Lopez Blogs

Hurrah! It is only 35 days until Christmas and therefore I feel totally legitimised to undertake some Christmas magic and start doing a whole host of Christmas lists to take us up until the big day! I know you are just as excited about this as I am and cannot wait to join in the festive spirit! Deck your halls! Roast your chestnuts! Get those lips puckered for the mistletoe!! I always like something as brilliantly deliriously amazing as Mean Girls doing Jingle Bell Rock (above) to kick off my Christmas Crazy so you all enjoy that while I compose my first list of essential festive feel gooders to persuade you over to my way of thinking! Oh! And read the comments for how to contribute to the online Christmas Card this year. It's going to be a doozy!

CHRISTMAS GOES POP, VOLUME ONE:

• Glee ~ Deck The Rooftop: One of the two saving graces on the Glee christmas album (the other makes a different list)is this medley of Deck The Halls and Up On The Rooftop - all set to a backing track that owes quite a lot to Beyonce's Single Ladies! It's perky, it's joyous, it's fun, it's catchy, it's like a sumptuously filled marks and spencers mince pie (not one of the cheap ones from Asda). Absolutely essential...Sue The Grinch airs when I'm in Florida too (Dec 7th). Amazes.
• Bananarama ~ Baby It's Christmas (above): I was lucky enough to give you a preview of what this sounds like a little while back and played it on Larry Flick's Morning Jolt yesterday. It's a hi-NRG, big beat, solid dance floor filler that is equal part tears on the dancefloor as it is hopeless optimism. A chorus that is more giving than Santa's sack, it beautifully complements the Viva era Bananarama and proves that they still have a knack of churning out absolutely brilliant tunes. So baby, just stop stop pulling my heartstrings...
• A*Teens ~ I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday: The turn of the new millenium saw a whole host of poptastic acts like A*Teens taking on festive faves with a whole new disco spin to them. The Swedish four piece give this Wizzard classic a dancefloor dressing down that will keep your candy canes spinning until new years... PS Christ on a trampoline, have you seen Dhani lately (scroll down! Thanks Scandipop!)
• Fast Food Rockers ~ I Love Christmas: It's all sorts of a travesty that the FFR didn't somehow manage to break out of their food themed debut. There is something deliciously melted cheesy about this song with it's snowy video and warming message. It should absolutely be my anthem.
• Girls Aloud ~ I Wanna Kiss You So: Bish bash bosh, whooo! You give me something that i never get from santa claus!! What else is there to say?! I always use this song to seduce Darren :)
• Kimberley Locke ~ We Need A Little Christmas: Mame the film is grossly underrated. This song from Mame is criminally overlooked. And Kimberley's definitive version of it from her entirely delightful Christmas album should be played loud and proud as you start to welcome those festive revellers who have come around to help you pop up your eco-sustainable Christmas tree. So good I can never listen once.
• Kylie ~ Santa Baby: There are many naughty, saucy, slutty and downright disgraceful versions of this track. Kylie manages to of course ooze the right amount of sex appeal while balancing it with a charmingly innocent and naive sounding vocal - almost like she doesn't know how foxy she is being. And seeing as this is circa the gold hot pants era, that's quite the achievement. Brava diva kylie, brava.
• Play ~ As Long As There's Christmas: Take the song from one of fave Disney spin offs ever (Beauty and the Beast: An Enchanted Christmas), give it a shuffling disco-swe-pop beat and I'm in jingle bell heaven. It's one of those ridiculously optimistic christmas singles that just makes you feel a little bit better knowing it exists. Or is that just me?
• Steps ~ Merry Christmas Everyone: Hurrah! Steps do Christmas! Well they did about 8 years ago, but it's still a giddy little treat. Essentially exactly the same as A*Teens did with I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday but with the Slade classic. The middle 8 manages to sound positively filthy somehow. What on earth were people getting upto under the mistletoe?!
• S Club Juniors ~ Sleigh Ride: I love Sleigh Ride and you can't really top the Debbie Gibson version from the early 90s, but this is just so enthusiastic and jolly that it makes want you to pop on bobble hat, scarf and those mittens that have the string that goes down your coat sleeves so you don't lose them! Roast those chestnuts!!
• S Club ~ Perfect Christmas: And finish off with one of the most beautiful yearning ballads that those slightly more mature S Clubbers did. Wasted as a b-side but I somehow manage to use the lyrics in Darren's Christmas card every single bloody year. He must be sick of it by now but the tradition will continue this year... Poor lad :P

Many more Christmas lists coming soon! And here's this week's festive top ten NEW Christmas songs... 10) Annie Lennox, Universal Child 09) Indigo Girls, I Feel The Christmas Spirit 08) Lady Antebellum, All I Want For Christmas Is You 07) Pink Martini, A Snowglobe Christmas 06) Wilson Phillips, Warm Loving Christmastime 05) The Puppini Sisters, Step Into Christmas 04) Sarah Dawn Finer, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 03) Mans Zelmerlow, December 02) Mariah Carey, Oh Santa 01) Bananarama, Baby It's Christmas (2 weeks)

Top 21 songs of the week:

21 ~ Robbie Williams, Heart & I
20 ~ Jessie J, Price Tag
19 ~ Joe McElderry, Wake Me Up
18 ~ Darin, Drowning
17 ~ Eric Saade, Break of Dawn
16 ~ Kylie, Better Than Today
15 ~ Ola, Riot
14 ~ A1, In Love & I Hate It
13 ~ McFly, Shine A Light
12 ~ Shayne Ward, Gotta Be Somebody
11 ~ Daniel Boys, To Make You Feel My Love (NE)
10 ~ Le Kid, We Should Go Home Together (VID)
09 ~ Westlife, Safe
08 ~ EMD, What Is Love
07 ~ JLS, Love You More
06 ~ P!nk, Raise Your Glass
05 ~ Deborah Gibson, I Love You
04 ~ Andrea Lewis & Simon Curtis, Talk To Me
03 ~ Elouise, You'll Never Walk Alone (NE)
02 ~ Take That, The Flood
01 ~ Gravitonas, You Break Me Up (3 weeks)