Shakin' Stevens

Shakin' Stevens

By this point of the holiday season, we’ve all listened to an ear-bleeding quantity of holiday songs. They’ve been pumped unrelentingly into every public mall for ages, and by now they all sound the same, merging into the annual aural saccharine lump. Is there really a festive formula, a recipe reserved for yuletide consumption? If you’re planning to try to hit the charts at Christmas, we suggest you pick at least five from the following: A hefty sprinkling of the words "Christmas," "snow," "children" and "love"; abundant application of cloying sentiment and cliché; a relentlessly upbeat or somewhat depressing mood (nothing in-between); the lively clatter of sleigh bells; a simple melody which begs for multiple cover versions; another explanation of the real, true, fundamental meaning of Christmas; and, of course, a key change, for when you run out of ideas near the end. We think Shakin' Stevens has already achieved perfection with his 100% pure concentrated Yuletide hit from 1985: “Merry Christmas Everyone” indeed.