Fairytale of New York | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
|4/4 G Dmaj7 D/F# G D/F# | A D5 |
Verse (slow)
| D5 | A/G G |
It was Christmas Eve, babe. In the drunk tank.
| D/F# G D/F# | A6 A5 |
An old man said to me, won’t see another one.
| D5 | A/G G |
And then he sang a song. The Rare Old Mountain Dew.
| D/F# G D/F# | A5 D5 D5/A |
I turned my face away, and dreamed about you.
Verse 2 (slow)
| D5 | A/G G |
Got on a lucky one. Came in eighteen to one.
| D/F# G D/F# | A6 A5 |
I’ve got a feeling, this year’s for me and you.
| D5 | A/G G |
So happy Christmas, I love you baby.
| D/F# G D/F# | A5 D5 G | Dmaj7 D/F# G D/F# A5 |
I can see a better time, when all our dreams come true.
Instrumental 1
|6/8 D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A | D5 G | A D |
Verse 3 (a tempo)
| D5 A | Bm G |
They’ve got cars big as bars, they’ve got rivers of gold.
| D5 D5/A | D5 A |
But the wind goes right through you, it’s no place for the old.
| D5 Bm | D5 G |
When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas Eve.
| D5 D5/A | A D |
You promised me Broadway was waiting for me.
Verse 4
| D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A |
You were handsome, You were pretty, Queen of New York City.
| D5 G | A D |
When the band finished playing, they howled out for more.
| D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A |
Sinatra was swinging, all the drunks they were singing.
| D5 G | A D5 |
We kissed on a corner then danced through the night.
Chorus 1
| G | G | D | Bm |
The boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay.
| G | A |
And the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day.
Instrumental 2 (as verse 3)
| D5 A | Bm G |
| D5 D5/A | D5 A |
| D5 Bm | D5 G |
| D5 D5/A | A D |
Verse 5 (as verse 4)
You’re a bum, you’re a punk. You’re an old slut on junk.
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed.
You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot.
Happy Christmas your arse. I pray God it’s our last.
Chorus 2
The boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway Bay.
And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day.
Instrumental 3
| D5 | D5 | A/G G | G |
| D D/F# | D/F# G D/F# | A D5/A |
Verse 6 (breakdown)
| D5/A | D5 | D5 | G | G |
I could have been someone. Well so could anyone.
| D5 | D5 | A | A |
You took my dreams from me when I first found you.
| D5 D5/A | D5/A | A/G G | G |
I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own.
| D5 D/F# | D/F# G D/F# |3/8 A5 |6/8 D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A |
Can’t make it all alone, I’ve built my dreams around you.
Chorus 3
| G | G | D | Bm |
The boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway Bay.
| D5 N.C | N.C A5 |
And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day.
Outro
||: D5 | D5 Dmaj7 | G |
| G D/A | D | G D/F# A |
|1. A5 | A :||
|2. D5 | A :||
Fairytale of New York Chords: Learn the progressions
Who would have thought that four chords, I, IV, V, and VI in the key of D could be incredibly complicated?
Fairytale of New York is a masterclass in arranging, let’s look at each section to find out how the seemingly simple chords are constantly manipulated, starting with the sophisticated intro.
|4/4 G Dmaj7 D/F# G D/F# | A D5 |
First of all, we are in 4/4 time here, playing almost free time. G is chord IV, D is I D/F# is I/3. The A chord is V.
To play it as the piano does on the guitar, chords aren’t enough, you need TAB, here’s a link: Fairytale of New York – Guitar lesson with TAB.
After this lovely little introduction, two slow verses appear, they are almost identical so if written as one section, only the last line is varied, like this:
| D5 | A/G G |
| D/F# G D/F# |
|1.3 A6 A5 :||
|2. A5 D5 D5/A :||
|4. A5 D5 G | Dmaj7 D/F# G D/F# A5 |
That last line is extremely similar to the intro although not the same (check the TAB for details).
Next, we move to 6/8 time and play this instrumental section:
|6/8 D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A | D5 G | A D |
I started arranging this for one guitar using lots of strums but ended up with a picked part to simulate the sound of the full band, it’s really fast so not easy…
The feeling of this section bleeds into the verse. The first one at this tempo (verse 3 is unique, these are the chords:
| D5 A | Bm G | D5 D5/A |
|1. D5 A :||
|2. A D |
These chords come back for instrumental section 2 but never again for a verse.
