The Christmas No.1 Story

# C is for the candy trimmed around the Christmas tree

# H is for the happiness with all the family... #

Every December since the charts began, exactly 60 years ago,

one song has claimed the greatest prize in pop the number one of

number ones the Christmas number one.

Ask anyone what's the most prestigious chart position, they'll say...

Christmas number one.

Over the years, this hallowed chart position

has been held by a whole selection box of hits,

from every conceivable style of pop.

-From the glittering...

-# It's Christmas! #

-..to the godly.

-# Christmas time... #

From the spotty to the snowy.

# Merry Christmas everyone. #

-And the cheesy...

-# Save your love My darling save your love. #

..to the charitable...

# Feed the world. #

# I wish it could be Christmas every day. #

In recent years, this uniquely British tradition has been

monopolised by TV talent shows, but a backlash is well under way,

and the great race for the Christmas number one is back.

So pour yourself another sherry,

and get comfy as we bring you The Christmas Number One Story.

Can you imagine Christmas without a soundtrack?

No! Of course you can't.

The carols, the choirs

and a little bit of Bing is what the season's all about.

# I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. #

But back when the charts first began,

the idea of a Christmas number one hadn't yet caught on.

All the singers of those days were all of a certain age.

They weren't youngsters.

Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby,

those are the people I associate more with Christmas.

You still got people hanging over from the '40s, from the war,

that were still household names.

# Here in my heart

# I'm alone and so lonely. #

The very first Christmas number one, in 1952 when the charts came out,

was Al Martino and Here In My Heart,

which was a lovely song, but it was nothing about Christmas.

We'd have to wait until 1955

for our first Christmas-themed song to top the UK chart.

# M is for the mistletoe where everyone is kissed. #

And even Londoner Dickie Valentine's Christmas Alphabet

had a distinctly American accent.

# S is for old Santa who makes every kid his pet

# Be good and he'll bring you everything

# In your Christmas alphabet. #

Dickie Valentine's Christmas Alphabet personifies what

British music was like in '55, '56.

It was all pseudo-American. It was the Coca-Cola version of Christmas.

It was absolutely covered in treacle.

I always wanted to go out in the sleighbells.

I never had sleighbells, but I want them

and chestnuts roasting by an open fire -

we never had an open fire!

I get nostalgic even now for a Christmas I never had.

# Alphabet. #

# Long time ago in Bethlehem So the holy Bible says. #

The most enduring Christmas number one of the decade

came in 1957 from an actual American, Harry Belafonte.

# Hark now hear the angels sing

# A new king born today. #

It's perfect.

It's one of those songs that is perfect.

There's not a dull note in it, there's not a duff chord change.

It's a very simple, beautiful carol.

The lyrics are sensational. You know the story of Jesus.

How many songs can you write better than the Christmas songs?

Carols put into reach sometimes quite complicated theological ideas.

It tells you something quite significant

about what you're there for.

# For ever more because of Christmas day. #

Ah!

Mary's Boy Child was a shining star on top of the festive charts,

and the future looked bright for the traditional,

God-fearing Christmas song and its new friend, the hit parade.

But just around the corner was a new force that would call time on the cosy old Christmas.

# Oh, yeah, I... #

Four remarkable young men from Liverpool -

Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon.

When I started on Radio Caroline in 1964,

Christmas records didn't really have a look-in.

It was The Beatles. They dominated everything.

# I wanna hold you hand I wanna hold you hand. #

The Beatles in the '60s were, of course, huge.

Everybody knows that. They had a massive influence on my life.

Oh, great. Been nothing like it before.

They were bound to be number one, sort of every other month.

It just happened that Christmas got in the way.

# And please say to me you'll let me hold your hand

# Let me hold your hand. #

When it came to Christmas, they didn't write Christmas number ones.

They didn't have to, they just wrote another song, and off it went.

I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Not I Want To Hold Your Holly or I Want To Hold Your Christmas Pudding,

I Want To Hold Your Hand.

The Beatles remain the most

successful act in the entire history of the Christmas number one.

They held the top spot from '63 to '65 and again in '67 as Beatlemania

invaded every corner of British culture, including Christmas itself.

# Gary crimble to you

# Gary crimble to you

# Gary crimble dear Rudolph

# Gary crimble to you. #

But of course The Fab Four's reign couldn't last for ever, and in 1968

when they had fled east in search of enlightenment,

there were plenty of hot new groups in Liverpool

itching to take their place at the top.

"My cousin Eva had terrible hay fever.

"Uncle Eric, schizophrenic. Swung from tree to tree.

"Gave him medicinal compound Now he's a Conservative MP." That didn't go in.

# We'll drink a drink a drink

# To Lily the pink the pink the pink

# The saviour of the human race. #

The Scaffold were a beat poetry and comedy group

who'd grown up in the same Merseyside streets as The Beatles.

