It’s the nation’s favourite festive anthem – beating out Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody  and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas in poll after poll. 

Among a catalogue of raucous hits, The Pogues’ 1987 Christmas melody Fairytale of New York struck a chord with the public and cemented the band’s place in rock and roll history.

The irreverent song, a folkesy homage to old New York, plays out a slanging match between an old couple – parts memorably sung by Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl – as Christmas Day approaches. 

As MacGowan’s death at 65 was announced today, it spelt heartbreak for millions of fans around the world who’ve serenaded to the tune each Christmas. 

But Fairytale of New York, crafted determinedly over two years through a haze of drink, gambling, excess and abuse, is itself a tale of unlikely success.

Singers Kirsty MacColl (1959 – 2000) and Shane MacGowan, whose death at 65 was announced today, with toy guns and an inflatable Santa as they promoted their hit Fairytale of New York in 1987

Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan, whose death was announced today, dance on stage during a life performance of Fairytale Of New York

The irreverent song, a folkesy homage to old New York, is the nation’s favourite festive anthem – beating out Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas in poll after poll

Fairytale of New York, crafted determinedly over two years through a haze of drink, gambling, excess and abuse, is itself a tale of unlikely success

Musician Kirsty MacColl and MacGowan pose together, each holding a toy gun with one hand and a Christmas cracker in the other over an inflatable Santa Claus in 1987 MacColl featured in the Pogues Christmas hit Fairytale of New York

News of his death was announced in a post on Instagram by his wife today (pictured)

Recollections differ over how the idea for recording the Christmas song came about.

MacGowan himself, when asked by The Guardian’s Dorian Lynskey, described a challenge set by Elvis Costello – who wagered he couldn’t write a Christmas duet to sing alongside The Pogues’ female bass player Cait O’Riordan.

But in his memoir, accordion player James Fearnley recalled that in the mid 1980s, the band’s manager Frank Murray had suggested The Pogues cover the Band’s 1977 song Christmas Must be Tonight. 

‘It was an awful song,’ Fearnley wrote. ‘We probably said, f*** that, we can do our own.’

Whichever story is true, by 1985, the band had committed to creating their own Christmas tune.

Banjo-player and co-writer Jem Finer described it as a ‘no brainer’ as The Pogues were ‘rooted in all kinds of traditions’.

But the band struggled to settle on a concept. Finer’s first thought – of a sailor missing his wife on Christmas Day – was dismissed as ‘corny’ by his own wife, Marcia Farquhar.

He recounted: ‘I said OK, you suggest a storyline and I’ll write another one. The basic plotline came from her: this idea of a couple falling on hard times and coming eventually to some redemption.’

Although the band was rumoured to have based the dialogue on a real-life married pair, MacGowan said: ‘Really, the story could apply to any couple who went anywhere and found themselves down on their luck.’

For two years, McGowan poured himself into composing the chorus and undulating verses of Fairytale of New York. Although he’d never visited New York by that point, he had a strong sense of what it meant to the Irish diaspora around the world. 

Another inspiration came from Ennio Morricone’s score for 1984 movie Once Upon In America, which follows 1940s mobsters in the Big Apple.

The first demo of the song was recorded in 1986, featuring bass player Cait O’Riordan singing the wife’s role, although the lyrics – ‘It was a wild Christmas Eve on the West coast of Clare,’ sings O’Riordan – were still being worked upon.

MacGowan recalled: ‘Every night I used to have another bash at nailing the lyrics, but I knew they weren’t right.’

At the time, the band hadn’t even decided on a title for the tune, with Costello suggesting Christmas Day in the Drunk Tank. Eventually they settled on Fairytale of new York, the title of Irish author JP Donleavy’s 1973 novel, who happily gave his permission for it to be used.

The band’s first visit to New York in 1986 exceeded MacGowan’s expectations, he recalled it was ‘a hundred times more exciting than we ever dreamed it could be’.

U2 producer Steve Lillywhite came on board to oversee the Pogues next album. Sessions at the RAK studio in London in 1987 went well and the band decided to finally pin down Fairytale. Finer set about finessing the strings and the piano intro for the song.

But the band faced another problem – O’Riordan had left The Pogues the previous year to marry Costello and there was no woman left to sing the female part.

Several candidates’ names were thrown into the ring- Chrissie Hynde, Suzi Quatro, before Lillywhite’s own wife, Kirsty MacColl, stepped forward.

MacColl, whose father was legendary Scottish folk singer Ewan MacColl, had enjoyed chart success in the early 1980s with the Billy Bragg-penned hit New England, but stage fright had seen her retreat from performing.

The band also needed to be convinced. Lillywhite let his wife record her part at their home studio. ‘making sure every word had the right nuance’ –  before playing the tape to MacGowan and Finer.

MacGowan was so impressed, he decided to re-record his own vocals.

Shane MacGowan of the Pogues performing with Kirsty Maccoll

He later recalled: ‘Kirsty knew exactly the right measure of viciousness and femininity and romance. In operas, if you have a double aria, it’s what the woman does that really matters. The man lies, the woman tells the truth.’

Since MacColl’s tragic death in a boating accident in 2000, the part  

MacGowan insisted the lyrics were not intended the offend people

The song’s lyrics – as the couple reminisce over their meeting – ponder how life has turned out in a quarrel that’s every bit as poignant as it is amusing.

‘I could have been someone,’ enthuses the husband, sung by MacGowan. ‘Well, so could anyone,’ his wife bluntly points out.

Elsewhere, another of MacColl’s lines is etched into rock history: ‘You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, Happy Christmas your a*** and pray god it’s out last’.

In 2018, the song sparked a debate between those who believe it is and is not acceptable to use faggot – considered a homophobic slur.

MacGowan later moved to address the criticisms of his song, insisting he was happy if the song is bleeped out when sung. 

He said: ‘The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character. She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person.

‘She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate. Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend! 

‘She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively. 

‘If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word but I don’t want to get into an argument.’ 

Despite the song’s enduring popularity, it seems the public never quite learnt all the words, with Fairytale Of New York lyrics being Googled 22,000 times a month on average.