Christmas Everyone”

“I’d always wanted to write a Christmas song; if you get a big Christmas hit it goes on long after you’ve gone so it’s something for the grandchildren. In the Eighties I’d had a couple of hits with Shakin’ Stevens so I thought I’d write something for him. Ironically, ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ was written and recorded in the summer during a heatwave. At that time I had my own little studio in the garage which was soundproofed and absolutely boiling. I remember recording the jinglebells wearing a pair of shorts and sweating like a pig!

“I sent the song to my publisher with a letter recommending it for Shakin’. I used all the clichés –mistletoe and children singing – but what else can you write about Christmas? It was meant to be a party song and that’s what it’s become. The lyrics were very easy, I just thought of all the Christmassy stuff and wrote it down on paper. At the beginning, the vocals were used to sound like carol singers and there was a little glockenspiel and music-box sounds. When the track starts you get the jinglebells coming in as well.

“I always get that feeling when I’ve written a hit, not that I’ve had that many, but the ones I’ve had I’ve known they were something special. So I knew ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ was, but I was still thrilled when it hit No 1.

“I think the door is closed now for new Christmas hits. I was quite lucky, I got in there just in time. There was a time when everyone had a Christmas song out, but it doesn’t happen any more because I think we’ve had enough! There’s probably enough Christmas songs to play them for a few hours back to back. I’m sure people realise there is not much point in writing another unless you come up with something absolutely amazing.”

Tony Mortimer

Chief songwriter of East 17, who penned the 1994’s Christmas No 1, “Stay Another Day”

“The song was just meant to be a ballad for the album that management and the label wanted to release as a single. They thought it was a Christmas No 1 when first hearing it. I wrote it in August and didn’t have Christmas in mind – it was written about my brother, who’d committed suicide a couple of years earlier. I thought I’d write a track about that and change it into a love song, incorporating the story into it. We needed an album and no one else in the band could write one. So I thought I’ve got to write as many songs as I can, including a ballad about my brother; it was very personal but I told myself, ‘Don’t worry, no one will hear it,’ and the complete opposite happened!

“We added an orchestra but that was always the plan. I guess the only Christmassy thing was the bells at the end, which we put on after realising it was going to be for the Christmas market. I’m not sure why it was so successful; it’s a nostalgic song and Christmas is a time when everyone gets together and thinks about the family and the year that’s gone. It is easy to singalong to as well, it uses a one-five-four chord progression, which is a really common one. People have used that in so many songs and a lot of them have been hits.

“The industry has completely changed since the Nineties, with X Factor now dominating the Christmas music space. I would have loved to have seen Adele, Justin Bieber and One Direction all going for the No 1 spot year, but it gets swamped by The X Factor. The show is a good idea but I think it’s gradually coming to an end now; it’s like the Christmas No 1 has been won by default over the last few years because of a TV show, not because the public has chosen it."