Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) - The Hellflowers

Of all the Christmas songs which have been recorded, only the best can make it into The Lucy Museum of Musicians who deserve entry to Lucy's Museum of Musicians and at number two we have Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) by Hellflower.

It's a sad fact that the Christmas period translates into some very long queues outside the offices of divorce lawyers in the New Year so we should be more like the Ramones who said in this 1987 classic that 'Christmas ain't the time for breaking each other hearts' in this song with a tune borrowed from Blondie's 'Denis' who in turn acquired it from a 1960's doo wop group who sang a song called 'Denise'.
The Ramones never seemed to get the acclaim they deserved and they were on the slide by the time they recorded this Christmas song, Johnny and Joey were on even worse terms then usual which was not improved by Johnny sleeping with Joey's girlfriend so this song could very well be taken as a plea to his guitarist bandmate.
Sadly all four original members are dead so they never got to take any pleasure in the belated prestige of seeing plenty of youngsters today wearing their T-shirts with their blackened presidential seal but their great music continues and this one does put in an occasional appearance on the Christmas Music channels and many other bands have taken this Ramones song and performed it better, such as the Hellflowers.
The punk band were asked to contribute a song to the Christmas Evel, Volume 1 and they put out this version which is my go to interpretation, the female singer's voice sitting very nicely with the big, choppy chords of the song.