"There's No One Quite Like Grandma" is a song by the

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

-based

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

choir

St Winifred's School Choir St Winifred's School Choir, from St Winifred's Roman Catholic Primary School in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, was a choir of children whose single entitled "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" in 1980 became that year's British Christma ...

, released as a single in November 1980. It was number-one on the UK Singles Chart from 21 December 1980 to 3 January 1981. The song was written by Gordon Lorenz, recorded at

10cc 10cc are an English rock music, rock band formed in Stockport, southeast of Manchester, in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians, Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who had written and recorded togethe ...

Strawberry Studios Strawberry Studios was a recording studio in Stockport, historically in Cheshire, now within Greater Manchester, England. Founded in 1968, it operated until the early 1990s. Strawberry Studios was used by a range of artists including the Ramones ...

in Stockport and features

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist and composer best known as a member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his prolific solo career. AllMusic describes Wakema ...

on keyboards. The song was the 1980 Christmas number-one single in both the UK and Ireland. In the UK, it demoted

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

's last single, "

(Just Like) Starting Over "(Just Like) Starting Over" is a song written and performed by John Lennon from the 1980 album, '' Double Fantasy''. It was released as a single on 24 October 1980 in the United Kingdom, with Yoko Ono's " Kiss Kiss Kiss" as the B-side. It reac ...

", to number two. After two weeks at number one, a previous Lennon song, "

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

", replaced it. This was a posthumous release as Lennon had been killed three weeks prior. Another song that "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" prevented from reaching number one was "

Stop the Cavalry "Stop the Cavalry" is an anti-war song and a Christmas song written and performed by English musician Jona Lewie, released in 1980. The song peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart in December 1980, at one point being kept from number on ...

" by

Jona Lewie Jona Lewie (born John Lewis; 14 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his 1980 UK hits "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties" and "Stop the Cavalry". Career Early career Jona Lewie ...

, which has since become a Christmas favourite in the UK that finished at number three on the Christmas chart. More recently, the song was used within the one-off

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

comedy by

Peter Kay Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. Born and raised in Farnworth, Kay studied media performance at the University of Salford and later began working part-time as a stand-up comedian. In 199 ...

called '' Britain's Got the Pop Factor...'', which had

Sally Lindsay Sally Jane Lindsay (born 8 July 1973) is an English actress and television presenter. She rose to fame playing Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2001–2006). Her other roles include Lisa Johnson in the Sky ...

, who was in the original choir of the song, in a cameo role. Furthermore, an extract of the song is always used in the "Granny Brainiac" segment in Series 3 of the

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

TV show '' Brainiac: Science Abuse''. In October 2009, the song was re-recorded by 14 members of the original choir. It was released in the UK in November 2009 as part of food company

Innocent Drinks Innocent Limited, trading as Innocent Drinks, is a United Kingdom, British-based company that produces smoothies and juice sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets. The company sells more than two million smoothies per week. ...

' "Big Knit" campaign, to raise money for

Age Concern Age Concern is the banner title used by several charitable organisations specifically concerned with the needs and interests of all older people (defined as those over the age of 50) based chiefly in the four countries of the United Kingdom. I ...

. The song was covered by Leilah and Jeordie (daughters of

Melanie Safka Melanie Anne Safka Schekeryk (February 3, 1947 – January 23, 2024), professionally known as Melanie or Melanie Safka, was an American singer-songwriter. Melanie is widely known for the 1971–72 global hit " Brand New Key", her 1970 version o ...

) in 1981, and this version charted on the Canadian singles chart at No. 27 in January 1982.

References

1980 songs 1980 singles UK singles chart number-one singles Songs about old age Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom Music for Pleasure (record label) singles {{1980s-pop-song-stub