José Feliciano's 1970 song 'Feliz Navidad' is, according to the folks at Nielsen, the eighth most downloaded Christmas song in the US and Canada (placing it higher than Wham's Last Christmas but some several hundred thousand adrift of the number one spot where Mariah Carey sits). It's a catchy enough pop song, with simple repetitive lyrics, that bounces along with a saccharine cheeriness; tap your foot, reach for the Egg Nog, repeat until you don't care singing it aloud.
London alternative rockers Shame recently covered Feliz Navidad, producing a refreshingly shambolic take on the original that garnered praise when it aired on Steve Lamacq's Roundtable, but it's not the best cover of the song out there.
Tucked away on SoundCloud, forgotten by me until the band tweeted a link to it yesterday, is Sigur Rós' suitably ethereal version of the song.
Recorded live in a Reykjavik pub in 1999, replete with background chatter and digital pops, 'ég fæ jólagjöf' is a sombre, mournful, near unrecognisable variant on the original.
Admittedly it's not as catchy as the original, and it doesn't roll along as does Shame's cover, but it has its own dark kind of Christmas magic about it. This version would sit comfortably over the end credits of a Scandi-noir film or, better yet, provide fitting music for a slow tracking shot over the discarded cardboard from Amazon's festive ad campaign; the singing boxes silenced after their festive cargoes have been retrieved.
Too dark for Christmas Day? Well, maybe just a bit; if this hopelandic elegy isn't the Noisette Triangle in your box of festive chocs then maybe crank this up loud instead.
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