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
Fairytale of New York 86 weeks on the official UK Top 75 (as of w/e 20 December 2018), making it the fifth most charted song of all time. In late 2012 it was declared a UK million-seller. On 22 December 2005, The Pogues performed the song on a "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" Christmas special on BBC One in the UK, with the female vocals taken by singer Katie Melua. "Fairytale of New York" was announced as Britain's "favourite Christmas song" in a 90-minute special on ITV on 22 December 2012, following a nationwide survey of ITV viewers, despite not being a Christmas song,