| "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Wizzard | ||||
| B-side | "Rob Roy's Nightmare (A Bit More H.A.)" | |||
| Released | December 1973 | |||
| Recorded | August 1973 | |||
| Studio | Phonogram Studios, Stanhope Place, Marble Arch, London | |||
| Genre | Glam rock, Christmas, pop rock | |||
| Length | 4:55 | |||
| Label | Harvest, Warner Bros. Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Roy Wood | |||
| Producer(s) | Roy Wood | |||
| Wizzard singles chronology | ||||
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"I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", sometimes written as "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day", is a Christmas song recorded by British glam rock band Wizzard. It was first released in December 1973 and, as with most Wizzard songs, was written and produced by the band's frontman Roy Wood—formerly of The Move and a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra. Despite the song's strong, long-lasting popularity, it has reached no higher than number four on the UK Singles Chart, a position it occupied for four consecutive weeks from December 1973 to January 1974.[1][2] The song was beaten to the 1973 Christmas Number 1 spot by Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody", which remained at the top of the charts for five weeks, from December 1973 to January 1974.
Wood sings lead vocals. The backing vocals for the single are by the Suedettes, augmented by the choir of Stockland Green School First Year.[3] The original sleeve of the single credits "Miss Snob and Class 3C" with "Additional noises". The basic track for the single was recorded in August 1973, so to create a wintry feeling engineer Steve Brown decorated the studio with Christmas decorations and turned the air conditioning down to its coldest setting. Wood wore a woollen hat found in lost property. The schoolchildren were brought down from the Midlands to London by bus during the autumn half-term to add their contributions.[4]
At the time of the single's release, Wizzard's contract with EMI was close to expiration. Promotional copies were pressed by Warner Bros., with whom the band had just signed for future releases. Only then was it discovered that EMI were legally entitled to the track after all, so the Warner Bros. Records pressings were halted and the record appeared on the Harvest label, but with the same picture sleeve.[4] In a UK television special on ITV in December 2012, the British public voted the song second (behind "Fairytale of New York") in The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.[5]
- ^ The four consecutive weeks include one for which no new chart was published; when this occurs, it is the usual practice to repeat the previous week's chart to fill the gap. The same two records - "I Love You Love Me Love" and "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" - intervened between the Slade and Wizzard discs both before and after the "gap" week.
- ^ "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday — Wizzard". Last.fm. 29 December 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
- ^ It has been claimed that the choir's participation was arranged by pianist Bill Hunt, who may have been brother-in-law of the school's maths teacher.[citation needed] But a familial connection has been disputed since Hunt's mother is claimed to have lived in nearby Queens Road, also within the ward of Stockland Green.[citation needed]
- ^ a b Van der Kiste, John (2012). Roy Wood: The Move, Wizzard and beyond. KDP.
- ^ "The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song". ITV. 22 December 2012.