Every Day’s Like Christmas (C Martin/M Erikkson/T Hermanson) and Christmas Wrapping (C Butler ) – Kylie Minogue and 100 Degrees (K Minogue/R Stannard/A Howes/S Anderson) – Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue. 2015
In July 2015, American guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers and Kylie Minogue’s sister Dannii were rumoured to be working on tracks for a new Christmas album for her sister Kylie Minogue, who later confirmed that she intended to release Kylie Christmas, her first yuletide album, later that year.
The third single released was Every Day’s Like Christmas, co-written by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and Stargate (Mikkel Erikkson and Tor Hermansen). It was an engaging slice of seasonal electropop that was the standout track on the album, beautiful and lilting, with a big heart that guaranteed its future status as a Christmas classic. Lyrically the song eulogized a romance as sublime as Christmas, exemplifed by the words “Until you, every day was ordinary/It’s true and now every day’s like Christmas”, Chris Martin and Stargate produced the session and served as backing vocalists on the track. A music video depicted Minogue entertaining her friends at home around the tree, with her then-fiance Joshua Sasse and Kylie being the loved-up Yuletide couple, as they shared champagne toasts, played with a puppy, laughed with small children, watched the snow falling outside, and kissed under the mistletoe – did I leave anything out – yes, the fireside snuggling and snogging – sadly Sasse and Minogue would split up in 2017.
For old times sake Stock, Aitken and Waterman delivered their version of this song for Kylie too, which dialed up the nostalgia factor, after all she was the most successful performer ever on the SAW roster.
Christmas Wrapping by American new wave band The Waitresses was a hit in the US and UK in 1981, and rapidly assumed legendary status as a sing-a-long around the Christmas tree kind of seasonal favourite that was uplifting and positive, despite the dead pan, Debra Harry-esque vocals of lead singer Patty Donahue.
Written by the band’s guitarist Chris Butler, the narrative is told from the perspective of a busy single woman who has simply opted out of Christmas, she did meet a guy earlier in the year at a ski resort she liked, but their efforts to catch up had been consistently thwarted. Remembering that she needs cranberries to make the sauce for her turkey-for-one, she visits a 24- hour convenience store and runs into her ski holiday flame, also seeking late-night cranberries, they are re-united and share Christmas together. Sadly Patty Donahue passed away in 1996.
Musically the original song featured a killer bass line by Tracey Wormworth, saxophone flourishes by Mars Williams, and the quirky, idiosyncratic, angsty, vocals of Patty Donahue. Kylie’s version is much brassier and more seasonally jaunty, which transformed a new wave hit with a slinky bassline, into a massive sugar-rush of classic, candy-coated 80’s pop, wrapped in a big shiny red bow – sounds like Christmas to me!
100 Degrees was written by Kylie and her trusted “Biffco team” of Richard “Biff” Stannard, Ash Howes, and Steve Anderson, and saw Kylie and her sister Dannii marking out familiar territory – bouncy, dance pop, with a Christmas nu-disco ambience and celebratory air, it was the second single lifted off the Kylie Christmas album in 2015. Kylie performed the song with sister Dannii on the Season 7 Grand Final of The X Factor Australia on November 16, which was the first time they had performed together on TV since their debut performance on Young Talent Time in 1986, when they duetted on the very appropriate Annie Lennox/Aretha Franklin hit Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves.
Kylie was inspired to write the song after having to adapt to winter Christmases in the UK after being raised in Australia where on Christmas Day temperatures can rise to 40 C, and the song also reflects Kylie’s fondness for the classic disco hits of Donna Summer. The music vid sees the sisters recording the song and having fun in the studio, like two kids on a playdate, surrounded by tinsel, with Dannii sporting a “Disco Christmas” T-shirt and Kylie donning a “Kylie Kissmass” T-shirt.
4The Record 