Kill or Save: Christmas Special 2023

[Toast 16,231]

14 minutes ago, Drewsky1211 said:

13 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York +4

11 Greg Lake — I Believe in Father Christmas

9 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles -6

 

This is going to come down to timing and chance.

Realistically there are three winners.

[TQR 14,451]

10 minutes ago, Toast said:

This is going to come down to timing and chance.

Realistically there are three winners.

 

But in actuality, there'll only be one. So those who feel strongly either way, be ready.

[MortalCaso 1,640]

12/21/23 

 

13 Greg Lake — I Believe in Father Christmas +2

11 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles +2

7 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  -6

[TQR 14,451]

This is the closest KoS final to date!

 

Also...in the mid-week UK charts yesterday, The Pogues were at #5, The Pretenders at #57 and, outrageously, Greg Lake isn't even in the top 100 so it's good to see him well in the running here.

[diego 2,005]

12/21/23 

 

13 Greg Lake — I Believe in Father Christmas 

11 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  +4

5 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles -6

[BuffaloPhil 949]

21st December

 

9 Greg Lake — I Believe in Father Christmas -4

9 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  -2

9 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles +4

 

[Toast 16,231]

See!  We should leave it there, none of them deserves to lose.

[TQR 14,451]

Fri 22 Dec

 

13 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles +4

6 Greg Lake — I Believe in Father Christmas -3

6 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York -3

[AstroKat 576]

Fri 22 Dec

 

 

 

13 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles 

10 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York +4

 

0 Greg Lake — I Believe in Father Christmas -6

 

Sorry @Sir Creep

[Toast 16,231]

Fri 22 Dec

 

Don't really want to do this, but -

 

14 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  +4

07 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles  -6

[TQR 14,451]

5 minutes ago, Toast said:

Fri 22 Dec

 

Don't really want to do this, but -

 

14 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  +4

07 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles  -6

It’s funny you should say that cos I didn’t want you to do that either.

[wannamaker 1,435]

22/12/23

 

18 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  +4

01 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles  -6

[Sir Creep 7,071]

.

[Sir Creep 7,071]

21/12/23 9:35pm

 

22 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York +4

 

00 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles -1

 

FTR mentioning the word ‘Christmas’ in your lyrics does not a Christmas song make.  Everyone owned Learning to Crawl and I never listened to it and thought ‘oh isn’t that a lovely Christmas song’.  Fine song though.  Great album.

I voted the Pogues all along cuz I enjoy it.  Is it the best Christmas song?  Unlikely.  The old classics are but y’all voted them off one by one.  
Also FTR I admit it’s obtuse but my favourite song of the season is Sleigh Ride - but just the instrumental version by the Boston Pops Orchestra.  Words were never a part of the Leroy Anderson composition and I find them unnecessary (apologies to The Ronettes and Johnny Mathis.)

 

 

[Bibliogryphon 9,639]

I suppose this was a foregone conclusion 

[TQR 14,451]

Well, after three weeks of tinsel, turbulence, truculence and tribulation, that’s that settled. Sometimes the obvious answer just stands. Damn it was close, but there’s no debate now: the best Christmas song in the world ever is…Fairytale of New York! That was an intense final; all 12 utterly joyous songs deserved to be up there. FONY sits pretty at the top of the tree, but give a big hand an appreciative listen to our finalists:

 

12 Songs of Christmas

The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York

The Pretenders — 2000 Miles

Greg Lake — I Believe In Father Christmas

Wizzard — I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day

Brenda Lee — Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree

Andy Williams — It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

The Ronettes — Sleigh Ride

Bobby Helms — Jingle Bell Rock

Wham! — Last Christmas

Kate Bush — December Will Be Magic Again

Bing Crosby — White Christmas

Jona Lewie — Stop The Cavalry

 

 

Oh, and let’s have a look at the worst 12 too while we’re at it:

 

Naughty List:

Cliff Richard — Mistletoe & Wine

Justin Bieber — Mistletoe

Paul McCartney — Wonderful Christmastime

Ariana Grande — Santa Tell Me

Michael Buble — Jingle Bells

Ed Sheeran & Elton John — Merry Christmas

Johnny Mathis — When A Child Is Born

Mariah Carey — All I Want For Christmas Is You

Mud — Lonely This Christmas

Slade — Merry Xmas Everybody

Bob Dylan — Must Be Santa

Band Aid — Do They Know It’s Christmas

 

 

Congratulations are in order to, who else, our perennial Killer Queen @theoldlady, for channeling her Christmas spirit into eviscerating the list to within an inch of its life. Her good work is the reason why we finished the game in time. LadyFiona, GUN, DI, Joey and RoverAndOut played their fair part too, as of course did our assist angels: me, lilham, Toast and DI (again).

