'The Birth Of The Christmas 'Cash-in' Single'

In 1963, amidst the grip of 'Beetlemania', the Actress, Dora Bryan released a novelty Christmas record entitled 'All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle'. With its witty lyrics and 'old town music hall' vocals it was certainly something very different from traditional festive hits like 'Mary's Boy Child' or 'Little Drummer Boy'!

The secret to the success of the song (it reached No 20 that year) was its way of cleverly incorporating the cheeky lyrical elements of festive classics like 'I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus' into a song about the most popular group on the planet! Now, with the Beetles dominating the singles chart pretty much all year round at this time (including at Christmas) this was always going to be a canny move and its actually surprising in a way that the record did not do better than no 20...

Looking back through the mists of time to compile a list of U.K. Christmas hit singles as I am at the moment, I reckon in so doing our Dora invented the 'Christmas Cash In ' single! As far as I can see, 'All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle' was the first ever such single to chart in the U.K. Could it be that bands like 'The Barron Knights', who made a habit of making Christmas cash-in singles ('Merry Gentle Pops' 1965, 'Never Mind The Presents' 1980) have our Dora to thank for giving them the idea?

I met Dora in 2007 at a book launch at Waterstones in Hastings. The book -  'Lillian's Story' by Sally Patricia Gardner - has gone on to become a HUGE success but its a pity I didn't know about this Christmas hit at the time. It would have been fascinating to find out how the recording came about. I doubt very much that it was Dora's idea because it has the ring of an 'enterprising record producer on the make' about it and Dora is much more an Actress than a singer. Dora is still with us (late 80's now) but is in a nursing home I believe and not quite as good as she was memory wise. Still, she will now go down in the annuls of pop history -via this blog (lol) - as the woman who brought the cash-in Christmas single to our ears!

Dora Bryan with Author, Sally Patricia Gardner in 2007

As a side issue, The Beatles themselves never did release a Christmas song. Instead they used to regularly release a 'fan club issue only' disc on which they would basically have fun, chat and play a few 'off the cuff' Christmas tunes. Here is a link to their Christmas fan club disc from the same year as Dora's hit, 1963...