“Thanks For Christmas” by Three Wise Men

XTC went undercover for "Thanks for Christmas", a festive Andy Partridge song that Virgin put out late in 1983 under the name the Three Wise Men. The band had wanted to be the Virgin Marys, but the label wouldn't wear it; Partridge was happy to stay anonymous either way.

The novelty had a job to do: XTC cut it to find out whether David Lord, who owned Crescent Studios, could produce them, just before the sessions for The Big Express got under way. It's also the only time in the band's catalog that Partridge and Moulding split the lead vocal. The B-side, "Countdown to Christmas Party Time", was by Partridge's own account a daft knockoff of Michael Jackson funk, and the A-side finally reached an album on the 1990 odds-and-ends set Rag and Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts and Leftovers.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.