Noddy Holder, the frontman of Slade, has revealed the “real” inspiration behind the band’s iconic Christmas number one, Merry Xmas Everybody.
The timeless festive hit was first released in 1973 and has been a winter staple worldwide ever since.
Despite generating around £500,000 annually, the single initially started as a “hippy-trippy thing” far removed from the renowned Christmas song it became.
Noddy, 77, who received the all-clear following an oesophageal cancer battle in 2018, confessed to writing the track in just a few hours while enjoying a drink in his childhood bedroom, according to the Mirror.
The English singer-songwriter disclosed that the song was penned years before its release but was later re-written to become a Christmas track.
Speaking to the Mirror previously, Noddy said: “The song that became Merry Xmas Everybody was written in 1967. It was a hippy-trippy thing and the chorus went: ‘So won’t you buy me a rocking chair to watch the world go by / Buy me a looking glass to look me in the eye-eye-eye.'”
He added that he reworked his original song in just two hours after pouring some whiskey, using the same music for the chorus but changing the words and adding verses.
Noddy explained that the transformation into a festive hit was due to his co-writer Jim Lea being challenged by his mother-in-law to write a Christmas song. About six years earlier, he’d penned a track called Buy Me A Rocking Chair – which had “gone straight in the bin”.
The 77-year-old shared with officialcharts.com his nostalgia-fuelled creative process for penning the ultimate Yuletide tune. Speaking about the enduring hit, he recounted: “I got it done in two or three hours; I just thought about everything that was to do with Christmas, a family Christmas.”
As he delved into his past, the songwriter revealed: “That brought back all the memories I had when I was a kid. All the lyrics were done in that one night, the middle eight and everything!”
His goal? To embody the essence of a “working class Christmas” in a song.
Upon its release by Polydor, the track shot to number one on December 15, reigning supreme for five weeks and has since been a seasonal staple, re-entering the top 100 every year since 2006. While Holder and Lea departed Slade in 1992, Hill and Powell carried on until a bitter split saw Powell claim that Hill canned him via a blunt email in 2020 after over five decades of friendship—a charge Hill refuted.
Nevertheless, Powell’s website announced: “Dave has sent Don a cold email to inform him that his services are no longer required, after working together and being friends since 1963.”
But fans can rejoice as Powell rebounds, now drum-ready and launching Don Powell’s Slade.
Reflecting on the band’s long-standing feuds, Noddy shared with the Daily Mail in 2015, Noddy said: “It saddens me that the four guys who were in Slade can’t get together and sit round the dinner table.”
He added: “Five years ago I got the four of us together to air our grievances, but it was too painful.”
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