Idolator

The interesting thing about "Last Christmas" is that - no matter how many covers there are of it - this is a song George Michael clearly wrote to suit himself. The moment in the second verse where he whispers "Merry Christmas" in his seductive, pre-gaydar Wham! voice is cheesy and douche-chill-worthy now; but you can imagine it making British teenage girls positively squeal in 1984. And the rhythm of the song is such that the "Merry Christmas" whisper sort of stops the song dead for a moment for just that purpose: girls, here's where you squeal. Ol' George: an evil genius, that one.

Coming out of Hilary Duff and whoever the fuck is singing the Crazy Frog version, the whisper sounds fairly ridiculous. Even Sarge's Elizabeth Elmore sounds weird doing it, which is probably why she doesn't actually try to whisper it. The JEW guys are probably the smartest, because they dump half the lyrics of the song, including the whisper. Strangely, as good as their version sounds musically, the missing lyrics make it sound sort of empty to me. (I voted for Sarge.)

I've long admired Michael's ability to write a great pop song, but "Last Christmas" is especially canny (or, to be more cynical, crass) - it's like one of those teen-idol singles from the '50s and '60s designed to highlight an act's dreamy qualities, except said act wrote it himself.

P.S. That single-sleeve cover art you guys dug up is positively priceless.

Yeah, I can't get past that. However did I miss THAT in the past?

We didn't dig that up. That's actually me and Maura's new press photo, photoshopped just a smidge.

As a former retail employee forced to listen to this song ad nauseum, I am boycotting this poll. The song's pretty much up there with "Chrissy, the Christmas Mouse" as my Most Loathed Christmas Song of All Time.

As my girlfriend said "Turn that shit off - I ain't shoppin' yet."

Can I vote for George Michael here instead? The original is perfect; all holiday songs should be kind of cheesy, because that's what Christmas is.

Fortunately for me, I never ended up with "Last Christmas" on any of my holiday soundtrack rotations when I was in retail. I do really, really fucking hate "Wonderful Christmastime" though.

i can't really explain why i love this song. i just do. it's fun to sing along with...it's all wistful and tragic, yet inspirational somehow.

i wish i knew how to quit you, George Michael.

and i completely agree with tee. about "Wonderful Christmastime". gross. it makes holiday shopping 10x worse.

I'm voting for a write in candidate: Erlend Oye. Mobile Records 2002 Xmas comp "Seasonal Greetings." All these people are trying to hard.

surprised you kids didn't put up butch walker's version...he of the "pop metal wizard" fame and all

jack: ooh, snap!

no pas/cal, no cred

I vote for Richard Cheese's cover of it on Silent Nightclub...

PAS/CAL's version kills these, even though I consider JEW's version a guilty holiday pleasure