|
"Merry Xmas Everybody" is a 1973 song by the English rock band Slade. Written by lead vocalist and guitarist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, and produced by Chas Chandler, it was the band's sixth number-one single in the UK. It earned the UK Christmas Number One slot in December 1973, beating another Christmas-themed song, Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", which reached fourth place. By mid-January it was still at number one; it stayed in the UK Singles Chart well into February 1974. Based on melodies from discarded songs written six years before, "Merry Xmas Everybody" was Slade's best-selling single, released at the peak of their popularity, and sold over a million copies upon its first release. It is Slade's last number-one single, and by far their most successful. It has been released during every decade since 1973, and has been covered by numerous artists. In a 2007 poll, "Merry Xmas Everybody" was voted the UK's most popular Christmas song. According to the Fan Club Newsletter for January and February 1974, the song was rewarded a Silver Disc for pre-order sales, even before the single's release. Within the first week of release, the single had sold 500,000 copies.〔Slade Fan Club Newsletter January - February 1974〕〔()〕 Also, according to the same newsletter, "Merry Xmas Everybody" was in such big demand that Polydor records had to make special arrangements to have 250,000 discs sent from Los Angeles, as well as 30,000 copies a day they were receiving from Germany.〔〔 The single was certified UK Platinum by BPI in December 1980.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Home )〕 Since 2007 and the advent of downloads counting toward the UK Singles Chart, it has re-entered the charts each December. Therefore, it has sold 1.21 million copies in the UK as of December 2012. On 8 December 2013 it re-entered the UK Singles Charts, at number 57. == History and background == By 1973 Slade were one of the most popular bands in Britain, having achieved two number one singles—"Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me"—in three months. These singles had both entered the charts straight at number one, a rare feat at the time as this was the first occurrence since The Beatles hit number one in 1969 with "Get Back". The band and their record company, Polydor, decided to produce a Christmas hit. For inspiration Slade members Noddy Holder and Jim Lea looked at previous material they had written. Lea recalled a melody and verse he came up with while showering, and Holder recalled a song he had discarded in 1967, which he had written when the band were named the N'Betweens. It was entitled "Buy Me a Rocking Chair", and was Holder's first solo work.〔 Holder used the melody of this song for the chorus, and Lea's melody became the verse. After an evening out drinking, Holder worked through the night at his mother's house in Walsall to write the lyrics, which he completed in one draft.〔〔 In a 2007 interview with the ''Daily Mail'', he spoke about the song's creation: We'd decided to write a Christmas song and I wanted to make it reflect a British family Christmas. Economically, the country was up the creek. The miners had been on strike, along with the grave-diggers, the bakers and almost everybody else. I think people wanted something to cheer them up – and so did I. That's why I came up with the line 'Look to the future now, it's only just begun'. Once I got the line, 'Does your Granny always tell you that the old ones are the best', I knew I'd got a right cracker on my hands.〔 Holder showed the lyrics to Lea and Slade's manager, Chas Chandler, and played the song for them on acoustic guitars. Both believed the song would be a success. Slade then set off on a sell-out tour. Ten weeks before the song was recorded, drummer Don Powell was injured in a car accident. His girlfriend Angela Morris was killed, and Powell remained in a coma for almost a week. After his eventual recovery, he was able to join the band to record the song. In 2009, PRS for Music announced that up to forty-two percent of the world's population could have listened to the song.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=3 billion have suffered Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody' )〕〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Merry Xmas Everybody」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|