In fact, making up the trio with John Gorman and Roger McGough

was Paul McCartney's brother, Mike.

Lily The Pink was a song I remember we used to sing at university,

at Hull University, in the cricket team on the coach coming back, we'd sing Lily The Pink.

# We'll drink a drink a drink

# To Lily the pink the pink the pink. #

It was always in the background of the human consciousness, I think,

and so we released it and gave it new life.

# Lily the pink, she turned to drink She... #

In this case, new life meant matching white suits

and a Pythonesque un-synchronised dance routine.

When you see them on Top Of The Pops, they were hilarious.

A bit barmy, British eccentricity.

When we first did Top Of The Pops, it was quite surreal to be on there.

We were on with people like Cream and Traffic and Free,

and all these real good bands.

Outside of the music scene, it was very serious times.

CND had been going on. I was writing poems about the end of the world.

Lily The Pink became a sort of release for people.

It is comedy. Let's take time off for being too serious.

# Whoo! #

For the first time - and it wouldn't be the last -

the Christmas number one flew in the face of what was cool and credible.

And indeed what was going on in the real world,

and the novelty Christmas number one was born.

# In every case. #

Suddenly, people said, "Hey, this is fun!

"This is Christmassy, this is what we should be doing."

From then on, people seemed to think we've got to have either

something a bit Christmassy or something a bit wacky.

Wacky eccentricity didn't have to be home-grown, either.

At the peak of the swinging '60s, Rolf Harris entered the charts

with a mysterious little ditty he'd picked up in the outback.

I was sung the song in Australia by a fella called Ted Egan.

He was working for Aboriginal Welfare at the time,

and he said, "Here's a song, my mum sang it to me when I was four."

He sat at the table and beat time on the tabletop with his fingers,

and he sang.

# Two little boys had two little toys

# Each had a wooden horse. #

I remember thinking, "What am I going to say when he finishes?

"Cos it's so awful!"

Then he got to the bit...

# Did you think I would leave you dying

# When there's room on my horse for two?

# Climb up here, Joe We'll soon be flying

# I can go just as fast with two. #

And all the hair stood up on my arms, and my neck. It's done it now!

# Did you think I would leave you dying? #

Rolf took the song from the Aussie campfire to the top of the pops

and clinched the Christmas number one in 1969.

It was the most amazing time of my life, going on Saturday night

to sing it on Top Of The Pops, and who's this weird guy with the beard

singing this ancient song?!

# Long years passed War came so fast

# Bravely, they marched away. #

The underlying message of redemption in Two Little Boys struck a chord

deep inside the record-buying public that Christmas.

I still can't listen to Two Little Boys without weeping.

"Did you think I would leave you dying?"

It's not only the Christmas message, it's the entire message of Christian salvation.

Whoa, gosh. Powerful. Powerful song.

# When we were two little boys. #

Two Little Boys was a timely reminder of the true

meaning of Christmas, but with the arrival of the '70s, the future

of the festive number one looked uncertain.

Christmas songs were long gone, The Beatles were finished

and the big names in rock had given up on releasing singles altogether.

Music was lost at this point.

I think we really were in no-man's land.

Big bands like Led Zeppelin and all those big guys that were coming up,

it was uncool for those progressive rock bands to have singles.

It seemed as if, in keeping with fuel shortages and power cuts,

in the early '70s, the lights had gone out on the Christmas number one.

But on the flipside of life, like a glowing beacon in the gloom,

glam rock coveted the Christmas number one as the glittering prize we now know it to be.

# You'd better watch out if you've got long black hair

# He'll come from behind

# You'll go out of your mind

# You better not go You never know what you'll find. #

Christmas is very glam rock.

You put on glitter and jump around, and there's nice tunes to sing.

It's practically The Sweet. It's the nearest the church gets to The Sweet.

You've got The Sweet, Slade, Suzi Quatro, Mud.

They all over-dressed.

If one had three-inch platforms, the next act had 12-inch platforms.

How loud can you get? Turn it up, 20.

The Christmas Top Of The Pops

was the perfect arena for this gladiatorial glitter-off.

Christmas Top Of The Pops, believe me, was incredibly powerful.

You could go on the Christmas Top Of The Pops edition

and be in front of 20 million people,

who would watch it after the Queen's Speech.

# When the snowman brings the snow

# Well, he just might like to know

# He's put a great big smile on somebody's face. #

With the stakes set high, 1973 would see two heavyweight contenders

of Midlands glam duke it out in the first great battle

for the Christmas number one.

Nobody was doing Christmas records at that time.

I thought it might be nice to write a rock and roll one for a change.

We came up with Merry Christmas, Everybody.

We recorded I Wish It Could Be Christmas in August,

in bright sunshine.

