Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Kylie's #93 Christmas Smash!

The UK singles chart is positively overrun with Christmas tunes this year. The usual suspects are all represented (Mariah's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", Band Aid and Wham's fabulous "Last Christmas") but my favourite dose of festive cheer is currently lodged at #93. In one of the year's most amusing chart quirks, Kylie's seven year old cover of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" has been downloaded enough times in the lead up to Christmas to break into the top 100. If, like me, you prefer your Yuletide happy and very GAY, then it's hard to go past "Santa Baby" for a bit of harmless festive cheer.

Kylie's camp Christmas carol originally appeared alongside her 2000 top ten hit "Please Stay". Much maligned by fans and critics, I've always had a soft spot for Kylie's lame attempt to jump on the Latin bandwagon. "Please Stay" is pure pop fun, the video remains a trash classic (who can forget Kylie's slow motion slide down the fireman's pole?) and the CD Single was a most unusual package with the loungetastic "Good Life" and "Santa Baby". From memory "Please Stay" even came with a calender! Given the single's December release, Kylie ended up performing "Santa Baby" several times on British TV including a camp rendition on Top Of The Pops.

While the studio version of "Santa Baby" originates from 2000, Kylie had already performed the song a year earlier for Australian soldiers during her tour of duty in East Timor! The 90s really were a weird and wonderful time for Minogue senior and the televised "Tour For The Troops" concert remains one of my favourite Kylie moments of that entire decade. Kylie looks adorable in her sexy santa wrap and the salivating soldiers make the entire experience slightly surreal. Enjoy Kylie belting out "Santa Baby" and "Rockin' Robin" for the troops in the clip below:


Fans might also enjoy Kylie's duet with John Farnham from the same concert. "Santa Baby" is available to download from Australian and UK iTunes now.

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