Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody

Merry Xmas Everybody 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.

This was recorded at the Record Plant studios in New York while the band were on a tour of the States in the summer of 1973. When they recorded the vocals, they sang the chorus on the stairs in order to achieve the echo that they required. Guitarist Jimmy Lea recalled to Uncut magazine in 2012: “All these Americans were walking past in their suits thinking we were off our rockers singing about Christmas in the summer.”

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 feat unheard of since The Beatles with “Get Back” in 1969. During the year, manager Chas Chandler suggested that Slade write and record a Christmas song. Although the other band members were initially against the idea, Lea came up with the basis of the song while taking a shower. After coming up with the verse melody, Lea recalled a song Holder had discarded in 1967, which he had written when the band were named the ‘N Betweens. Entitled “Buy Me a Rocking Chair”, it was Holder’s first solo work. “Merry Xmas Everybody” used the melody of this song for the chorus, with Lea’s melody as the verse.

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody (1973)

Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade03:58

Released at the peak of the band’s popularity, “Merry Xmas Everybody” sold over a million copies upon its first release. It is Slade’s last number-one single and by far their best-selling single. It has been re-released during every decade since 1973 and has been covered by numerous artists. The single was certified double platinum by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in December 2021. Since 2007 and the advent of downloads counting towards the UK Singles Chart, it has re-entered the charts each December. As of December 2012, it had sold 1.32 million copies in the UK.

Views: 2