How Shane MacGowan and the Pogues turned ‘Fairytale of New York’ into a holiday classic
nypost.comwho died at 65 early Thursday — the story behind his band’s Christmas-in-the-drunk-tank classic “Fairytale of New York” began with Elvis Costello.The “Alison” singer was the Pogues’ producer at the time, and he bet the band that they couldn’t write a hit holiday single.But MacGowan and Pogues banjo player Jem Finer would prove Costello wrong after writing “Fairytale of New York” — the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK — in 1985.Finer came up with the melody and original concept for the song, which was initially about a homesick sailor on Ireland’s West Coast.
But Finer’s wife suggested changing up the lyrics to be a conversation between a couple at Christmas.Then the notoriously hard-drinking MacGowan took it from there and transformed it into the Broadway-style tinsel tune we know today.“I sat down, opened the sherry, got the peanuts out and pretended it was Christmas,” he told Melody Maker in 1985.“It’s quite sloppy ….
like a country and Irish ballad, but one you can do a brisk waltz to, especially when you’ve got about three of these [drinks] inside you.”The song — taking its title from J.P.
Donleavy’s 1973 novel “A Fairy Tale of New York,” which Finer was reading at the time — was first recorded in January 1986, with the Pogues’ then-bassist Cait O’Riordan singing the female part opposite MacGowan.After the Pogues first played New York in March 1986, MacGowan revised the lyrics to reflect the city’s Irish-American community — in a not-so-jolly way.“The song itself is quite depressing in the end,” he told Melody Maker.
Read more on nypost.com