Fairytale of New York Christmas number one by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan was reported to have said "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine". MacColl later said that she did not feel they were really in competition with the Pet Shop Boys as they were doing a completely different kind of music. The song was re-released by the Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005, reaching number three in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of
Kirsty MacColl Only," a biography of MacColl written by Karen O'Brien, was published. A retrospective three-CD set spanning her full career, "From Croydon To Cuba," was released in 2005. "Titanic Days" was re-released in 2005 as a deluxe 2-CD set, and "Kite" and "Electric Landlady" were also remastered and rereleased with additional tracks. Her first album, "Desperate Character," was given its first CD issue in 2012 on the Salvo label. On 7 August 2005, "The Best of Kirsty MacColl," a single-disc compilation that included a "new" single, "Sun on the Water", made its debut on the UK album charts at number 17,