We recorded it in New York in the middle of a blazing hot summer.

We put a load of baubles and trimmings and a tree up,

and it really worked.

The record company freaked.

They said, "This is going to be a monster."

So Slade and Wizzard, unbeknownst to each other,

stealthily recorded songs pre-tooled for Christmas.

But there could only be one winner.

We wish you a merry Christmas.

We leave you with the sound of...

-The number one sound. Slade!

-Slade. 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? #

Merry Christmas Everybody went on to sell over a millions copies

and stayed at number one for nine weeks.

# So here it is Merry Christmas

# Everybody's having fun. #

Reg Presley from The Troggs, he always says a record like that,

a stand-out record that goes on for ever,

has got that bit of fairy dust.

And I think that has got a bit of fairy dust.

It was great for parties. It got everyone singing, and people still sing it now.

The glamour, the glitz, the costumes, it was like escapism.

And just great fun.

It defines Christmas. It's defined every Christmas party I've been to.

Suddenly, everything sparkles, everything's enjoyable,

and then you wake up with a foul hangover and that ringing in your ears.

# It's only just begun. #

The monumental success of Merry Christmas Everybody

confirmed the Christmas number one as the jewel in the crown of glam.

And the following year, Surrey's answer to Slade

took the prize with a hit fit for a king.

# It'll be lonely this Christmas without you to hold. #

Certainly in my year,

in Mud when we had our Christmas number one,

it was a thing you planned for,

because Christmas number one was a big deal.

# Each time I remember the day you went away. #

Mud's plan was simple. They'd combine the explicit Christmas

lyrics employed by Slade with the sound of the crooners of old.

# I just break down as I look around

# And the only things I see are emptiness and loneliness

# And an unlit Christmas tree. #

You had Mud with Lonely This Christmas which many believed was an Elvis song.

Lonely was a Mud record, not Elvis.

Never covered it. He knew we'd done it, cos Mike told him,

and Elvis said, "Carry on, it's great."

And to complete the effect, Mud took what they'd

learnt from their Black Country brethren about putting

on a festive show, and went one better.

# It'll be lonely this Christmas Lonely and cold. #

When it got to Christmas, it went wild.

Les said, "We're going to get a puppet" then someone said, "Snow, ladders."

Then the cameras pan up and there's our crew chucking snow down,

and it's complete lunacy, really.

The glam era put Christmas on a pedestal

and enjoyed every minute of it.

But just down the road from the Top Of The Pops studio, White Christmas soon became White Riot,

and in 1976 there was anarchy in the UK.

Perhaps what the nation needed was a spiritual reminder that we are all born equal,

regardless of colour or creed.

# A ray of hope flickers in the sky

# A tiny star lights up way up high

# All across the land dawns a brand new morn

# This comes to pass when a child is born. #

In 1976, Johnny Mathis brought a universal message

of the joy of life, and he was determined to communicate it

by any means necessary.

It was my first opportunity to use the spoken word in a song.

I was hesitant because it could sound a little too preachy.

And all of this happens because the world is waiting.

Waiting for one child.

Black, white, yellow. No-one knows.

So Johnny sings, he speaks and then of course, this.

# Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah. #

As I remember, I went through a lot of them.

HE HUMS THE TUNE

# Ah ha ha ha ah ha ha ha ha. # Nah. Too harsh.

And then, you end up somewhere inbetween and we ended up with...

# Oh oh oh oh. #

# Ah ah ah ah ah

# Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

# Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

# Ah ah ah ah Ah ah ah ah ah. #

If you're going to have it schmaltzy, let's have it real schmaltzy.

And that will do me. I'm a sucker. Here I am, where do I deliver my money?

# This comes to pass when a child is born. #

To a middle Britain under attack from the filth

and fury of punk, Johnny Mathis was a soothing reminder

of the Christmas of their more innocent youth.

It was so old-school, and so alien at that moment in time.

All of a sudden, you were back there with Nat King Cole and whoever else was making Christmas records.

You quite easily reverted back to being that kid

on the outskirts of Glasgow, hearing those songs on the radio.

A Child Is Born. I remember that. That was my mum's favourite.

Superb voice, beautifully delivered. Lovely sentiment.

It's a bit more back to the real meaning of Christmas, the roots.

# Ah ah ah ah Ah ah ah ah ah. #

# Mary's boy child Jesus Christ

# Was born on Christmas Day... #

Johnny Mathis wasn't the only one harking back to the good old days.

In 1978, Harry Belafonte's seminal Mary's Boy Child was given

a funky refresh by Boney M.

# Long time ago in Bethlehem

# So the holy Bible say... #

And if you were wondering why the long fur coats,

it might have something to do with shooting the video in winter,

in the heart of Communist Russia.

It was the government that invited us.

