The Hives 'Duel' with Cyndi Lauper for Christmas

By Tom Porter
published

It's a free download. Festive cheer not dead

Bring it on
Bring it on

Christmas. A time for togetherness and heart-touching duets, yes? Actually, no. Everybody's favourite Swedish rockers The Hives and fun-wanting-girl Cyndi Lauper have teamed up to record A Christmas Duel: a fight-filled Yuletide number available as a free download between 28-30 November.

A statement from The Hives reads thus:"It may sound weird and come as a surprise to some, but we had to. It came to us. It landed in our lap and was way too good to shake or toss. We knew we had to record it. A sign if you will."

Cyndi Lauper added this: "This goes to show even rat sideswipers can have a good Xmas too." We have no idea what this means. Regardless, after the download, general sale commences 1 December.

Fairytale

The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl successfully made the greatest festive 'duel' in 1987 with Fairytale Of New York. The bar is raised…

Tom Porter

Tom Porter worked on MusicRadar from its mid-2007 launch date to 2011, covering a range of music and music making topics, across features, gear news, reviews, interviews and more. A regular NAMM-goer back in the day, Tom now resides permanently in Los Angeles, where he's doing rather well at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).