Lopez Blogs

I've had such a busy week that i'm not sure i'm caught up on everything enough to do a decent blog today! So I had a quick butchers at last years blogs to see what I was getting up to while I impatiently waited until it was feasible enough to start doing all the new Christmas music reviews (I'm giving at least one more week). And keeping with, but not quite, the festive spirit I was having a gander at what songs should be Christmas singles for todays popstars (none of them were. Bah. No one ever listens to me. So I present some songs that absolutely should be the big Christmas single promotional push for artists. But won't be...

THE CHRISTMAS CHART THAT WON'T BE...

• Jason Donovan ~ When You Come Back To Me (Yuletide Sleigh Mix): Should absolutely be rereleased to not only celebrate his new covers album I Love The 80s but also his brillo double cd rerelease of Between The Lines. It's as festive and jolly as you remember, but this lesser heard version has a entirely seasonal talky bit at the beginning which is as cheesy but delicious as some festive stilton. ESSENTIAL!
• Joe McElderry ~ Someone Wake Me Up/There's A Place For Us : Mercifully, this is the second single from Joe's album and is released the week before whatever cover version Simon foists upon this year's X Factor winner. It's the perfect chirpy follow up to Ambitions, but to give it some extra welly, it totally needs to be a double A side with the rather lovely traditional ballad from the new Narnia film (performed by EMD here).
• Bjorn Johan Muri ft Kelly Mueller ~ Nobody Knows: In a perfect world, Bjorn would have had some sizeable hits in the UK now with Yes Man and Once Upon A Time. But whoever said this world was perfect? This sparse, electro-tinged and slightly haunting but very pretty and melodic ballad duet would light up the ending of any Christmas party while drunken, ill-matched couples smooch away in their corner and cop a good feel. Lovely.
• Maroon 5 ~ Never Gonna Leave This Bed: What has gone wrong with the Hands All Over campaign? It's sort of fizzled out in the UK and the lovely Adam and his gang need something that's a bit familiar, a bit warm and a bit catchy to get it back on track. This radio friendly, singalong track would be perfect. How about some cozy hotel room ski lodge style video with a nice roaring fire to make it a bit more "tis the season"...Ta.
• Scissor Sisters ~ Sex and Violence: See above about latest Maroon 5 album campaign? Ditto the Scissters. Bah humbug I say, bah humbugger. Every Christmas needs a song that is so wonderfully not festive and such an antithesis to all the sleighbells and good tidings - this dark, disco tinged creation is just that and so exquisitely dangerous. Play loud.
• Le Kid ~ We Should Go Home Together: It's perhaps the perkiest pop song you've heard in the longest time - sort of a mix between Alphabeat's 10,000 Nights of Thunder and Britannia High's perennially amazing Start of Something (exuberant live version of course). Just the sort of skip along with happiness that you need when you've been splashed from head to toe by a bus driving through a slushy puddle. and need cheering up (yes this was my walk home from work)...
• Elouise ~ Massive Christmas song: That's not the title of the song of course but I need a nice festive single and while Bananarama and Mariah are doing that quite wonderfully (see chart below), I think Elouise could clean up with a rather heavenly Christmas album - all class and none of that shouty wailing that Mercedes is doing all over the Glee Christmas album. Give her an elegant version of As Long As There's Christmas and pair it with a heartbreaking ballad such as Deborah Gibson's Christmas Without You. There won't be a dry eye in the house...
• X Factor Finalists ~ All I Need Is You: Tragically this will never happen. Britain gets a dodgy cover of David Bowie's Heroes. I still maintain that Hotel Rival's Second Best To None should be the perfect X Factor finalists single that would linger in the charts for weeks. Swedish Idol has done the next best thing by putting out this gorgeously optimistic and uplifting tune. Just imagine how brillo this would be with Wagner doing a line, Nicolo Ford Fiesta being all bitter and Cher(yl)Clone being all rap-esque like Lady Sovereign in the middle somehow. It would be top ten for weeks.
• X Factor Winner ~ My Heart Is Yours/Story Of A Heart: How about being a bit daring and having a great double A side winners single like the glory (hole) days of William of Young?! One side could be the eurovision entry for Norway this year originally sung by the devillishly goodlooking Didrik Solli-Tang and the other side could be the yearning beauty of Benny Andersson Band's Story Of A Heart. Both epic. Both not v well known in the UK. And if they are too sweeping, the winner (aka Matt) can always do an acoustic version with some nice soprano here and there...

21 ~ Joe McElderry, Someone Wake Me Up (NE)
20 ~ Joe McElderry, Ambitions
19 ~ Grobbie, Shame
18 ~ Darin, Drowning
17 ~ Eric Saade, Break of Dawn
16 ~ Kylie, Better Than Today (NE)
15 ~ Ola, Riot
14 ~ A1, In Love & I Hate It
13 ~ Jessie J, Price Tag (VID)
12 ~ Robbie Williams, Heart & I
11 ~ Le Kid, We Should Go Home Together
10 ~ JLS, Love You More
09 ~ Westlife, Safe
08 ~ McFly, Shine A Light
07 ~ EMD, What Is Love?
06 ~ P!nk, Raise Your Glass
05 ~ Deborah Gibson, I Love You
04 ~ Andrea Lewis ft Simon Curtis, Talk To Me
03 ~ Shayne Ward, Gotta Be Somebody
02 ~ Take That, The Flood
01 ~ Gravitonas, You Break Me Up (2 weeks)

Christmas singles chart (full version coming next week) ~ 3 - Annie Lennox, Universal Child; 2 - Mariah Carey, Oh Santa; 1 - Bananarama, Baby It's Christmas (1 week)