Song · The Pogues
“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl
From the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988) With Kirsty MacColl
“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl appears on 22 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1991 and 2026. It was first released in 1988 on the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God. Its best result is #54 on the Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2006). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,971 alternative song of all time.
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"Fairytale of New York" first appeared as a single in November 1987, ahead of the Pogues' 1988 album If I Should Fall From Grace With God, and it's a lilting Irish folk ballad written as a duet: Shane MacGowan, who wrote it with Jem Finer, takes the man's part and Kirsty MacColl the woman's, the two voices scraping against each other beautifully.
Started in 1985, it went through rewrites, false starts in the studio and the loss of its first female singer before it was finished in August 1987. That Christmas the Pet Shop Boys' "Always on My Mind" held it at number two, but it has outlasted nearly everything: back in the UK Top 20 every Christmas since 2005, the most-played Christmas song in Britain this century, and crowned the Nation's Favourite Christmas Song in a 2012 ITV vote.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
Also listed as: Fairytale Of New York; Fairy Tale Of New York.
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