IT’S perhaps the most famous Christmas song never to reach number one.
Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday was released in 1973, but narrowly missed out to Slade in one of the first true festive chart battles.
Fifty years on and songwriter Roy Wood may finally have his revenge, with a cover of the iconic hit by TikTok supergroup Creator Universe among the leading contenders to be announced as 2023’s Christmas number one on Friday.
The musician, now 76, is urging fans to get behind the song so he can finally get his own back on Slade frontman Noddy Holder, who he has had a friendly rivalry with since Merry Xmas Everybody claimed the top spot five decades ago.
Speaking of their battle, Roy tells us: “I’d known Noddy for years but we both kept our cards close to our chest.
“Neither of us knew the other was going to release a Christmas record until it happened.
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“We didn’t play on the same circuit, but that Christmas we were both on Top of the Pops. We had a really friendly rivalry.”
In fact, Roy says his real battle is not with Noddy, but bizarrely the late Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who years earlier cost him millions of pounds in a legal battle than has become the stuff of pop-lore.
And in a new twist, he reveals he is now planning legal action against the Government to win back his lost fortune in royalties.
In 1967, Roy released the classic hit Flowers in the Rain with his band The Move – but manager Tony Secunda sparked controversy when he released a postcard to promote the song featuring a cartoon of a naked Wilson with his secretary Marcia Williams.
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At the time rumours were circling that the pair were having an affair.
Britain’s leader sued, and the High Court ordered all royalties from the song be shared among charities forever.
Now a new book claims the pair did have an affair, which was over by the time Wilson became Prime Minister for the first time in 1964.
In a biography about Marcia, journalist Linda McDougall claims the private secretary told Wilson’s wife Mary: “I went to bed with your husband six times in 1956 and it wasn’t satisfactory.”
Roy says if the affair really did happen, then he is due back the royalties from The Move’s cheeky cartoon.
He says: “The song was the first ever played on BBC Radio One, yet I never got a penny from it because of the court case.
“There were rumours going around at the time and our manager printed the postcard as a bit of a publicity stunt, but it got into the hands of the wrong people and ended up at 10 Downing Street.
“They said it was libellous because it wasn’t true.
“Over the years we’ve had lawyers look at it but we’ve got nowhere.
“Now we hear the conclusion of the case might have been wrong and there could have been an affair after all.
“So I’ll be fighting that at some point after Christmas so I can pass some of the money on to my family.”
Marcia Williams, who died aged 86 in 2019, was considered a political powerhouse and she and Wilson always denied the affair, dismissing it as a smear.
Ms McDougall, whose late husband was Austin Mitchell MP, says she unearthed new evidence of a fling in her book: Marcia Williams: The Life and Times of Baroness Falkender.
She discovered an unpublished memoir by Wilson’s election agent George Caunt, which claimed the pair met in 1956 and had a five to six-year affair.
Festive ambition
Roy’s biggest hit was with his band Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, released in 1973.
It just missed out on the number one slot. To mark its 50-year anniversary, Roy is urging people to help get behind his campaign to finally see the festive tune top the charts.
Despite being played everywhere during December, the song has incredibly never made it to No 1.
It was beaten by Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody, as the two bands vied for the top spot in an era before streaming.
Roy revealed how he and Slade singer Noddy Holder, who both hail from the West Midlands, kept their hits secret from each other until their release.
Roy, who founded ELO with Jeff Lynne, is comparatively relaxed about his battle with Slade, who we revealed this week have been forced to flog tickets for £5 this Christmas, with only lead guitarist Dave Hill remaining from the original line-up.
The dad-of-two reckons his rivals had the advantage because delays meant Wizzard’s hit was stalled by two weeks
He said: “We were signed to EMI at the time, but the manager we had back then was also talking to Warner Bros about the song.
“EMI said, ‘We’re not having any of that’ and it caused a whole delay.
“Who knows what might have happened had we released the songs at the same time? We both had good followings and either of us could have made number one.
“The song was number one by default in 1998 when it was part of a Jive Bunny mix, but it would mean everything if it could make the top of the charts this year.”
Roy tells how I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday was recorded in the middle of summer.
“It was August,” he recalled. “I went into the studio with the roadies and they put some big old fans up to make the place freezing.
“We added some blue lights and I called the band and told them to bring overcoats, scarfs and woolly hats.
“We had a tree in the control room, just to add some atmosphere.”
Wizzard bussed down children from Stockland Green School in Birmingham to add their voices to the song.
Roy said: “The kids were great and managed to record it in the first or second take.
“Afterwards we took them to the Hard Rock Cafe in Leicester Square in London for food, then got the bus back with them and sang songs all the way back to Birmingham. It was great.”
Sadly the kids weren’t allowed on Top of the Pops for its now-famous music video because they didn’t own Equity acting cards.
Thanks to downloads, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday has been featured in the Top 20 four times since 2007.
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A medley version with Wizzard and The Wombles, called I Wish It Could Be a Wombling Merry Christmas Every Day, reached No 22 in 2000.
Roy is being backed in his bid for number one by Nelson’s Distillery and School, which has created a gin with Roy to mark the song’s 50-year milestone.
