For four years running now, Whitney Matheson has featured us on her Pop Candy blog, and we can never say thank you enough. Her most recent mention also includes a link to an article in The Local, a German news outlet about the 25th anniversary of “Last Christmas” this year! It says “‘The song has become a running gag,’ said Peter Radszuhn, boss of the Berlin-Brandenburg broadcasting company Radio Eins, adding that the song remains the best-selling single never to reach number one on the charts.” Ha.

Whitney also brings up the new Itunes release from the cast of Glee. It seems like Glee is a pretty hyped show, and getting more through this charity version of “Last Christmas.” A portion of the proceeds will go toward the Grammy Foundation for music education, so we’re going to encourage you guys to go get it from Itunes, but have a listen below. It’s not bad, but by no means my favorite cover. Do you guys have a favorite? I mean, It has been nearly 400 versions at this point, so if you do, let us know in the comments.

Additionally, last christmas (!!) George Michael debuted a new Christmas single, “December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)” on his site, which now has a video and will be available for purchase! Check out the video below and more details from Idolator.. The song is way more Christmasy, yet less poppy. It will be a welcome addition to your chill out holiday mixes, I’m sure.

The leaves are falling, the air is stiffening and our ears are about to be barraged with holiday music by every available public sound system in the northern hemisphere. We here at Last Christmas HQ want to remind you that we are no different, except for the fact that we will barrage with the SAME song the entire month of December, much to your delight, I’m sure.

Over the years we have gotten a small but fiercely dedicated following. Or rather, Wham’s 1984 hit “Last Christmas” has gotten the following, we just give you a place to get your fanaticism out without hurting your friends and loved ones.

Every year as we get closer to “re-opening,” we get a few moments of dread, “Can we really listen to hundreds of versions of this song again?” And let us assure you dear readers, just when we think we’ve hit the limit, we hear another amazing cover that reminds us why we’re sharing these with you. You’ll hear soon enough.

“Last Christmas” seems to get bigger and bigger each year, with more and more covers being released as either singles or free holiday offerings for fans, presumably as children of the ’80s grow up and want to contribute to the holiday tune market.

Before we get into this year’s crop-o-tunes, a few bits of house cleaning. While this whole mess might seem like a piece of cake, we do make mistakes from time to time. We’re sorry. It’s bound to happen. So in 2007, we hastily offered 3 unknown versions, which upon further listening, need to be addressed. Two have shown to be from Jo Sung Mo and Billie Piper, which we offered the year before. And the other we offered last year by As One. And on top of that, there seems to be a strange timing miscount. Boy oh boy. So it pains to do this, but our count is coming down 3 and the time obviously as well.

If you’ve written us in the past few weeks, hang in there, we’re just getting back into the swing of things and we’ll respond shortly, and a hearty thanks to all the new submissions! If you’d like to be featured here or in our returning podcast, send us your entries! If you’ve noticed any other errors or have any suggestions, please also feel free to contact us.

And as always, the individual song links from years past are gone, you can only find the songs in the massive soul busting sets from each year. Which by the way, have all been redone and polished up and hopefully are error-free. Thanks again for stopping by and check back December 1st. Until then, enjoy this mind-numbing video mash of everyday folks making holiday magic come true…

So, there you have it. 192 versions of “Last Christmas.” But what have we learned from all this? Well, we’ve learned that people really want to dance to “Last Christmas,” and that the song can be sorta fun. We’ve learned that people around the world love this song, particularly people in Germany.

But what is the appeal of romantic rejection at Christmastime? What about the heartbreak and forlorn love discussed in the lyrics? The speaker reminds us frequently that he was denied by his would-be-lover on the day after Christmas. The repetition of this fact points out the absurdity of crying over a one-day relationship.

Now, some might argue that this is merely hyperbole, pointing to other exaggerations in the text (“I gave you my heart,” “your soul of ice,” “you tore me apart,” etc.), but this is unlikely. In the fourth line of the first verse, he rhetorically asks if the vixen recognizes him, and then assumes a negative response, citing the elapsed year since last they met. Unless she was somehow medicated, or otherwise medically troubled, it is unlikely that she would have forgotten any sort of involved romantic relationship after only one year. This tends to support a more literal interpretation of the “very next day” line, but it also brings into question what sort of relationship (if any) existed between the two.

The speaker repeats (quite a few times) that he gave his “heart.” This is a fairly vague euphemism, but one assumes that he invested quite a bit of effort and emotion. However, it is not until the second stanza of the first verse that he goes into more detail: “ ‘Happy Christmas,’ I wrapped it up and sent it, with a note saying, ‘I love you.’ I meant it.” So in other words, he was presenting the object of his affection with some sort of sign or placard that said “Happy Christmas,” and as part of the gift-packaging, included a note that said, “I love you.” A note? He didn’t take the time to compose anything more substantial than a note?

This fact, coupled with the brevity of their original encounter, sheds new light on the animosity felt by the speaker. Frequently, he insults and degrades the woman he’s addressing, insinuating that she did him a great wrongdoing. “Once bitten; twice shy,” he begins the first verse, indicating that he was previously lured into some sort of snare of her devising. This is not problematic until a verse later, when he reconciles his role in their relationship as being “a shoulder [for her] to cry on.” The idiom of crying on one’s shoulder is commonly associated with a person under emotional duress seeking solace from a compassionate party. So it seems the woman was sad, she sought comfort from the speaker (who was previously a stranger to her), he interpreted this as an invitation to send her a mediocre gift, and when she was nonplussed, he cried. This is one sensitive guy.

I think that is what the lyrics are ultimately getting at—it doesn’t matter that the speaker has an unhealthy psychological makeup. What matters is that we, the audience, can identify with him. And perhaps in that way, we truly learn the meaning of Christmas.

Thanks for hanging in there with us over the course of this month, and we appreciate all the support and emails to help make all of this as accurate as possible. Also, I just caught wind of a possible version by Moon Hee-jun, but in my minute-and-a-half of searching, I haven’t found it. So maybe that number will soon go up to 192… or maybe over 200. Merry Christmas, everyone!

First, big ups to reader Guntars Racs from Microphone Records for shedding some light on BTH (from Day 4). Thanks to him, we now have a link to their website. It appears BTH was formerly known as Braithouse, and their name change happened right before the “Last Christmas” single was released. According to their website, they specialize in radio jingles(!) and have many available for your listening pleasure.

Additional big ups to Whitney Matheson at USA Today Pop Candy for mentioning us yesterday. If you’re coming from there, “hello to you!”

“Last Christmas” produced from a Commodore 64!? Believe it. Man, I loved my C64. Go through the artist link for a Christmas album of “8 amazing tunes [that] were composed by 8 dedicated chiptune maniacs on 8 different videogame consoles and homecomputers!” That deserves a Magical Snowflake Award.


goto80 – Last Christmas (Hot Digi Remix)


And finally, a couple bits of housecleaning: The search box is now operational thanks to Mr. Travis Schmeisser, so have at it. Travis, you will get something very special in stocking this year. We’ve also been noticing some technical problems for IE users, but our IT department is hard at work to solve the problem, so don’t worry (Hey Trav, can you fix this also?). Also, because we’ve been using so much bandwidth this month, we’re going to start taking down the audio files after they’ve been up for a week. Tomorrow, for example, Day 1’s versions will be unavailable. So get them while they’re hot!

And this lady is French…