Going back then, no European group

or any group from this Western world

was allowed to go to Russia.

And we thought, "Hmmm, we use it to our advantage?"

Performing for the cameras in the cold, hard light

of a Moscow morning called for special measures.

It wasn't called the Cold War for nothing.

I've never felt coldness like that in my entire life.

I think I even started to cry at one point.

They had this big coach for us, and they kept it warm all the time

so, every three minutes or so -

you couldn't stay longer than five minutes out there -

they had to rush us back into this coach and rub our feet in vodka

and our hands, and give us vodka to drink as well!

Keep us warm!

And then, the same day, we had a concert.

# For a moment the world was aglow All the bells rang out

# There were tears of joy... #

Having been specially invited behind the Iron Curtain, Boney M

were expected to perform for the top brass at the Politburo.

The audience were all sitting there and they were all just legless.

In the end, we had to tell them the truth.

We said, listen, we were filming today in Red Square

and you guys gave us vodka! And they roared in laughter.

# O my Lord, when in the crib they found him, O my Lord... #

MUSIC: "Don't You Want Me?" by The Human League.

Back in the capitalist West, the '80s had arrived

to a sparse, new electronic sound.

# You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

# When I met you... #

The Human League topped the Christmas charts in 1981,

signalling a cool, sophisticated new era in British pop music.

# Don't, don't you want me? #

TAPE SPOOLS BACK RAPIDLY

# Save your Love, my darling Save your love... #

Oh, well, the Christmas number one never was about being cool, was it?

# The moon and stars above...

# A serenade I long to sing you, the reddest rose I'll always bring you

# Save your love for Roma and for me... #

Edgy synth pop may have been all the rage,

but what most people really wanted in the midwinter of '82

was the warm glow and romance of the Mediterranean.

I think it was released on the basis

that people had just come back from their summer holidays.

A lot of people had a romance while they were on holiday,

and the record could rekindle some of the feelings they had

while they were away and remind them of it.

Save Your Love is a kind of insight

into what Britain was like at that moment in time.

As a sort of twice-a-year treat,

your dad might take your mum to a trattoria

and they might drink a couple of glasses of Chianti

from those funny kind of baskety bottles too many.

# A serenade I long to sing you... #

The suburban escapism was echoed in the soft-focus video

for Save Your Love, which featured

a model in place of the young session singer, Hilary Lester.

# Even though it's been so very long... #

It's not me in the video.

I was quite young at the time and, being a pop singer,

it wasn't particularly my type of thing.

Nobody could have bee more surprised than I,

when the record was such a massive hit.

Perhaps the blockbuster appeal of the song was down to

the seductive serenade of Sutton Coldfield's finest Italian tenor,

Renato Pagliari.

Renato, please, we can't let you go from our Christmas party

without singing just a little bit, here, for all of us, Save Your Love.

# Save your love, my darling Save your love... #

Renato was probably a bit of a dish to a lot of people.

It is preposterous, to see him now in his tightly fitting jumper

and his moustache.

I think schmaltzy would be a good word. Too many people use "cheesy".

But, I think schmaltzy is probably exactly what it was.

However, romance always sells.

# With summer nights with moon and stars above... #

The Shirley Valentine effect mobilised

an army of middle-aged record buyers.

And Renee and Renato stumbled upon a secret to Christmas chart success.

# And for me... #

The secret is to get that person that,

the other 51 weeks of the year, never buys a record.

But, the week before Christmas goes out and purchases.

It's the unusual purchase.

The record industry cottoned onto this.

They could see a huge spike in sales when it came to Christmas.

You could make something that was dedicated to conjuring up

all those feelings and images of Christmas.

There was an awful lot of money to be earned.

# Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes? #

The race for the Christmas number one, like most things in life,

became super-charged in the '80s.

And the yuppie lifestyle was played out in this apres ski fantasy

with a video by quintessential '80s playboys, Wham!

MUSIC: "Last Christmas" by Wham!

# Last Christmas, I gave you my heart

# But the very next day You gave it away

# This year, to save me from tears

# I'll give it to someone special... #

Last Christmas by Wham! Absolute classic. Love it.

They basically went on a skiing holiday and filmed it.

It's the best Christmas video ever.

Great selection of Christmas jumpers.

Just would love to be in that video.

# Last Christmas I gave you my heart

# But the very next day You gave it away... #

It's hard to believe this,

one of the nation's favourite Christmas songs,

didn't top the charts.

Wham's Last Christmas not a Christmas number one? Tragedy!

In fact, it's the highest selling single ever

to NOT make it to number one.

But, there's a good reason for this.

Bob had just seen the first footage on BBC News

of this famine in Ethiopia.

I spoke to him on the phone and he said,

"I've seen this thing on television.

"It's disgusting, and I want to do something. Will you help?"

