Is This Year’s UK Christmas No. 1 Going To Come From 1970s New Orleans?

Probably not, but Ernie K. Doe’s pressure-cooking tune “Here Come The Girls” is featured in the above ad for the British drugstore chain Boots, and according to Billboard that ad is helping the song make inroads on the UK charts:

There was also an improbable chart comeback on the low rungs of the top 75, as the late New Orleans singer Ernie K-Doe debuted at No. 71 with “Here Come the Girls” (Soul Jazz), a 1970 track now being featured by another retail giant, Boots, in their Christmas TV campaign. K-Doe’s only other British chart appearance came 46 years ago, when “Mother-In-Law” reached No. 29 in 1961.

The song’s currently available via the excellent British archive label Soul Jazz, who is making the single available as a digital download from its official site (it’s also on the terrific compilation New Orleans Funk: The Original Sound Of Funk 1960-1975). At the very least, the continued exposure from the Boots ad should bring Soul Jazz–and the estate of K-Doe, who died in 2001–some nice coin, and perhaps turn a few non-crate-diggers on to the label’s extensive catalog of funk and soul rarities. This clip has the song in full, with a slightly recut version of the ad:

Leona Lewis Still Strong On UK Charts [Billboard] Here come the girls. Boots Christmas ad 07. [YouTube]