1948 (1963)

Another Christmas song that technically isn’t a Christmas song because at no point do the lyrics mention Christmas at all.

American composer Leroy Anderson first had the idea for this piece of music back in 1946, during a heatwave in the middle of July, with the final composition being released in 1948. The lyrics were added two years later by Mitchell Parish and The Andrew Sisters became the first group to release the vocal version in 1950.

The song has been released by many different artists over the decades including this version from The Ronettes, who recorded it for the 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. It spent four weeks on the UK chart and peaked at number sixty-eight.

In 1996 the Spice Girls released their version as the B-Side to their Christmas number one 2 Become 1 whilst the S Club Juniors took the song to number 6 in the UK as the B-Side to Puppy Love in 2002.

I think I’ll stick with this version if you don’t mind.