While Mariah Carey still earns a whopping £375,000 a year in royalties from her Christmas hit All I Want For Christmas Is You, The Darkness unfortunately didnt earn as much for their festive hit.
But they did earn a lot.
The tune, Christmas Time (Dont Let The Bells End) reportedly raked in a booming £1million a month for the band when it came runner up to Michael Andrews and Cary Jules Mad World for Christmas Number One, and lead singer Justin Hawkins has famously admitted he blew £150,000 on cocaine as he partook in the fast life of a rock star.
Now, however, after the band got back together after splitting in 2006 due to the singers ways, he now lives a much calmer existence in Switzerland with his wife and daughter – but enjoys a boogie to the tune that once brought him riches.
If Im back in the UK around this time of year and shopping at the Tesco near my mums I hear it in the aisles and Im surprised at how good it still sounds, he said, as the tune starts its yearly earworm pilgrimage.
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I dont think sometimes it gets put on because Ive been spotted in the store. But I ride it out and sometimes have a little dance to it in the aisles.
Punters will sing some bars to the lad as they see him on the street, as he added to The Sun: I get our other big song I Believe in a Thing Called Love sung to me as well. We see ourselves as a two-hit wonder.
Hed previously told The Mirror that while the song hasnt set him up for life, as other festive number ones may do for other artists, it still allows him to enjoy some finer things in life.
When you can hear our Christmas song from mid-November I do hear the sound of a small pound coin entering a piggy bank in my head, he said.
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Then I think, “Ah yes, I will buy the Tesco Finest range instead of economy”.
For many years the tune has popped back up, charting once more in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2010. Its also achieved millions of views on YouTube and 20 million audio streams, keeping those royalties rolling in.
Dont let those bells (and bills) end!
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