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
A Pair of Brown Eyes A Pair of Brown Eyes "A Pair of Brown Eyes" is a single by The Pogues, released on 18 March 1985. The single was their first to make the UK Top 100, peaking at Number 72. It featured on the band's second album, "Rum Sodomy & the Lash", and was composed by Pogues front man Shane MacGowan, on the melody of "Wild Mountain Thyme", also known as "Will Ye Go Lassie Go," a song by Francis McPeake in a traditional Irish folk style. The song references the Johnny Cash version of the song A Thing Called Love: ""And on the