THE LAST TURKEY

With just twenty days to go until the greatest day of the year, I will be counting down my top 20 greatest ever Christmas songs - one a day. The only rule is that is has to be Christmassy (i.e. have the odd Christmas bell ring in it or the like!)- so from pop songs to carols, they all count.

It is a lot harder than I first thought and I will reveal to you today some classics that regretfully did not make the list (in no particular order):

White Christmas - Bing Crosby
It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Johnny Mathis
Rudolph The Rednosed Reindeer - Gene Autry
Little Drummer Boy - David Bowie/Bing Crosby
Away In A Manger - Mannheim Steamroller
Last Christmas - George Michael
Walking In The Air - Aled Jones
Jingle Bells - Various
Deck The Hall - Various
The Twelve Days of Christmas - Various
We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Various
Ding Dong Merrily on High - Various

BUT, without further a do here is Number twenty: Stay Another Day by the founders of Chav, East 17.

Stay Another Day is East 17's first and only number-one single, released in 1994. It was their first ballad, written by the band's lead singer Tony Mortimer about his brother Ollie, who committed suicide. It was 1994 Christmas number-one and the third best selling single of that year.

"Stay Another Day" included Christmas bells towards the end of the song to give it a Christmassy feel and appeal to the lucrative Christmas singles market. The most familiar arrangement is unusual among pop records in that it features almost no drums, apart from some timpani toward the end of the track.

It was the song played when Wellard the dog was put down on the BBC soap opera Eastenders.