{"id":7474,"date":"2025-12-17T13:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/the-making-of-slade-s-merry-xmas-everybody-14242\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T13:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:40:21","slug":"the-making-of-slade-s-merry-xmas-everybody-14242","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/the-making-of-slade-s-merry-xmas-everybody-14242\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making Of Slade\u2019s \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"post-preview\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content google-ld-json\">\n<div class=\"editable-content\">\n<p>Slade\u2019s \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d might not be the first Christmas song, it might not even be the best Christmas song, but it\u2019s surely one of the most important, the most memorable, the most successful and the most, well, Christmas-y. It was released in December 1973 \u2013 as were Wizzard\u2019s \u201cI Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday\u201d and Elton John\u2019s \u201cStep Into Christmas\u201d \u2013 and sold half a million in pre-orders alone as it surged to the top of the chart. It was still No 1 in the middle of January. Not bad for a song that was written in the shower and recorded in a sweltering New York studio with John Lennon\u2019s harmonium while the band\u2019s drummer \u2013 recovering from a serious car accident \u2013 could barely remember how to keep time.<\/p>\n<p>In the early \u201970s, Slade were untouchable. This was their third No 1 in 1973 alone, and their sixth overall. Years of graft had helped the band develop a serious work ethic, but they also retained a gift for the common touch thanks to their decision to never stray far from their Black Country roots. This was reflected in \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d. The bovver boy choruses and wacky image might have pigeonholed them as a novelty act \u2013 and a Christmas song doesn\u2019t exactly help in that regard \u2013 but Jim Lea\u2019s simple melody, Dave Hill\u2019s chunky chords and Noddy Holder\u2019s lyrics contain the perfect blend of nostalgia and optimism that help define the Christmas experience for many. \u201cAre you hanging up a stocking on your wall?\/Are you hoping that the snow will start to fall?\u201d bellows old mutton-chops, \u201cLook to the future, it\u2019s only just begun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a miserable time, 1973,\u201d says Holder, who wrote the words after an evening in a Black Country pub. \u201cI was trying to cheer people up.\u201d What sort of curmudgeon wouldn\u2019t get a Christmas tingle at that? <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"WM7M7zSMJcw\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Slade \u2013 Merry Xmas Everybody (Official Top Of The Pops Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WM7M7zSMJcw?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Jim Lea, bass and harmonium<\/strong>: We\u2019d had this string of hits and I was worried about getting the next No 1. I was in the shower trying to think of a song. My mother-in-law the year before had said why don\u2019t we write a song like \u201cWhite Christmas\u201d, something that can be played every year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Noddy Holder, vocals and guitar:<\/strong> It came out because Jim\u2019s mother-in-law had said why have you never brought out a record that can come out every year like a birthday song or a Christmas song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lea:<\/strong> I was furious, I thought it was a stupid idea. But then I decided to do it. I started thinking of words and wrote the verse and was trying to find a chorus. This took about 20 minutes while I was in the shower.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>I was in a writing session with Jim and he remembered a song I\u2019d written back in 1967. It was the first song I\u2019d ever written. It was a hippy dippy flower power song called \u201cBuy Me A Rocking Chair\u201d and the original chorus had gone [to the tune of \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d] \u201cSo won\u2019t you buy me a rocking chair to watch the world go by, buy me a looking glass to look me in the eye-ee-ee.\u201d The band hated it, so it was binned. But Jim remembered it and had added this new melody for the verse. He said why don\u2019t we make it a Christmas song?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lea: <\/strong>I\u2019ve a good memory and recalled that Nod had played me this scrap of a song five years before about a rocking chair and I put that in. I don\u2019t think Nod was too pleased, he wanted to do something with the chorus himself some time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>So I went away and wrote some Christmas lyrics. I went to the pub, got a bit pissed then went back to my mum and dad\u2019s place and wrote the lyrics. I played it the next day to Jim and he said, \u201cThat\u2019ll work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dave Hill, guitar: <\/strong>Nod had a few beers and wrote the lyrics one night in his mum\u2019s front room and his capture of humour on that song is so typical of what Christmas is like in this country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>We took it to the band and rehearsed it, but they weren\u2019t sure. Nobody really did Christmas songs then. Lennon had done one the year before, but he was Lennon. Little did we know that that year Wizzard were doing one and so was Elton John. But we played it to Chas Chandler [manager and producer] and he loved it. He said Polydor will be over the moon, but we won\u2019t tell them we\u2019re doing it until we\u2019ve finished it, we\u2019ll just tell them we\u2019ve got a new record. At this point, July \u201973, Don [Powell] had his bad car crash and was in hospital for six weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don Powell, drums: <\/strong>We were No 1 with \u201cSkweeze Me Pleeze Me\u201d and I had the crash. I don\u2019t remember what happened at all. In 1974, I went to see a brain specialist and he said I\u2019ll never remember what happened, the brain had just switched off before the accident. He said \u201cWhat do you want to remember for, anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>Don couldn\u2019t play and his memory was shot so we took him to America to teach him to play again \u2013 people thought he\u2019d never play drums again. It was very difficult for the next few years with Don. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Powell: <\/strong>I could still play the drums, but I couldn\u2019t remember any of the songs. On our first rehearsal back we played \u201cCum On Feel The Noize\u201d and I had to ask how the song went. I remember once playing \u201cMerry Xmas\u2026\u201d as an encore and I had to ask the others to sing it to me so I could remember how it went. It was very strange at the time, with the amnesia. But they didn\u2019t treat me that different, I had to fend for myself which was better than having everything done for me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>We went to record it in America. We put it down, and we had to record it in a way we\u2019d never recorded before. We\u2019d always gone in the studio and played a song straight through. We\u2019d then do a bit of overdubbing at the end, but it was essentially a live take and usually the vocals were live as well. But with \u201cMerry Xmas\u2026\u201d, because of Don\u2019s memory, he couldn\u2019t get through a whole take, he\u2019d forget what he was playing halfway through. So for the first time we had to record in layers, like other bands did. We put a basic take down but the only thing I think that is live from the original take is the bass drum. We then overdubbed everything bit by bit. Fuck, it took a long time! We had to get the feel of it, it wasn\u2019t a typical Slade song, but it took shape.