Byline: John Peel

The Festive 50 dates back to what was doubtless a crisp September morning in the early-to-mid Seventies, when John Walters and I were musing on life in his uniquely squalid office. In our waggish way, we decided to mock the enthusiasm of the Radio 1 management of the time for programmes with alliterative titles. Content, we felt, was of less importance than a snappy Radio Times billing. In the course of our historic meeting we had, I imagine, some fine reasons for dismissing the idea of a Festive 40 and going instead for a Festive 50, a decision that was to ruin my Decembers for years to come, condemning me to night after night at home with a ledger, when I could have been out and about having fun, fun, fun.

Listeners have been encouraged to send me a list of their three favourite tracks, whether singles from LPs or from 1FM sessions. Initially, these three could have been from any era of pop, but the sheer boredom of counting up Boycott-like scores for Layla and Stairway to Heaven and, after punk, for Anarchy in...