And we sat down, and in a very cold and calculated way,

figured out that if we could pull people's heartstrings and release

their purse strings, with a Christmas record,

we could generate maybe £100,000 to send to Africa.

So I went home and sat in my kitchen

and came up with this da-da-da-da, da, da-da-da.

I thought, that's Christmassy. That'll do, that's fine.

Then Bob came in with these really dark lyrics.

# There's a world outside your window

# And it's a world of dread and fear... #

There's a new song at the top of the pop charts, and the record has itself set a record.

It's become the fastest-selling single ever.

It still, to this day... that record will give me shivers.

See! The hairs on my arms are standing up just thinking about it.

Just... It's a piece of history.

# Throw your arms around the world

# At Christmas time. #

Do They Know It's Christmas? went on to make £7 million for the famine appeal.

And the real masterstroke behind its success was the sheer weight

of A-list talent on show.

# Well, tonight, thank God it's them Instead of you. #

U2...

-..Paul Young...

-Phil Collins...

Boy George, Bananarama, Duran Duran, George Michael.

# But say a prayer

# Pray for the other ones

# At Christmas time. #

All these people who I thought would be famous for ever,

in the same studio at the same time, it just seemed like the most

incredible thing that had ever happened.

# Feed the world

# Let them know it's Christmas time

# Feed the world... #

Band Aid capitalised on our love of fame

and celebrity in the West, working on our guilt in the name of charity.

Half the planet was starving, was dying,

while we were all looking forward to Christmas.

And that's obscene, in a way, and all we wanted to do,

in our own little way, was kind of redress the balance a little bit.

So, in a way, yes, it's probably the ultimate Christmas message.

# Let them know it's Christmas time

# Feed the world... #

Nothing could have bettered Band Aid's message

in the Christmas chart in '84.

A fact not lost on the biggest selling singles artist of the '80s.

I always wanted to have a Christmas Number One,

and Merry Christmas came up, and it was actually going to be

released in '84, at the end of the year, obviously.

But there was a Band Aid record out, a charity record,

and you know, you can't really compete with charity, really,

as big as that, so we released it a year later.

# Time for party and celebrations

# People dancing all night long... #

He timed it right

and nothing else would be left to chance as team Shaky shipped out

to a Christmas theme park to leave no seasonal stone unturned.

# We're gonna have a party tonight... #

This is at the height of Shaky's imperial hit-making phase,

so there's a lot of money to spend on the video.

It was all there, the snow, the trees, and everything,

and Father Christmas, the bells and snowball fights, and sledges.

That's what it's all about, Christmas, really.

# We're gonna have a party tonight... #

Cheese. I mean, you know - the video is cheese.

But Shakin' Stevens was not, in a way, a "serious" artist...

No, that sounds wrong.

He was a serious artist in terms of he sold lots of records,

but, you know, he was light-hearted.

# Love and understanding

# Merry Christmas, everyone... #

# It's the season of love and understanding

# Merry Christmas, everyone. #

See?

You know, you can mock it, but one person in the room starts singing it,

it's very hard for everybody else in the room to not join in.

# Merry Christmas, everyone. #

Shaky's perfect festive package sailed into the Christmas number one in '85.

But by 1988, this snow-dome scene couldn't have been further

from the sun-drenched saga captivating the nation

day in, day out on TV.

# Neighbours

# Everybody needs good neighbours... #

It was all about Charlene and Scott and what was

happening down in Ramsay Street, and we were fascinated as a nation by it.

Pure romance.

It was just wonderful to see Jason and Kylie and see them get together.

We were just jealous of Kylie for being with Jason.

You know - he was ours!

Are you two walking out together?

-We're bodies.

-Anybody's!

Kylie and Jason were the nation's TV sweethearts

and had also become pop's hottest property

under the guidance of Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

A duet for Christmas was surely on the cards!

There was no question that we had to do a Kylie and Jason record.

This wasn't even a question.

Matt and I jumped on a plane to Australia on a Sunday.

We were in the middle of filming Neighbours at the time.

They finished Neighbours at 4.00. We went into the studio at 7.00.

It took a day. A very, very long day.

We worked all the way through the night.

Caught the plane back to Britain, we mixed it,

brought the staff in to hear it.

The staff just beamed!

# Now we're back together, together

# I wanna show you My heart is oh, so true

# And all the love I have is especially for you... #

When I listened to it the first time,

I was just amazed at how good I sounded, so the magic was happening.

At that point, I knew it was number one.

The stage was set for a perfect end to the love story.

Scott and Charlene's duet was a shoe-in for the top spot at Christmas.

But there was one force in pop that even Stock, Aitken and Waterman

couldn't take for granted -

a man with a divine right to the festive throne.

