Shhh! Be very very quiet. We’re hunting wabbits…
Let’s Party, by Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers (their 3rd and final #1)
1 week, from 10th – 17th December 1989
Blunderbusses at the ready, for surely you knew it was coming. With a chart-topper in the summer, and one in the autumn, Jive Bunny and his Mastermixers set their sights on the Christmas number one.
And after two rock ‘n’ roll medleys, he’s skipped forward a decade or so, to the glam Christmas classics of the seventies and early eighties. A Noddy Holder soundalike is on C’mon everybody! duties, as well as his classic It’s Chriiiisstmaaaass… line from ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’. This version sounds muted by comparison to Slade’s raucous original, but it only lasts for a verse and a chorus, before Wizzard take over.
Yes, ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ finally assumes its rightful position atop the charts. It’s just a shame that it took this crap to get it there. Unlike Slade, Roy Wood endorsed this sampling, and even re-recorded his vocals for the occasion. That done, the 3rd song is announced: Ok Gazza, take it away…
And it’s ‘Another Rock and Roll Christmas’, Gary Glitter’s 1984 comeback hit. Given that he was also involved in last year’s ‘Doctorin’ the Tardis’, it’s easy to forget just how big a part of British popular culture he was before his trip to PC World. Presents hanging from the trees, You’ll never guess what you’ve got from me… (We’d rather not find out, Gary.) Apparently he’s been replaced with Mariah Carey in more recent versions of ‘Let’s Party’, though who exactly has listened to this song at any point in the last thirty years is beyond me.
The thumping beat that holds this whole mess together is called ‘March of the Mods’, which I don’t think has anything to do with Christmas. Why didn’t they try something from ‘The Nutcracker’, at least? And while I complained about some of the mixing on JB’s earlier #1s, at least attempts were made to stitch those songs together. Here the three Christmas songs and the filler beat slam together like dodgems. I found some cheesy, madcap charm in the previous chart-toppers, but here my patience runs out fast. (The sleeve above lists the record as a double-‘A’, alongside a version of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Thankfully the Official Charts Company only lists ‘Let’s Party’, so I’ll follow their lead and pretend the Bunny’s desecration of Rabbie Burns never happened…)
What in the hell is going on…? a voice demands towards the end, a sentiment I wholeheartedly echo. J-J-Jive Bunny! someone else replies. Meanwhile the fake Noddy Holder aggressively bellows Let’s Party! It’s a mess, and not a hot one. Yet it entered the chart at #1, and meant that Jive Bunny joined Gerry & The Pacemakers and Frankie Goes to Hollywood in making top spot with their first three releases (the fact that Jive Bunny did it quickest is another feather in his cap).
He and the Mastermixers still had two Top 10 hits to come, and would continue releasing singles until well into 1991. But, thankfully, they won’t be troubling this blog again. And, despite the clear demand for this single, it was never going to be 1989’s Christmas Number One. We have Bob Geldof to thank for that.
(This is the original video, but with the Gary Glitter verse edited out and replaced with the second verse of ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’.)
(This sounds to me like a re-recording – with slightly more modern production values – but with he-who-shall-not-be-named left in…)
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I bought the 7″ for the mobile disco like so many of my peers, but I never turned it over to subject myself to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ either. The Slade version from their ‘Crackers’ album that interpolates ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ does the job. Mr Bunny, thank you and goodnight. Don’t call us, we’ll call you (if we’re desperate).
I just gave in and listened to their ‘Auld Lang Syne’, and it’s pretty straightforward. No ‘C’mon Everybody’-ing, or ‘J-J-J Jive Bunny’-ing. I’m a bit disappointed, if I’m honest…
Hi I’m new to this blog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts, I was 23 in 1989 and appalled that Jive Bunny had three number ones, I didn’t know anyone who admitted to buying the records and all my friends ridiculed them. Now in my late 50’s I look back and feel more contempt towards Robson and Jerome’s hat trick than towards the rabbit, at least JB weren’t meant to be taken ‘seriously’
Hello, welcome, and thanks for your comment! Yeah, at least JB was upbeat and fun, and potentially introduced classic rock n roll to a new audience. I will reserve my opinions on Robson and Jerome for when they come along.! It’s not just that they were massive though, its the songs they famously kept off #1 as well…
like the hunting wabbits hah! Actually i found this the least-annoying of their messy mash ups cos there was only 3 songs and at xmastime it seemed more reasonable. Plus – Wizzard finally getting that number one! Bout time! At the time Mr Gadd was touring heavily and was rather terrific live where his ego could go full-on OTT, it was bigger than the auditorium, and that Xmas song was regarded as an annual festive classic. Still would be if not for his career-destroying activities…
Yes, it’s just a shame that it took Jive Bunny for Little Richard, Wizzard et al to get a rightful number one. I was young when Gary Glitter’s offences came to light, but have a vague memory of how famous he was even in the 80s/90s. I remember him being on ‘Going Live’ doing the Saturday morning kids TV circuit (dread to think what he got up to backstage!) and my aunt explaining who he was… Strange the things you remember from childhood!
I had to search but I found the one with Glitter….I adore that Slade Christmas song…unlike you guys we never hear it over here whatsoever. Again…I don’t believe in cutting the song up 34 years later. I want to hear it like it was.
This is my least favorite of the three…but I like it.
Yeah, by this point in time Slade have been done to death. But its cool that Wizzard got their long-overdue Christmas #1 (sort of)…
I do like that one also.