larshaukeland

December 14th: “Merry Christmas Everyone” Shakin’ Stevens

“Merry Christmas Everyone” is a festive song by Welsh singer-songwriter Shakin’ Stevens. Written by Bob Heatlie and produced by Dave Edmunds, it was the fourth number one single from Shakin’ Stevens on the UK singles chart.^]

It was released on 25 November 1985 and was the Chrismas number one for that year. Ever since it has been included on many top-selling Christmas collections and received frequent airplay every Christmas. In 2007, the song re-entered the UK top 30 and reached number 22 on the Christmas chart. This was because downloads now make up the UK Sinles Chart; in past years this would have been impossible unless there was a physical re-release of the song. From 2007 to 2017, the song charted in the UK at peak positions 22, 36, 49, 47, 42, 46, 54, 38, 26, 17 and 10. Originally only in the chart for eight weeks, it has since amassed over 60.

“Merry Christmas Everyone” was recorded in 1984. Its original planned release was put back by a year to avoid clashing with the runaway success of Band Aid’s charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, to which Stevens did not contribute, having been out of the country touring at the time of recording