# Christmas time, mistletoe and wine

# Children singing Christian rhyme

# With logs on the fire And gifts on the tree

# A time to rejoice in the good that we see... #

It seems, you know, to be the battle between the forces of Mammon and God.

If you had said to me as a betting man, Cliff versus Jason and Kylie,

they're going to win hands down,

because you could feel the power of pop.

Guess who beat us to number one!

Cliff Richard! It still didn't work! Couldn't believe it!

# The child is a king The carollers sing

# The old is past There's a new beginning... #

At Christmas time, people forget who they are, and probably put on a

Cliff Richard record which they never would do for the rest of the year.

It's acceptable at Christmas!

# Mistletoe and wine

# Children singing Christian rhyme... #

Mistletoe and Wine combined the two loves in Cliff's life -

pop and Christianity - and the result became his winning formula

for chart longevity.

You can't disassociate Cliff Richard from Christmas. He IS Christmas.

He's got a really, really good outlook on life,

and I think he's just trying to stay young.

Christmas comes, and out comes Cliff. That and Wimbledon.

That's when you find Cliff!

Between October and December,

more records are sold than the other nine months totalled.

Why would you want to release a record in January,

when you knew it was going to sell more if you released it in December?

So it was purely business, really.

# We have been through the harvest

# Winter is truly begun

# Now we have walked in the chill of the night

# We are waiting for, waiting for

# For the saviour's day. #

Cliff was back on top of the Christmas chart

in 1990 with Saviour's Day,

complete with these epic visuals of Cliff on a cliff

confirming him as the pied piper of Christmas.

In his heyday, there's absolutely no doubt

that Sir Cliff had us on the run.

There's always a question - will he, won't he?

Will Sir Cliff produce a Christmas tune?

Because if he does, then it's probably unbettable.

# Life can be yours if you only stay... #

The mass purchasing power of his followers

kept Cliff's songs at the heart of Christmas pop.

But not everyone shared his devotion to the Christian message.

Some of the records became slightly more religious than we were used to.

I mean, he certainly wasn't Noddy Holder, let's put it that way!

How did you feel being voted the United Kingdom's best-known Christian?

I find it very hard to take those kinds of polls seriously.

To kind of beat the Pope, but it's understandable -

he hasn't had a record out for years!

Sir Cliff went for broke at the turn of the last century

with his Millennium Prayer.

# Our Father, who art in heaven

# Hallowed be thy name... #

He came up with a Millennium Prayer where he had Auld Lang Syne and

the Lord's Prayer all into one, and I thought, this is desperation time!

# Let every home and every dream be born in love

Christian Christmas songs were out of favour by the '90s.

In fact, even overtly festive songs seemed out of step

when the big ballad took over.

And this trend was set by one of the biggest of them all.

# If I should stay

# I would only be in your way... #

Still to this day, it's the most amazing powerful ballad

that you could ever hear, and it will always touch right here.

# I'll think of you every step of the way... #

I love that song.

It's got to be one of the best power ballads of all time.

# And I will always love you

I think you can't beat a ballad, you know what I mean?

It's got that sentiment about it that, I dunno,

relationships and stuff like that, you know.

Everyone comes together around Christmas.

This is a fact Terry knows only too well.

In 1994, East 17's Stay Another Day

became the biggest thing to ever come out of Walthamstow.

East 17 and 1994's Christmas number one.

# Stay now. # Tune.

# Stay now, baby if you've got to go away

# Don't think I could take the pain

# Won't you stay another day? #

That song will always remind me of the days when my sister and I

used to sing it in our bedroom and when we used to fancy the pants off

of East 17, and wish that one day, they'd be our husbands.

It's not happened yet, but there's still time!

# I touch your face while you were sleeping and hold your hand

# Don't understand what's going on

# Stay now, if you got to go away

# Stay now, baby if you've got to go away... #

East 17 are one of those bands that people take the mick out of.

They did wear, I would say as a pop band, some of the daftest

clothes and hats and baggy trousers, and everything else, of all time.

# Baby if you've got to go away... #

East 17 were at the height of their gangster pop powers

when they dropped this sweet treat of a Christmas tune.

Stay Another Day came from another place. It's a cry from the heart.

They just bust through the outer perimeter of what everyone

thought they were capable of.

On first listen, Stay Another Day is pure Christmas slush,

but the song had a hidden meaning.

Tony wrote it, out the band,

and it was actually wrote about his brother who committed suicide.

It was nice that a song like that, like a heartfelt song,

actually done really well.

# Don't leave me alone like this

# Don't you say it's the final kiss

# Won't you stay another day? #

A heartfelt love song delivered by the biggest names in pop -

with added snow and bells, of course -

became the go-to Christmas number one of the '90s.

But there was still room for the odd surprise.

# Blobby, oh, Mr Blobby

# If only you could make us understand... #

What is Mr Blobby all about?

