I Built My Dreams Around You

Let's be honest, the pogues' 'fairytale of new york' just has to be the best christmas song ever.

Partly in that it's not really necessarily your typical 'christmas song' - it's set at christmas but it's still brilliant at any time, unlike, perhaps, songs like wham's 'last christmas,' which are brought out and dusted off just once a year, which is probably a damn good thing....

ah, I listened to it about 3 times on repeat on the train home from London this evening. I was supposed to go ice-skating today but due to falling down some stairs (and then falling again in the street) and screwing up my ankle last thursday night i wasn't really in a fit state to don the skates and hit the ice... so I was designated cameraman for the team. I'm pretty sure I got frostbite.. stupid fingerless gloves... mutter mutter...

Here's 'fairytale of new york' live from 1988...

This year a couple of cover versions were done on the radio.

It's not a song to cover lightly... You just cannot mess with this one...

Here's Paloma Faith and Roy Stride's version....

The choir's a bit cringe, but I think this version's quite good,

not a patch on the original, obviously.

I have a soft spot for Paloma - she has an incredible voice, not really shown off here...

And to give him his due, Roy doesn't do as badly as I assumed he would,

when I heard he was from scouting for girls...!

And this one is Billy Bragg and Florence Welch.

Billy is amazing... I love that man... He just seems so sincere.

And obviously I have exalted my love for Flo before, so a good combo in my book.

I also like the way they've made it their own by having harp (typically florence)

and guitar (ol' billy) as accompaniment.

1 criticism is that Flo could perhaps sound like she cared a bit more,

in the 'you scumbag, you maggot' verse!!

Kirsty Macoll just made it come alive when she sang it.

So, I've got a lot of love for this song!!

My favourite line is 'I could have been someone, well so could anyone'

Not really sure why; that response, I just love it, and the way Kirsty sings it.