Fairytale of New York Fairytale of New York "Fairytale of New York" is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and recorded by their band the Pogues, featuring singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song is an Irish folk-style ballad and was written as a duet, with the Pogues' singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl the female character. It was originally released as a single on 23 November 1987 and later featured on the Pogues' 1988 album "If I Should Fall from Grace with God". Originally begun in 1985, the song had a troubled two-year development history,
Peace and Love (The Pogues album) as a song title, and Napper Tandy, mentioned in the first line of "Boat Train", and was adapted from a line in the Irish rebel song "The Wearing of the Green". Likewise the MacGowan song "Cotton Fields" draws on the Lead Belly song of the same name. Mark Deming of Allmusic said that "Peace and Love" "isn't as good as the two Pogues albums that preceded it", but felt that "it does make clear that MacGowan was hardly the only talented songwriter in the band". Robert Christgau, on the other hand, believed that "Shane MacGowan will remain the only Pogue