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Powell: <\/strong>We were in America and had a week free so Chas sent us into the studio and \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d was one of the songs. I was struggling to remember things and at the time Nod would sing vocals over a live backing track, but this time Nod had to show cues to me while he was singing so I knew what was happening. If you listen to it very closely there\u2019s one drumbeat at the very end where I just forget to stop. You can hear it right at the end, one extra faint drumbeat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lea: <\/strong>It was the first song we ever multilayered. Normally Chas would book two weeks in the studio and we\u2019d just go in without rehearsing and teach ourselves. But Don had his accident and was looking round bewildered, and there was something about the ragtag sound of it that was really good.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>Chas loved singers and if you listen to the recording it was all about the singer. When he recorded, he built everything around the singer. A lot of producers didn\u2019t think that way and it led to a few barneys in the studio. Chas was bombastic and ruled with a rod of iron, but he was open to suggestions and always willing to have a listen. He was music mad, he wasn\u2019t just a money man. He\u2019d been in a band and then managed and produced Hendrix, and we got the benefit of all that experience. He knew what he was doing and we learnt a lot from him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Powell: <\/strong>We recorded it at the Record Plant in New York where Lennon was always recording. There was a heatwave outside and we were singing about Christmas \u2013 we got some strange looks on the American engineers\u2019 faces, I can tell you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hill:<\/strong> We went out in the corridor to get the echo and give the impression of a singalong, and all these Americans were walking past in their suits thinking we were off our rockers singing about Christmas in the summer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>Lennon was in the next studio and we actually borrowed his harmonium to play the opening chords. Those first notes are on Lennon\u2019s harmonium.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Powell: <\/strong>It must be the same with many artists, \u2019cos we finished recording it but were a bit unsure about releasing it. But Chas said I don\u2019t care what you think, this is coming out this Christmas and it will be No 1. We thought it was a bit namby-pamby, we just weren\u2019t sure at all. But we were proved wrong by Chas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>Chas loved it and took it back to the UK while we went on tour. He didn\u2019t warn them but just played it in the office in front of the marketing men and they loved it, they flipped. They had no idea we were going to bring them a Christmas record and they were over the moon, cock a hoop. We\u2019d already had \u201cCum On Feel The Noize\u201d go straight to No 1 on the first day of release, same with \u201cSkweeze Me Pleeze Me\u201d. \u201cMy Friend Stan\u201d was meant to be a stopgap but had done well and then we gave them this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hill: <\/strong>I wasn\u2019t sure about it at first. It was being recorded in summer and we weren\u2019t thinking about Christmas. So we put it to one side and then in November it suddenly sounded different. The weather was changing, it just sounded different. I was in Belgium with Jim and our wives and we had a drink with a guy from the record company and he said he thought it was terrific, he really had a feeling about it. And you\u2019re sitting there and you could hear what he meant. I started to get a tingle down my back. It suddenly made sense. The atmosphere was gelling around it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>We knew it was going to be a hit, but we never guessed it would be as big as it was. It had a life of its own. We went straight to No 1. We sold more than 500,000 on pre-orders, on the first day of re-orders we sold another 400,000 and it went on to do a million over two weeks. It was No 1 until the end of January.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hill: <\/strong>My strong memory is Chas rang me and his first words were, \u201cAre you sitting down, man?\u201d Then he told me how many it had sold in one day. It was phenomenal. They had to press records in Germany because they couldn\u2019t do enough in England. You\u2019ll never see those sorts of figures now for a single. It was just everywhere. There\u2019s nothing more powerful than a great idea when it\u2019s time had arrived. And we were a band with a great idea and its time had arrived.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Powell: <\/strong>No matter where you went, you heard it. You\u2019d be in the supermarket paying for groceries and the girl would be singing it as you handed over the money, or you\u2019d be in a lift and it would come on and everybody in the elevator would start humming. It\u2019s still like that! It\u2019s not quite a rod for our own back, I\u2019m proud of these records, but I\u2019m amazed it\u2019s still being played.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hill: <\/strong>Each year it gathers new momentum. I\u2019m always being approached by kids asking for my autograph saying I\u2019m that \u201cMerry Xmas bloke\u201d. We had some great songs, some amazing No 1s, but that song will always be the one people remember.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holder: <\/strong>Now it\u2019s the only song people think we ever did. It\u2019s had a life of its own and it helps sustain the band\u2019s product and back catalogue. It\u2019s kept us afloat in many ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lea: <\/strong>Talk about a pension\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>This article originally appeared in Uncut\u2019s January 2013 issue (Take 188)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncut.co.uk\/features\/the-making-of-slade-s-merry-xmas-everybody-14242\/\">The Making Of Slade\u2019s \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncut.co.uk\/\">UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slade\u2019s \u201cMerry Xmas Everybody\u201d might not be the first Christmas song, it might not even be the best Christmas song, but it\u2019s surely one of the most important, the most&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,35,4797],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-interviews","category-slade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}