Christmas Number Ones with Marc Burrows

Occasionally over the run of “12 Songs,” guests and I have talked about the UK competition to see who has the number one song on the charts at Christmas. Last year Marc Burrows wrote The Story of the Christmas No. 1: Mistletoe & Vinyl, and this year he has updated the book to cover how Kylie Minogue’s “XMAS” topped the chart last year.

In this episode, I mention the non-profit Cure4TheKids and their remakes of Band Aid’s “Do They Know it’s Christmas” and my interview with Midge Ure on the original “Do They Know it’s Christmas.”

I’ve followed up the lead interview with one with musician Malcolm McNeill, who recorded “Number One This Christmas” under the name The Flaming Puds. He recorded it using AI, and we’ll have more of the conversation focused specifically on that in an upcoming episode. Here’s last year’s episode on AI Christmas music.

The episode ends with “Have a Cheeky Holiday” by the Cheeky Girls, and as I say during the episode, you really need to see the video to fully appreciate the weirdness of this song.