1973 Slade: Merry Xmas Everybody

There are some pairings that seem so inevitable that any alternatives simply can't be imagined; Laurel & Hardy, Fish & Chips, Cheese & Onion, Lennon & McCartney - the list goes on, and to it could be added Glam & Christmas. For what is Christmas to most if not a gaudy orgy of glitter and coloured lights wrapped up in tinsel? And as these elements form the DNA of a lot of Glam Rock, there was a certain element of inevitability that the key players would have a bash at a festive song.

In recording their contribution, Slade surely found themselves in something of a predicament. After all, most their singles already sounded like a self contained party by themselves (and in Dave Hill they already had an in-built perennial Christmas tree on two legs) so how to go about writing a Christmas song that stood out? The answer, quite surprisingly, was to take a step back from their usual guitar onslaught and deliver a more measured and subdued minor key track that had Holder actually singing instead of trying to sandpaper your face off with his voice.

Make no mistake, this was a single for everyone to enjoy, not just the Slade fan. Instead of a lyric of cynicism or one that celebrated the more alcoholic merits of the season, 'Merry Xmas Everybody' was stuffed with virtually every Christmas cliché they could cram into three and a half minutes. Stockings, Santa, red nosed reindeers - they're all here to keep the kids happy, but their parents would have appreciated that wistful end of year stock take of "Look to the future now, it’s only just begun".

And not just that, 'Merry Xmas Everybody' has come to define Slade at the expense of the rest of their catalogue in the way the Statue of Liberty has come to define America. In fact, I've often wondered what the hardcore fans made of it all and whether it contributed to Slade's 'all downhill from here' career trajectory; their previous number ones had got there in spite of their rough edges and made little concession to niceties, but the softer 'Merry Xmas Everybody' was written with nothing other than a deliberate commercial hit in mind.

'In so doing Merry Xmas Everybody' was and remains an instantly recognisable seasonal reference point, one that has become a part of Britain's December in a way that makes it disconcerting to think that there was ever a time when Christmas carried on perfectly well without it. Unthinkable even. Whether you think this makes the pre 1973 generations blessed or cursed is up to you and how early the shops start piping this in over the PA, but few could argue there could have been no better way to round off what was undoubtedly the year of Glam Rock.