Visitors to the British Music Experience (BME) have voted Fairytale of New York as the greatest British Christmas hit of all time.
The BME – the Liverpool-based home of the national museum of popular music – saw more than 1,000 votes polled by visitors across a 22-song shortlist.
And when these were tallied, The Pogues’ classic from 1987 which features the late Kirsty MacColl on guest vocals, came out on top with a whopping 20.4% of votes cast.
This was just short of double the total of the second-placed song, Last Christmas by Wham!, which racked up 10.7%, and pipped the perennial Slade favourite Merry Xmas Everybody (8.8%) into third.
`As soon as the voting sheets started coming in, we could see that The Pogues were running away with it,’ said BME Venue Manager Jo Cester. `But there was at least some support for all the songs on the shortlist, even if they couldn’t keep pace with the winners.’
On its original release The Pogues’ single was denied top spot at Christmas 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of Always on My Mind.
Voting Top Five
1. Fairytale of New York (The Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl) 20.39%
2. Last Christmas (Wham!) 10.71%
3. Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade) 8.78%
4. Do They Know It’s Christmas (Band Aid) 8.18%
5. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (Wizzard) 6.99%
