Slade's annual salary from Merry Xmas Everybody and Noddy Holder's inspiration behind hit

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Noddy Holder, the frontman of Slade, has revealed the "real" inspiration behind the band's iconic Christmas number one, Merry Xmas Everybody.

The timeless festive hit was first released in 1973 and has been a winter staple worldwide ever since.Despite generating around £500,000 annually, the single initially started as a "hippy-trippy thing" far removed from the renowned Christmas song it became.

Noddy, 77, who received the all-clear following an oesophageal cancer battle in 2018, confessed to writing the track in just a few hours while enjoying a drink in his childhood bedroom, according to the Mirror.The English singer-songwriter disclosed that the song was penned years before its release but was later re-written to become a Christmas track.

Speaking to the Mirror previously, Noddy said: "The song that became Merry Xmas Everybody was written in 1967. It was a hippy-trippy thing and the chorus went: 'So won't you buy me a rocking chair to watch the world go by / Buy me a looking glass to look me in the eye-eye-eye.'" He added that he reworked his original song in just two hours after pouring some whiskey, using the same music for the chorus but changing the words and adding verses.Noddy explained that the transformation into a festive hit was due to his co-writer Jim Lea being challenged by his mother-in-law to write a Christmas song.