Contenders for the Christmas Number 1

By now you will probably be almost ready for Christmas. Presents have been bought and wrapped, vast quantities of chocolate and crisps consumed already and the relative sauna like temperature of parental households exploited to the full. What you may be missing however is a knowledge of what this year’s Christmas single is likely to be (if you care that is).

Well have no fear, The Tab are here to give you a quick rundown of what we’ve found being released as this year’s Christmas singles and whether we think they’re actually any good and which is likely to be announced no.1 this evening!

£1 Fish…

Muhammad Nazir, a singing London market fishmonger, has been one of the viral hits of the year. With his remarkably catchy ditty about fish to entice customers, many thought it would die out! But with an enthusiastic Bollywood backing track, a fantastically cheesy video and some ‘star’ cameos from the likes of Michael Fish this may be a cheeky favourite for the best Christmas no.1 since good old Bob the Builder. Just try avoiding humming the lyrics to yourself.

Little Things (that make me want to throw my radio at a wall)

One Direction are everywhere. After their ‘breakthrough’ year where they cracked America and some radio stations got a bit too obsessed/pedantic (Radio 1 and Capital are guilty of this) it seemed at times you couldn’t turn on the radio without one of their songs playing or them being interviewed. To cap off a fully irritating year, they’ve released their Ed Sheeran penned song ‘Little Things’. With lines such as “You still have to squeeze into your jeans” not exactly winning the Ivor Novello awards it is still annoyingly (I think you can see my opinion on ‘1D’) catchy and may squeeze into top spot simply through having a huge fan-base.

Girls Aloud are back!

Who remembers ‘Sound of the Underground’? Who is about to wince when I tell you that it was released TEN YEARS AGO!? That’s right, their first single went Christmas number 1 a decade ago. This attempt to regain the Christmas crown with the second release since the reunion has nothing on that tune. A dreary ballad with a video that could be made by any student at Winchester simply indicates how boring pop music can be at times. It’s very similar to so much in the chart, it hasn’t a chance of no.1! Maybe next year eh? (If they survive that long enough).

John Lewis advert, FTW

Everyone has seen the new John Lewis advert, we even wrote about it here. In a regular occurrence another presence in the yearly chart battle is an old rock song slowed down and sung by a female vocalist (Scott Mills has had some great experiments with this over the past two years). Although Gabrielle Aplin has an amazing voice, I’m a sucker for the original and can’t quite get enthusiastic about it, maybe because I had to listen to it so often when growing up. It currently only seems to be an outsider for no.1, maybe due to the fact the advert isn’t all that great!

X-Factor

The X Factor has been a bit ‘meh’ this year. Falling viewing figures, appalling contestants; no-body seems to care. Even Syco themselves weren’t anticipating a chance for no.1, holding the final almost two weeks early! However, a mix of decent singer, reasonable choice of cover and standard excessive promotion on radio and TV means it’s currently neck and neck with the Justice Collective to win the race. I’ve heard better winners songs (Sound of the Underground my particular favourite) but not in the last three or four years.

It’s for charity

Possibly the biggest charity single this Christmas is from the Justice Collective with ‘He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Brother‘. Raising money for those affected by the Hillsborough Disaster, it’s had vocals from many big names like Robbie Williams and Paloma Faith, as well as backing from the likes of Paul McCartney and John Bishop. Supporting such a worthy cause is great as 2012 has been a seminal year for the families involved. If anything on this list were to make the no.1, I wouldn’t begrudge it being this single.

Notable exception

A huge exception, and one you may have heard on Radio 1, is Scott Mills and his ‘Pigs in Blankets’. As it’s being given away for free on the Radio 1 website, it doesn’t quite come under being a contender for Christmas single. If you listen regularly to friends of The Tab, Scott Mills and Chris Stark, you may have heard them talking to Christmas icons such as Noddy Holder. The result was a fantastically catchy Christmas song, taking a slightly different stance on the Christmas message with some great wordplay! Frankensensational has to be my favourite!

So there you have it, a quick round-up of some of 2012’s Christmas singles. There are plenty more but that’d get ridiculously boring so we focussed on the contenders/more amusing efforts. Have a watch and if you think we’ve missed a cracker then give us a comment and we may just update the article!