Merry Christmas Everyone

Year: 1980

Written By: Bob Heatlie

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The 1980's Christmas festive classic, 'Merry Christmas Everyone' was an extremely successful and much loved song by platinum selling rock and roll sensation Shakin' Stevens (real name is Michael Barratt). This Christmas hit was Shakin' Stevens most recent UK number one to date. 'Merry Christmas Everyone' was produced by Dave Edmunds and written by Bob Heatlie.

Although written in 1984, the decision was taken to postpone releasing the single until the Christmas of 1985. This was a cheeky yet very well thought out decision which proved to work perfectly. This decision was taken as so 'Merry Christmas Everyone' would not have to fight for both sales and the Christmas number one spot with main contender and eventual 1984 Christmas number one, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid. Chances of becoming number one would have been limited due to the huge media interest in the Band Aid charity single which was to help produce aid in Ethiopia. The decision to hold back the single for a year because of this ultimately proved to be the correct decision, and most likely the more profitable decision.

When the Welsh rock and roll artist eventually released 'Merry Christmas Everyone' in the December of 1985, the Christmas song had immediate success becoming UK number one, and to add to this, the song managed to achieve its ultimate goal which was to become Christmas number one. As well as this, the song reached a peak position of number three in the Irish Singles Chart.

The music video for this song is filmed in a typical Christmas environment (snowy background) with Shakin' Stevens singing in a variety of places while dressed up warmly. During the video, Shakin' Stevens is seen being pulled on a sleigh and featuring in a snowball fight with children where he falls on the floor during it. He also greets and says goodbye to Santa Claus in the music video.

Being considered one of the best Christmas festive songs ever, 'Merry Christmas Everyone' will consistently feature on Christmas compilation albums and always have maximum air time on both radio and television music channels. The success of the song is obvious and can be demonstrated through looking at recent UK Chart statistics, featuring in the top 100 from 2007 (number 22), 2008 (number 36), 2009 (number 49) and most recently in 2010 (number 73).