The Ten Most Odd Christmas Number Ones

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:14:19 +0000

The Christmas number one on the UK music charts is a big deal to many people. Over the years, many songs that have made it to the Christmas number one spot have been about Christmas, others have had nothing to do with Christmas whatsoever. Here we will take a look at the 10 most odd Christmas number ones in the UK.

1. Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name

Originally released in the early 1990’s, this song hit the Christmas number one spot in the UK charts in 2009 as a protest against the X Factor. Someone started a Facebook page to get this song to number one instead of the X Factor winner song – it worked!

2. Pink Floyd – Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)

What has this song got to do with Christmas? Nothing much apart from the fact it was the Christmas number one in the UK in 1979. This was the only number one hit in the UK that Pink Floyd had.

3. Bob The Builder – Can We Fix It

Christmas is all about the kids – or something like that. And in the year 2000 enough kids pestered their parents enough to buy this song to take it to number one in the UK charts and at Christmas no less!

4. Mr Blobby – Mr Blobby

The first non human to make it to number one in the UK – for what that is worth – enough people bought this nonsensical nonsense to make it the Christmas number one in the UK in 1993. I blame Noel Edmonds.

5. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

Which song has been number one at Christmas time not once but twice in the UK. Yep, Bohemian Rhapsody – Christmas number one in 1975 and again in 1991. And not a mention of Christmas in it at all.

6. Scaffold – Lilly The Pink

All the way back to the Christmas number one of 1968 for this song here by Scaffold, who included Paul McCartney’s brother and Roger McGough. It should be noted that Christmas songs did seem to pass the 1960’s by; they were popular enough in the 1950’s and in the 70’s and beyond but not in the 60’s!

7. Benny Hill – Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)

Comedian Benny Hill had something of an unexpected hit with this one – no one could have predicted how high it would get in the chart. It was the Christmas number one in 1971.

8. Human League – Don’t You Want Me

Perhaps the music buying public just don’t want to see Christmas type songs reach the Christmas number one spot. Like this one for example – nothing to do with Christmas but a Christmas number one nonetheless (in 1981).

9. Michael Jackson – Earth Song

A haunting song for sure but is this the kind of thing that is needed at Christmas. This Michael Jackson song managed to be the Christmas number one in 1995.

10. Jackie Wilson – Reet Petite

This song first hit the charts in 1957 and finally made it to the number one spot just in time for Christmas in 1986 – yep 29 years!

Saucy Seaside Postcards

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:50:43 +0000

As a young lad the scantily clad women on the cards were eye opening and as a slightly older young lad, the innuendoes were well worth a titter behind the card rack. Of course you didn’t pick one of those to buy, not in front of mum and dad; you chose a nice view of the resort. Then you took it back to where you were staying to write out to send to your friend back home.

If you were feeling kind the message usually was “Having a nice time, wish you were here.” However if you were that way out, and wanted to remind him that he wasn’t on holiday while you were then it would be, “Having a fantastic time. Wish you were here?”

By the time you were into your teens then inevitably you’d be bold enough to pick and send one of the saucy ones.

During the holiday season I’m sure delivering the mail gave the postman a bit of a giggle.

The Benny Hill type humour reflected British humour that was popular in the late fifties, sixties and seventies and seen in the popular “Carry On” series of films.

They usually contained buxom women, hen pecked husbands and “courting” couples, and always the innuendo or double entendre.

The postcard first appeared in the mid nineteenth century.

In “A brief history of the picture postcard” by Judith & Stephen Holder (FRPS) they write

“The creation of the postcard by Dr Emanuel Hermann in Austria on 1 October 1869 set in motion a revolution in the communication of the ordinary message of no especial importance, the private note, the mundane or jolly remark, the ‘wish you were here’ – indeed any short note for which no real ’security’ was required.

Almost all the main developments in the artistic designs of Postcard art originated on the continent, in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. The two main exceptions which developed in Great Britain were the Comic card and to some extent the Real Photograph cards of social, industrial and village history.”

Jonathan Duffy (BBC News Online) quotes from a book by Collector Tom Phillips.

“They were classless and democratic and the limited space was a blessing to those with poor spelling or without much to say. “

In an essay in 1941, the renowned author George Orwell wrote:

“Who does not know the ‘comics’ of the cheap stationers’ windows, the penny or twopenny coloured post cards with their endless succession of fat women in tight bathing-dresses and their crude drawing and unbearable colours, chiefly hedge-sparrow’s-egg tint and Post Office red?”

“In general, however, they are not witty, but humorous, and it must be said for McGill’s post cards, in particular, that the drawing is often a good deal funnier than the joke beneath it.”

Donald McGill ,was one of several notable illustrators, who among others included Tom Browne, John Hassall, Bruce Bairnsfather and Alfred Lees.

Unfortunately for McGill he was the unlucky one.

In the 1950’s there was a public morals backlash and Watch Committees were set up in seaside resorts. This led to the 81 year old McGill being prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, and several of his cards being destroyed.

These are some of those vintage postcards.

They seem somewhat tame by today’s standards. It was enough however to cause confusion to the shop owners selling them and to cause several printers to cease trading.

After a couple of years this “do-gooder” attitude subsided and the illustrators and printers were back in business.

How are postcards faring in today’s “techno” climate?

In a recent survey the broadcaster ITV said that the number of postcards sent has dropped by 75 per cent. It showed that 67 per cent of those surveyed used emails or photos while on holiday, to keep in touch with family and friends.

And Donald McGill?

In 1994 the Royal Mail brought out a set of commemorative stamps featuring McGill’s postcards.

Socyberty » Benny Hill