Fairytale of New York undergoing rewrites and aborted attempts at recording, and losing its original female vocalist along the way, before finally being completed in August 1987. Although the single never reached the coveted UK Christmas number one, being kept at number two on its original release in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys' cover version of "Always on My Mind", it has proved enduringly popular with both music critics and the public: to date the song has reached the UK Top 20 on fifteen separate occasions since its original release in 1987, including every year since 2005, and was certified double platinum in
2008 in British music charts Christmas songs, including Wham!'s "Last Christmas" and "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, returned to the chart throughout December. Alexandra Burke won the fifth series of "The X Factor" on 13 December, and released her debut single - a cover of Leonard Cohen's track "Hallelujah" - on 14 December. The single sold 576,000 copies in its first week of release, and was the Christmas number one single of 2008. The late Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" - originally recorded for his 1994 album "Grace" - charted at number two, following a campaign to raise Buckley's version