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
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,