‘I try to avoid my iconic Christmas hit but people play it at me’

Roy Wood doesn’t listen to his own Christmas hit (Picture: Ron Howard/Redferns)

Everyone has their own must-play Christmas songs but there’s one person who tries not to Wizzard’s beloved I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday if he can help it.

Roy Wood, founder of Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard, rarely plays the 1985 hit at home after four decades of having to listen to it.

The track peaked at number four in the UK charts and despite never reaching number one is often considered one of the best Christmas songs ever made.

‘I don’t do radio in my house,’ Roy confessed to Metro. ‘It actually comes on in the car sometimes when the classical music channel is on but apart from that, [people] play it at me.

‘I can’t walk around the supermarket anymore without it coming on.’

The See My Baby Jive hitmaker isn’t a total Grinch though saying his feelings towards the festivities ‘depend on what side of the bed [he] got out of.’

He’s working with Spar this year to help fans win their shopping (Picture: SPAR)

Wizzard never reached number one with their Christmas track (Picture: David Warner Ellis/Redferns)

‘I don’t play any of the old songs at home or any of that but if the Christmas one came on the radio, it brings back nice memories. It’s still a good record, and we enjoyed making it.’

Roy has teamed up with Spar for a Christmas campaign where fans can sing ‘SPARaoke’ to the beloved song in hopes of winning their shopping and Christmas dinner.

While he’s not sure listening to the general public covering his song is going to change his own feelings toward the track, he’s not averse to finally landing that elusive Christmas number one.

In 1985, Wizzard lost the battle of the charts to Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody after a delay in their release halted their momentum.

‘It [mattered] at the time but I don’t think so now. It was annoying, to be fair,’ Roy recalled of the 1985 disappointment.

He explained: ‘We were managed by a guy at the time, Don Arden, who was –  because I’d always been with EMI and he was trying to do some sort of dodgy deal with Warner Brothers for the Christmas record.

‘And of course, EMI was saying, “Oh, not on our watch”. So it delayed the release of the record by two weeks. So Slade had two weeks more than we did to get record sales, so consequently they got the number one.’

Don — an infamous manager and the father of Sharon Osbourne — worked with the likes of Black Sabbath, Small Faces, and both Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.

However, Roy did concede that Slade may have landed number one anyway as they ‘were very popular’ but said: ‘It annoyed me at the time because we weren’t on a level playing field, so to speak.’

He admitted he would still love that chart top spot, hoping that fans reconnect with the track thanks to Spar’s campaign.

In 2012, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday was voted the second on ITV’s The Nation’s Favourite Christmas Song — behind The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York.

While Roy is happy to take a back seat to The Pogues, he’s not sure there’s been that much Christmas song competition since the 90s.

He shared: ‘Strangely enough, I don’t think it’s had a lot of competition over the years. During the period when boy bands started, record companies were thinking, “Well, radio stations stop playing Christmas records just after Christmas Day.”

‘They were thinking of a way to combat that so that the record continued to be played in the new year. So you’ll find that a lot of times, the [music] videos were Christmasy and snowy and all that but the songs weren’t mentioning Christmas in the [lyrics].

Roy is a fan of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas (Picture: BBC Picture Archives)

‘I think they did need to try and gain some more air time, so from that time, there haven’t been a lot of Christmas songs written. It’s a shame not to write one because of that reason.

‘All the records like Slade and all that are still doing well purely because there’s been no new stuff.’

He paused before adding the one exception is Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas, which the fellow festive legend praises as ‘a good record.’

However, there are some modern tracks he’s not so convinced by — joking he’d rather ‘stick screwdrivers in his ears’ than listen to one remix.

The glam rock legend said he felt ‘humbled’ to be included on the Christmas compilation albums with the greats and that I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday has had such longevity.

Roy added: ‘[I hope everyone] has a great time, we’ve got too many problems with the way things are at the moment. Take a deep breath and go for it.’

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