Shane MacGowan's Wife: Christmas No. 1 'Not Important'

The wife of late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan said that it's "not important" for his song, "Fairytale of New York," to reach No. 1 on the Christmas charts.

There have been calls for the song to hit the top spot since MacGowan's death at 66 on Nov. 30. But in an interview with the Independent, his wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, said the song's chart position was never important to MacGowan.

"He just appreciated that so many people loved the song," she said. "It was not important to him to have a status in the world. He just liked people being uplifted by his work."

The remarks come after Clarke said on BBC Radio 4's "Today" she was "very much in favor" of the song hitting No. 1. 

"It would be nice, wouldn't it?" she said. "It should be the Christmas number one. It absolutely should."

The song "Fairytale of New York," which includes Kirsty MacColl, debuted in 1987 and peaked at No. 2.

However, due to streaming, the song consistently has returned to the top 10 during the Christmas season over the past six years and is currently making its way up the charts again.

Clarke drew parallels between the tumultuous love story depicted in "Fairytale of New York" and her marriage to MacGowan.

"It's not [the romance that's] gone wrong — in the song, they still love each other," she said. "But life has gone wrong. I think that's what's probably a little bit similar to our story.

"We were both very much affected by his addiction, but you can still love, even when you're in that situation. And you can be very desperately unhappy as well as love."

Clarke also reminisced about her relationship with MacGowan, saying he "was the kind of husband that would tell you how beautiful you are every single day. He was always buying flowers, he was a really romantic man."

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