MISTLETOE AND WINE
by CLIFF RICHARD

28 years after he scored his first UK Official Singles Chart Christmas Number 1, Cliff Richard returned to the festive top spot for his 12th chart-topper, with his 99th (!) single Mistletoe and Wine.

Originally written by British songwriters Jeremy Paul, Leslie Stewart and Keith Strachan for a stage musical, 1976’s Scraps, which was an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl, Cliff liked the song but asked if he could change the lyrics to make it a bit more festive and recorded it during Summer 1988, where he got into the mood by draping some tinsel over the microphone.

Released November 21, 1988, Mistletoe and Wine entered the chart at Number 7 and a week later was at Number 1 for four weeks making it 1988’s UK Official Singles Chart Christmas Number 1, and with over 750,000 sales, it became the biggest-selling single of the year too.