It’s back! Today is 1st December, which means our Christmas Song Advent Calendar is back for 2018. Once again, we bring you a Christmas song each day in the form of a blog and a handy little Spotify playlist for you to follow each day in the run up to Christmas to really get you feeling festive.
So without any ado, let’s see who we’ve got to kick off proceedings this year…
- ARTIST: The Darkness
- SONG: Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)
The race to be the number one single in the UK on the chart before or on 25th December is hotly contested. And for that reason, it can sometimes be a surprising mistress. Just ask Great Yarmouth’s finest rockers The Darkness, who, fresh from their success with their debut album in 2003, decided to have an attempt at that year’s title with this.
A rollicking, jingle bell and guitar solo clad hark back to the 70s Christmas evergreens from Wizzard and Slade, ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’ was locked in an intense battle for the top spot that year, leading the way all week, until they succumbed at the last to the lovely if unfestive take on Tears For Fears’ classic ‘Mad World’, performed by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to indie flick Donnie Darko.
As with much of Justin Hawkins and co’s career since, it’s often held in the same regard as Babylon Zoo and Terence Trent D’Arby. But to that we say piffle. For ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’ is nothing less than an underrated modern Yuletide gem.
Don’t forget to follow our Christmas Song Advent Calendar playlist for this year on Spotify so you never miss a new song as it goes up. Plus you can comment or Tweet us with your thoughts on each entry using the hashtag #ChristmasSongAdventCalendar!
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