"Merry Christmas Everyone" is a festive song recorded by Welsh singer-songwriter

Shakin' Stevens Michael Barratt (born 4 March 1948), known professionally as Shakin' Stevens, is a Welsh singer and songwriter. He was the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s. His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, althoug ...

. Written by

Bob Heatlie Bob Heatlie (born 1946) is a Scottish songwriter and record producer who has collaborated with many music acts, both bands and solo artists. He has also been successful in producing musical scores of television entertainment series. Biography ...

and produced by

Dave Edmunds David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always ...

, it is the fourth and to date last number one single for Shakin' Stevens on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. It was released on 25 November 1985 and was the Christmas number one for that year. Ever since it has been included on many top-selling Christmas collections and received frequent airplay every Christmas. In 2007, the song re-entered the UK top 30 and reached number 22 on the Christmas chart. This is because

downloads In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

are now included in the

; whereas in past years this would have been impossible unless there was a physical

re-release In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New audio formats Rec ...

of the song. From 2007 to 2017, the song charted in the UK at peak positions 22, 36, 47, 68, 42, 46, 54, 38, 26, 17 and 10. Originally only in the chart for eight weeks, it has since amassed over 70. In December 2018 it reached No. 9 in the UK chart, its highest position since 1985. In both December 2019 and December 2020, it did even better still, reaching No. 6 in the UK chart on both occasions.

Background

"Merry Christmas Everyone" was recorded in 1984. Its original planned release was put back by a year to avoid clashing with the runaway success of Band Aid's charity single " Do They Know It's Christmas?", to which Stevens did not contribute.

Music video

The video shows a young girl named Samantha traveling by plane to a place called Santaworld where she meets up with Stevens who met her on a bus going to the place. Stevens is then seen riding with a woman dressed as an elf in a sleigh pulled by a horse and is taken to meet

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

before going to a replica of Santa's workshop where children are seen playing with toys before going out with Santa on the sleigh and joins in a snowball fight with some other children and ends up hitting a snowman who starts to chase him. At the end of the video, Stevens is seen bidding farewell to Santa, the snowman and the children before going back into the sleigh with the woman. Filmed in Sweden the children included Shaky's son, daughter, their friends including Shaky's drummers; daughter the actor, Sarah J Price (in her first role) and competition winner Jeremy Cartwright who was holidaying in Wales prior to filming and can be seen sledging at speed down a hill.

Track listing

UK 7-inch single

# "Merry Christmas Everyone" (

) – 3:39 # "With My Heart" ( Bruce Roberts / Darrell Edwards /

) – 2:45

UK 12-inch single

# "Merry Christmas Everyone" Extended Version (Bob Heatlie) – 4:17 # " Blue Christmas" (Billy Hayes / Jay W. Johnson) – 2:45 # "With My Heart" (Bruce Roberts / Darrell Edwards / Shakin' Stevens) – 2:45

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

"Echoes of Merry Christmas Everyone" (2015)

In time for Christmas 2015, Shakin' Stevens released a new version of the song as a charity single in collaboration with

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...

. It is a completely revamped version with folk and bluegrass influences and prominent use of banjo. The single was available as a download starting December 2015 with all proceeds going to The Salvation Army. The 2015 single did not chart on the UK Top 100, although the original by Shakin' Stevens made it to number 26 on the UK Top 100 Chart published on Christmas week.

The Celebs version

In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, a supergroup known as

the Celebs The Celebs are a celebrity supergroup created by Grahame and Jack Corbyn with the intention of raising money for charity. The group was formed in 2018 and consists of a changing mix of TV presenters, musicians, radio DJs, actors and sports pers ...

, which included

Laura Tobin Laura Elizabeth Tobin FRMS (born 10 October 1981) is an English broadcast meteorologist, currently employed by ITV. Tobin worked for the BBC before moving to the ITV Breakfast programme '' Daybreak'' in 2012. ''Daybreak'' was later replaced b ...

, Richard Arnold,

Frank Bruno Franklin Roy Bruno, (born 16 November 1961) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1996. He had a highly publicised and eventful career, both in and out of the ring. The pinnacle of Bruno's boxing career was winning ...

, ''The X Factor'' winner Sam Bailey and others, recorded a new rendition of "Merry Christmas Everyone" to raise money for both the

Alzheimer's Society Alzheimer's Society is a United Kingdom care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers. It operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while its sister charitieAlzheimer Scotlandand Alzheimer's Society of Ireland cover ...

and

Action for Children Action for Children (formerly National Children's Home) is a UK children's charity created to help vulnerable children & young people and their families in the UK. The charity has 7,000 staff and volunteers who operate over 475 services in the ...

. It was released digitally on 11 December 2020, on independent record label Saga Entertainment. The music video debuted exclusively on '' Good Morning Britain'' the day before release.

References

{{authority control 1985 singles 1985 songs Shakin' Stevens songs UK Singles Chart number-one singles British Christmas songs Songs written by Bob Heatlie Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom