Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)

"Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)"
Single by The Darkness
Released	2003
Format	CD
Genre	Hard rock
Length	3:25
Label	Must Destroy/Atlantic
Writer(s)	Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain, Ed Graham
Certification	Silver (BPI)
The Darkness singles chronology
"I Believe in a Thing Called Love" (2003) "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" (2003) "Love Is Only a Feeling" (2003)

"Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)" is a single released by The Darkness in the UK during December 2003, to fall in with the famous UK Christmas Number One Race.

Race for Christmas #1

The song was favourite with the bookmakers to reach number one in the official UK singles chart, but was beaten by the relatively unknown Gary Jules and Michael Andrews with a cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" and had to settle for the number two position, joining a list of acts including The Pogues, Mariah Carey and Cliff Richard to miss out on the top spot.

According to sales information from Music Week, The Darkness were at No.1 all week and lost out on Saturday sales - one of the closest battles for Christmas #1 in recent years.^[1]

(-) 1 227,500 Gary Jules - "Mad World"
(-) 2 222,500 The Darkness - "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)"
(1) 3 144,800 Kelly & Ozzy Osbourne - "Changes"
(-) 4 97,000 Bo Selecta - "Proper Crimbo"
(-) 5 73,000 The Idols - "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"

It was quite a surprise considering the sombre nature of Jules and Andrews' song at a festive time.

The song was used to advertise Sky One's Christmas lineup in 2003.

The song has sold 385,000 copies in the UK as stated by the Official UK Charts Company.

Song details

The song is a take on the usual structure of Christmas songs. It features the usual mention of festivities, Santa Claus and bells, delivered with Justin Hawkins' trademark falsettos.

The school choir providing backing vocals, heard on the single and seen in the song's video, came from Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College school, in New Cross, London, which Justin and Dan's mother once attended.

Following the humour and tone of The Darkness' other work the song also includes a strong level of parody most notably the double meaning of the line 'Bells End' and 'Ring in peace' (ringpiece).

The song appears as the backing track for the Christmas version of Adult Swim's iOS game, Robot Unicorn Attack, to be released November 2010.^[2]

Music video

The video features the band unwrapping presents. Justin Hawkins thinks of his girlfriend (played by his then-girlfriend and The Darkness's manager, Sue Whitehouse) as pictured in a bauble and in the fire. Then Justin goes outside and is joined by the rest of the band playing the song. Then Justin opens the door to find a choir standing outside singing the song. Justin joins in and invites them inside. Then Dan Hawkins gives Justin a present; a car key. Then Justin runs outside and into the car while Dan winks to the audience. And inside the car is Justin's girlfriend. They kiss as the spaceship seen in the videos for 'I Believe in a Thing in a Thing Called Love' and 'Growing on Me' (and on the cover of debut album Permission To Land) flies across the sky showing some glittery words saying 'Merry Christmas'.

Track listings

UK CD single

1. Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)
2. I Love You 5 Times

Enhanced DVD

1. Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)
2. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (live at Knebworth)
3. Christmas Time... music video

Charts

Chart (2003)	Peak position
Dutch Singles Chart	10
Danish Singles Chart	9
Irish Singles Chart	2
Norwegian Singles Chart	20
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[3]	2
Chart (2005)	Peak position
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[3]	58
Chart (2008)	Peak position
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[3]	89
Chart (2010)	Peak position
UK Rock (The Official Charts Company)[4]	1
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[3]	87

Chart successions

Preceded by "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" by My Chemical Romance

UK Rock Chart number-one single 11 December 2010 –

Succeeded by Incumbent

References

1. ^ 1
2. ^ http://kotaku.com/5695595/robot-unicorn-attacks-christmas
3. ^ ^{a b c d} "Chart Stats – The Darkness – Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" UK Singles Chart. Chart Stats.
4. ^ http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/10/2010-12-18/