Fairytale of New York (4:35)

Fairytale of New York” is a Christmas song by Anglo-Irish folk-rock group The Pogues, and featuring the British singer Kirsty MacColl. The song is an Irish folk style ballad, written by Jem Finer and Shane Macgowan, and featured on The Pogues’ album If I Should Fall from Grace with God. According to the Fairytale of New York Songfacts, this song was inspired by JP Donleavy’s 1961 novel of the same title. The author told The Daily Mail: “Technically I could have taken legal action for piracy but as I know Shane MacGowan - I believe his father is a fan of my work - I decided not to bother.”

The song features string arrangements by Fiachra Trench. It is frequently voted the Number One Best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The song featured in the hit film P.S. I Love You.

“Fairytale of New York” was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts, over Christmas (the time of peak sales). The song has become a festive classic in the UK and Ireland over the years, and was voted the best Christmas song of all time three years running in 2004, 2005 and 2006 in polls by music channel VH1 UK, despite not achieving Christmas Number One when it was released. It was also voted as the 27th greatest song never to reach UK#1 in another VH1 poll, and also voted as the 84th greatest song of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners in their “Sold on Song” top 100 poll.