It's a question which I'm sure has exercised

some of the finest philosophical minds!

What was it? A guy in a plastic pink suit, wasn't it?

# Blobby, Mr Blobby

# You're the guy who puts the do in do or die... #

I remember at my tenure as the chart host, there's me interviewing

Mr Blobby about the Christmas number one - "Blobby, blobby, blobby!"

Er...ridiculous!

As I used to do Noel's House Party, I will not have a word said -

and I stress this - about Mr Blobby,

who was a fine figure of a blobby in those days!

# Blobby, Mr Blobby... #

Love it or hate it,

every few years, just when you least expect it,

something silly turns up in the Christmas charts -

and the Great British Public go out and buy it in their droves.

Bob the Builder here. It's fantastic being number one!

You'd never get a novelty record in the States.

You'd never get a novelty record in Australia.

I wonder why it's just this country and this culture.

# Bob the Builder, can we fix it? #

We are an island,

and one thing I love about Britain - we laugh at ourselves.

We're not frightened to have a laugh.

Fastest Milkman In The West, Lilly The Pink, Mr Blobby.

It's like...only in Britain!

And back in Britain of the mid-'90s, another unique pop phenomenon was taking hold.

# I'll tell you what I want What I really, really want

# So tell me what you want What you really, really want

# I'll tell you what I want What I really, really want

# So tell me what you want What you really, really want

# I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna

# I wanna, I wanna really, really Really wanna zig-a-zig ah... #

For a while, it seemed to be that there was no music

apart from the Spice Girls.

I just remember everybody loved them and everyone had all the stickers, and the CDs.

They bring back memories of happier times.

# I'll tell you what I want What I really, really want

# So tell me what you want What you really, really want... #

The mid-'90s saw pop hit the high street in a big way,

and Christmas itself became more and more about big brands.

Christmas became different.

Christmas became much closer to tinselly high street than it did to candlelit church, I think.

And that's reflected in the music you hear at Christmas.

The agnostic '90s power ballad seemed to have taken over the job

of the traditional carol at Christmas.

And the Spice Girls knew exactly how to cash in.

It was all about kind of spicing up your life for the rest of the year,

then it was like - voom! - ballad for Christmas.

# Come a little bit closer, baby Get it on, get it on

# Cos tonight is the night

# When two become one... #

In 1996, 2 Become 1 became the Spice Girls' first in a hat-trick

of Christmas number ones.

It was a very evocative track.

It fitted well into the Christmas mood,

but it didn't sell the Christmas message at you.

And again, by doing that it was tapping into the teens

and the early adults who pretended they hated Christmas anyway, but they wanted to be down the disco.

# Too much of nothing is just as tough

# I need to know the way to feel

# To keep me satisfied... #

The Spice Girls even used the Christmas chart to bid us farewell.

1998's Goodbye was the end of an era.

# Goodbye, my friends

# I know you're gone, you said you're gone but I can still feel you here. #

Looking back on them now, they look like the peak of authenticity,

don't they? Because they were a real band, even though

they were a manufactured band, it wasn't the X Factor stuff,

it wasn't a series of changing faces - it was five women.

It was time to say goodbye to the Spice Girls and hello to the TV talent show.

I think Popstars: The Rivals was

the start of the death of the Christmas number one.

It's my fault, is it, now? It's my fault - I've killed Christmas!

Two teams of wannabes were primed for Christmas chart success by

boy-band Svengali Louis Walsh and God's gift to '80s pop, Pete Waterman.

We are both going for the tightest spot in the world of music -

the Christmas number one.

It's war. Total war.

The whole thing about Popstars: The Rivals was

ITV wanted to prove they could have the Christmas number one.

We were manipulated by television.

I can tell you the Christmas number one...

-Is it the boys...

-for 2002...

-..or is it the girls?

It's Girls Aloud!

The might of the TV format prevailed.

Girls Aloud took the Christmas number one in emphatic style.

# It's the sound of the underground

# The beat of the drum goes round and around

# Into the overflow

# Where the girls get down To the sound of the radio... #

Now the power of TV had been realised.

The Grinch went to work and nothing could stop the onslaught of what came next

for the Christmas number one.

'The competition was fiercer than ever!'

I'm singing for my life now cos I ain't having a no!

Did you own the whole stage?!

You are right up my street.

That's what I call a pop star.

The Christmas number one now is so much tied in to the kind of

incredibly interconnected web of influence - money,

and drive that comes from people like Simon Cowell, I guess

and the X Factor.

For me, X Factor's ruined Christmas.

There's no soul in it, there's nothing personal about it,

it could be that person, that person or that person singing it.

Whether you enjoy the show or not,

the victors of the X Factor quickly colonised the Christmas chart.

