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
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway time of the Irish diaspora. For a number of versions, the melody of the first lines of each stanza resembles the song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Oftentimes, the song becomes faster progressively. This song has been performed by numerous musicians and singers, including Ewan MacColl, The Weavers, Brass Farthing, Authority Zero, Luke Kelly of The Dubliners, The Wolfe Tones, The Tossers, The Kelly Family, Shane MacGowan, The Pogues and Ferocious Dog. In the Shining Time Station episode "Impractical Jokes," two versions of this song were sung. One was sung by Tom Callinan, Matt,