 

This is how we managed to get from 69 songs down to 1:

 

Kills:

theoldlady - 12

LadyFiona - 6

Grim Up North - 5

Death Impends - 5

Joey Russ - 5

RoverAndOut - 5

justonecornetto - 4

Sir Creep - 4

lilham - 3

Drewsky - 3

Toast - 3

QUOTA - 3

TQR - 2

Paul Bearer - 2

Bibliogryphon - 2

Youth In Asia - 1

MortalCaso - 1

AstroKat - 1

 

Assists:

TQR - 8

lilham - 6

Toast - 5

Death Impends - 5

Drewsky - 4

theoldlady - 4

BuffaloPhil - 4

wannamaker - 4

Book - 3

Great Uncle Bulgaria - 3

RoverAndOut - 3

Joey Russ - 3

Grim Up North - 2

Clorox Bleachman - 2

Paul Bearer - 2

justonecornetto - 2

time - 1

Bibliogryphon - 1

MortalCaso - 1

Diego - 1

 

 

Thanks all for participating, this has been huge fun and has helped enormously with getting in the Christmas spirit. We’ll be back for another run next year, though of course in the meantime there’s the usual KoS action which you’re all more than welcome to join in with if you don’t already. There’s never a dull moment.

 

All that's left to do now is let our winner (RIP Shane & Kirsty) play us out.

 

 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

[RoverAndOut 4,754]

On 21/12/2023 at 07:53, RoverAndOut said:

This game is wild! Songs swinging from top to bottom all over the place. Think we all know where the consensus winner is going to come from though...

 

Went the way I expected, but at 9-9-9 last night, I did have a few doubts!

 

Congrats to the winner- I hope it brings his family some comfort in lieu of the Christmas #1! 

[Toast 16,231]

The Pretenders would probably have won if Diego hadn't been playing. 

Just saying. 

[TQR 14,451]

12 hours ago, Toast said:

Fri 22 Dec

 

Don't really want to do this, but -

 

14 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  +4

07 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles  -6

 

1 hour ago, Toast said:

The Pretenders would probably have won if Diego hadn't been playing. 

Just saying. 

Just to be clear, it’s almost entirely your fault 

[time 8,672]

 

1 hour ago, Toast said:

The Pretenders would probably have won if Diego hadn't been playing. 

Just saying. 

Not if I'd been playing 

[Sir Creep 7,071]

1 hour ago, Toast said:

The Pretenders would probably have won if Diego hadn't been playing. 

Just saying. 

I never downvoted it (iirc) until the final point.  Had it been flirting with the top spot I’d have come after it for the reason I stated; to wit, it may not have belonged in the competition at all.  But since it was kept at bay enough by others I just voted elsewhere. 

[BuffaloPhil 949]

Very happy with the top 3, and really had no preference between them. Nice way to remember Shane though.

[Toast 16,231]

4 hours ago, BuffaloPhil said:

Very happy with the top 3, and really had no preference between them. Nice way to remember Shane though.

 

Same.  Interesting that none of them are happy-happy Christmas songs.  All have a bit of melancholy in there somewhere.

[lilham 764]

The Pretenders "2000 Miles" is my karaoke Xmas song; that's why it was my pick.

But nice to see Fairytale win: I am pretty sure it was close to elimination a few times.

I think Mariah Carey would have been a finalist if I played with my friends; funny it went out so early here.

Of traditional songs, I like Silent Night but it wasn't on the list.

[Bibliogryphon 9,639]

On 22/12/2023 at 19:51, lilham said:

, I like Silent Night but it wasn't on the list.

 

Maybe for 2024 we could run a Christmas Carols version