Verses 4 and 5 for Fairytale of New York look like this:
||: D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A | D5 G | A D :||
We are now almost 2 minutes into this 4-and-a-half-minute song and this is when the chorus first appears. It’s short, these are the chords:
| G | G | D | Bm | G | A |
Chorus 3 has a stop in bar 5, but not on a G, we stop on a D chord instead, and then come in for the last half of bar 6 with an A again, like this:
| G | G | D | Bm | D5 N.C | N.C A5 |
The next new section is Instrumental 3 which is a breakdown, setting us up for verse 6, it looks like this if you, like me, want to include the string lines:
| D5 | D5 | A/G G | G |
| D D/F# | D/F# G D/F# | A D5/A |
Speaking of verse 6, I think it should start with more basic chords before we play similarly to that instrumental section. Here’s the first half.
| D5/A | D5 | D5 | G | G |
| D5 | D5 | A | A |
For the second half, we start including the strings again, like this:
| D5 D5/A | D5/A | A/G G | G |
| D5 D/F# | D/F# G D/F# |3/8 A5 |6/8 D5 D5/A | D5 D5/A |
That last line has a 3/8 bar which isn’t as nuts as it sounds, it’s just a 6/8 cut in half.
The final section, the outro, weaves together a similar concept although it is new:
||: D5 | D5 Dmaj7 | G |
| G D/A | D | G D/F# A |
|1. A5 | A :||
|2. D5 | A :||
Playing Fairytale of New York’s chords is not easy, it took me three days to work out how to do all this on one guitar and transcribe my findings.
After you’ve been through the enormous amount of TAB I produced for this classic, a chord chart may be enough as a reminder for your Christmas gig.
Fairytale of New York Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download my chord chart, here’s a PDF: Fairytale of New York Chord Chart PDF p1 and Fairytale of New York Chord Chart PDF p2.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to those files: Fairytale of New York iReal Pro p1 and Fairytale of New York iReal Pro p2.
Using this and the iRealPro app you can change the key (something I would personally refuse to do).
Can Fairytale of New York survive the woke era?
In the 2020s, the rules have changed. It’s not just sticks and stones; words can hurt too.
In the case of Fairytale of New York, the most controversial word is faggot. Since neither of the singers (now both deceased) was gay, it is considered homophobic by some.
In their defence, the word’s meaning in Irish slang refers to a lazy person, not a gay slur.
In 1992, during a BBC Top of the Pops appearance, Kirsty MacColl changed faggot to haggard, suggesting there was already some recognition that perhaps it wasn’t acceptable anymore.
Two other words in the song that have faced scrutiny are slut and arse. Kirsty modified arse to ass to appease BBC bosses.
Since 2020, BBC radio stations have adopted the word haggard and muted slut when playing the song on air.
Hopefully, these changes make the song less controversial while helping the BBC maintain its broad appeal and navigate the expectations of an increasingly socially conscious audience.
However, altering lyrics can raise questions about artistic integrity, as it touches on the balance between preserving the creator’s original vision.
I’d argue that changing lyrics undermines the authenticity and intent of the artist, compromising the work’s historical and cultural significance. But in the woke era, those in power believe that making adjustments demonstrates respect for contemporary values and ensures the work remains accessible to a broader audience.
There’s a great phrase for describing what the BBC has been doing to Fairytale of New York since the early 1990s: virtue signalling.
Unfortunately, neither of the singers who uttered those potentially hurtful words are around to weigh in on the debate.
Meanwhile, when it comes to BBC themselves, there’s seemingly a new internal scandal every year!
Fairytale of New York Chords | Related Pages
Fairytale of New York | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Fairytale of New York by The Pogues using TAB and chord analysis.
| D5 | A/G G |
It was Christmas Eve, babe. In the drunk tank…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- All I Want For Christmas Is You
- Bird on the Wire
- Last Christmas
- Little Lion Man
- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
The Pogues
The Pogues formed in London but stayed true to their Irish roots and became known for their charismatic frontman Shane MacGovan.
They are best known for their traditional Irish tunes and Christmas song Fairytale of New York With Kirsty MacColl.
The Pogues on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Fairytale of New York chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