# I'm here to win your heart and soul

# That's my goal. #

# A moment like this

# Some people wait a lifetime

# For a moment like this. #

# There can be miracles

# When you believe... #

Without doubt the low point for the Christmas number one

was in about 2006

when we realised that X Factor had basically cornered the market.

There was no point betting on it any more.

It really was dark days for this national institution,

which is the Christmas number one.

Everyone's got their opinion about the X Factor.

No-one really, really understands

the hard work that goes into being on that show. It's a lot.

# I heard there was a secret chord

# That David played and it pleased the Lord

# But you don't really care for music, do ya? #

I always used to watch Top Of The Pops, I always used to say to my mum,

"I'm going to get on there one day".

I just can't even explain the feeling

of having that number one and what it felt like.

And then to perform it on Top Of The Pops, the one show I always wanted to perform on,

I'm still, to this day, blown away,

and it still makes me extremely emotional.

# Maybe there's a God above

# But all I've ever learned from love

# Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you

# It's not a cry that you hear at night

# It's not someone who's seen the light

# It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah, oh

# Hallelujah... #

It's hard to knock a girl whose childhood dream came true

but by 2009, after four years of X Factor whitewash of the Christmas number one,

it was time to fight back.

Stop! Whoa! I'm not having any more of this.

Cowell cannot have his way every single Christmas.

But who would have the power to topple Simon Cowell?

We thought that "OK, let's see if we can make our own number one

"To outdo the X Factor."

I chose Rage Against The Machine

because I felt it was a complete antithesis

of what anything the X Factor would put out.

# Uh!

# Killing in the name of... #

In the internet age, you don't need a primetime TV show to speak to the nation.

You can be an average Joe - or, in this case, John -

and use Facebook to turn mass disaffection into downloads.

I bought Rage Against The Machine.

I did download Rage Against The Machine, I think, five times.

I didn't have a clue who Rage Against The Machine were.

They're not really my type of genre of music.

And I didn't grasp how anybody would want to listen to that song

on Christmas Day, eating their Christmas dinner.

# It's the climb... #

As the feasting commenced around Britain's dining tables in 2009,

the nation's families had made their choice between the anti-Christmas rap rockers

and X Factor's squeaky-clean boy wonder.

The Christmas Number One 2009 is...

CROWD: # Killing in the name of! #

Rage Against The Machine.

The Rage campaign proved that the Christmas chart belongs to the people.

And last year their choice for Christmas number one wasn't a pop star,

it wasn't even really a pop song.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Gareth Malone, and I want to invite anyone to come and join a choir.

It came at such a perfect time for us.

Our husbands were deployed, we were feeling a bit melancholy.

I think the choir

brought a whole new community spirit to Chivenor.

# Wherever you are

# My love will keep you safe... #

Gareth Malone's Military Wives would have their own song,

the words taken from letters they'd exchanged with their husbands in Afghanistan.

It doesn't matter if you're not in the military, or know anybody in the military,

I think everyone can take something from it

because they're such poignant lyrics,

and the meaning of them, to me it's all just about love.

# Wherever you are

# Our hearts still beat as one... #

The choir's journey culminated in this gala performance at the Albert Hall.

# Light up the darkness

# My wondrous star

# Our hopes and dreams, my heart and yours, for ever shining far

# Light up the darkness My prince of peace... #

When we'd done the Albert Hall, it was very emotional, we thought that's us, that's finished.

Little did we know, the next weekend we were in London recording the single,

and I thought, "No-one's going to buy this."

Then the next minute, I'm speaking to Chris Evans live on the radio.

We just started getting these texts and e-mails,

so we played it. The cumulative effect

of the appreciation for the song and the way it's moving people,

it speaks love, care, and it speaks massive emotion.

Brought a tear to my eye, even now when I think of the song.

I thought it was just amazing.

The fact everybody's rather shy about doing it

and conquers all their fears, I think everybody rooted for them.

All of a sudden I've got into choirs for some reason!

What had started with a TV vehicle to keep the home fires burning

had just produced, by popular demand, a hot contender

for the Christmas number one.

Your Christmas number one. Military Wives.

Military Wives was a true, true great Christmas record.

It's not about make-up and money and showing off.

It's about real issues, real things, and people can connect to that.

There's something very beautiful about people coming together

and singing, but also finding something in our togetherness

that's worth celebrating.

Looking back at 60 years of Christmas number ones reminds us

that Christmas brings out the bonkers in the British.

But last year the nation fell back in love

with the most powerful ingredient in all great Christmas songs.

It's about gathering people together.

It's about people missing each other and coming back together for Christmas.

And that's really the message of Christmas.

A bit like, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" in its sentiment.

I'm dreaming of home, a hearth, with your loved ones.

# I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

# Just like the ones I used to know

# And may all your Christmases be white. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd