Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody

This is a great Christmas song that was released in 1973 and ever since it re-enters the charts every December in the UK. The song never hit in America but it went to #1 in the UK Charts. I first heard it on a Doctor Who episode in the mid-2000s and have liked it ever since.

This was based on a psychedelic song, “My Rocking Chair,” which Noddy Holder wrote in 1967. In 1973 the Slade vocalist decided to convert it into a Christmas song after a night out drinking at a local pub.

He and the band’s bass player and co-writer Jimmy Lea camped out at Noddy’s mother’s house and got down to changing the lyrics to make them more Christmassy. Jimmy Lea incorporated into the verse parts of another song which he was then writing and Noddy re-wrote the words incorporating different aspects of the Christmas holiday season as they came to mind.

This went straight in at #1 in the UK, selling over 300,000 copies on the day of its release, making it at the time the fastest ever selling record in Britain. It eventually became Slade’s best-ever selling single in the UK, selling over a million copies.

In the UK this has become a standard, and it is usually reissued in its original form each Christmas. On several occasions, the song has re-entered the Top 40.

UK copyright collection society and performance rights organization PRS For Music estimated in 2009 that 42 percent of the earth’s population has heard this tune.

The song was written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea of Slade. It was produced by Chas Chandler formerly of the Animals. The harmonium used on this is the same one that John Lennon used on his Mind Games album, which was being recorded at the studio next door.

Noddy Holder: “I wrote the original verse with the lyrics, ‘Buy me a rocking chair, I’ll watch the world go by. Bring me a mirror, I’ll look you in the eye,’ in 1967 in the aftermath of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper,” I was being psychedelic. Dave (Hill) wrote another part to the song but it didn’t work so we put it away. Then in 1973 he remembered my verse one day when we were trying to write a Christmas single. We changed the words to, ‘Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?’ and the rest fell into place.”

Noddy Holder: “As a lad we used to knock sleds with old orange boxes and go tobogganing down this big old quarry in the snow at Christmas. It was the inspiration for the line ‘are you hoping that the snow will start to fall.’”

I want that hat he starts off with… in this video…very subtle.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
It’s the time that every Santa has a ball
Does he ride a red nosed reindeer?
Does a ‘ton up’ on his sleigh
Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

Chorus:
So here it is merry Christmas
Everybody’s having fun
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun

Are you waiting for the family to arrive?
Are you sure you got the room to spare inside?
Does your granny always tell ya that the old are the best?
Then she’s up and rock ‘n’ rollin’ with the rest

Chorus:
So here it is merry Christmas
Everybody’s having fun
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun

What will your daddy do
When he sees your Mama kissin’ Santa Claus?
Ah ah

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
Are you hoping that the snow will start to fall?
Do you ride on down the hillside in a buggy you have made?
When you land upon your head then you’ve been slayed

Chorus (4x)
So here it is merry Christmas
Everybody’s having fun
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun

…

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

26 thoughts on “Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody”

    1. I’m glad you like it…many UK readers groan because they are burnt out on it…to us it’s practically new…in a Christmas song catagory.
      They were a great band.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. That is the very same way I feel…surprise! Yea something about them I really like…yea his vocals is one thing….they also made a movie I would like to see.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I’ve never been a huge Imagine fan Jim. I always liked the songs Jealous Guy, How?, and Gimme Some Truth more off that album…I like it but not like everyone else.
      I would pick the Christmas song over it. I really like Slade…they should have been noticed and played here.

      Like

      Reply

      2. I so wish I could have seen acts like that. Looks like the reviewer thought they were so-so but the clips I’ve seen of them were really good.
        I never understood why T-Rex, Slade, and even Status Quo never translated here. Bowie was one of the few Glam artists that really hit big. I guess you could count KISS a little later on. Thanks for the link Jim.

        Like

      3. Well, the reviewer was full of shit. He was pretty dismissive of BOC. And I won’t pretend I have a vivid memory of that night. But I never forgot it. My ears are still ringing

        Liked by 1 person

  11. just listened to Noddy on the radio, throat cancer free after 5 years and 6 months to live, he was told, so opted for experimental treatment. As usual, this xmas classic is in the UK top 40 as I type on Xmas Eve, no. 33 and on it’s 122nd chart week, all of them runs over many many christmas’

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment