Childliners - The Gift of Christmas

What do the Backstreet Boys and Peter Andre have in common?

They both had their first taste of the UK top 40 as part of the Childliners with The Gift of Christmas 20 years ago this week in 1995.

The Christmas number one of 1994 was East 17 - Stay Another Day which is still often played around Christmas time despite the song itself having nothing to do with Christmas. A year later, East 17s Tony Mortimer pens this song which is actually a Christmas song, gathers up his friends from the pop world at the time and releases this single with all proceeds going to charity.

On paper this should have been the Christmas number one of 1995 but it wasn't to be. It reached number 9 in the charts so was by no means a flop. However its rarely, if ever been heard on the radio etc since 1995 and many people don't even remember it's existence.

One reason perhaps is whilst some of the acts were the who's who of the pop world at the time, many are more like a who's that these days.

So who else featured on the record?

Well first of all we have A.S.A.P. who never had a top 40 hit before or after this song. They don't have a Wikipedia page and on their discogs page they just have this song so you don't get more obscure than that.

Then there was The Flood who also never had a top 40 hit but have at least created other music.

West End also featured despite the fact their only top 40 single came out almost 3 years prior to this.

Then we have CJ Lewis, China Black and EYC who were more familiar names of 1995 but this turned out to be the final top 40 hit for all 3 of these acts.

Not far behind them were Deuce, Gemini, MN8, Let Loose and Nightcrawlers who had all hit the top 40 for the last time by Christmas 1996. Though Gemini did follow this up with their biggest hit on their own, Steal Your Love Away which reached 37!

Ultimate Kaos were all but finished soon after this after their lead singers voice broke but they did hit the top 40 again in 1997 with Casanova which was their first single which failed to chart the first time round.

We then had former Eastenders Michelle Gayle and Sean Maguire who carried on into 1997 despite the majority of people only remember Michelle Gayle doing Sweetness a year earlier and that Sean Maguire had some sort of brief music career.

Dannii Minogue also featured and whilst she has gone on to have some success in the music world since, at the time she had pretty much called it a day with her music and had become a TV presenter on shows like the Big Breakfast.

Finally we had Boyzone who were arguably the most popular act on the record at the time. However, they were aiming for a Christmas number one themselves with Father and Son.

Given the quality of many Christmas songs which have stood the test of time it's a shame really that this one is largely forgotten but if you really want to hear it just watch the video and enjoy!