Slade's David Hill reveals how John Lennon helped with hit Christmas song
'Merry Xmas Everybody' was a huge success for Slade
Last updated 1st Dec 2022
Rock band Slade created the hugely popular festive track 'Merry Xmas Everybody' and as we get closer to the big day we got into the Christmas spirit by welcoming Dave Hill from the band to Greatest Hits Radio. The guitarist joined Jackie Brambles on her Evening Show to talk about the iconic song and how it came about on Wednesday 30th's show.
In their chat, Dave revealed that The Beatles legend John Lennon actually played a role in the song coming out! He told Jackie about how Slade ended up recording the track: "We were in New York in the summer of 1973 – it was 100 degrees, it certainly wasn’t Christmas! – and we didn’t really know this song, but when John Lennon cancelled his time in Record Plant Studios we went in just to do this Christmas number.
"The studio is in an office block, so we were all in the foyer at half nine in the morning trying to get the vocals going and singing ‘so here it is Merry Christmas...’ in front of a load of American businessmen. John Lennon had this organ in the studio and if you listen to the intro of the record you can hear his organ on it which is really nice."
Despite the Christmas anthem coming out in the 70s, Slade only released the official music video for the track last year which you can watch below.
Listen to 'Merry Xmas Everyone' by Slade:
Speaking about how well the track has done since it came out in 1973, Dave added: "None of us knew the immensity of that song - we just recorded it and let our manager take the tapes back to England and mix it.
"We hadn’t heard it for months and when it finally did come out, I thought ‘oh that sounds really good’ but we didn’t know how big it would be. Although 1973 was a massive year for us with 'Cum On Feel the Noize' – we had so many big songs that year, but the Christmas song was something special. As soon as the public got to hear it, it just flew."
Listen again to the interview with Slade
You can listen again to Jackie's interview with Slade's David Hill below, and through our app.
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