Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Googling Bing

It's an unlikely headline from the Telegraph:

Bing Crosby to challenge X Factor for Christmas number one

Bing Crosby is going to challenge the X Factor for the Christmas number one spot with a remake of his classic seasonal hit White Christmas.

Bing Crosby. Throwing down a challenge from beyond the grave, is he?

Despite selling millions of records, the late singer - who died 33 years ago - never released a number one single.

You don't actually release a number one single, do you? You have one; you release a single you might hope goes to number one. But still, carry on:

But his classic Christmas hit has been reworked into a duet with the opera star Bryn Terfel.

Ah, so when the Telegraph says "Bing is challenging", they mean that the moneygrubbers who own the copyright in his recording are besmirching the memory in a bid to make a few quid. Perhaps they couldn't fit that in the headline, though.

Who can make sense of this mushing together of variegated ingredients? Step forward HMV's Csarther Christmas, Gennaro Castaldo:

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: ''Last year we saw how the internet and social media could be used to great effect to determine the Christmas number one.

''People might assume the same will happen again, but I think it's unlikely we'll see such a co-ordinated campaign for a while, so it's entirely possible that a more conventional song will top the charts this Christmas - and what could be more traditional that a wonderful cover of a festive classic."

Well, given that most years the number one at Christmas has nothing to do with Christmas, and - if you don't count Band Aid - the only real traditional Christmas song that has been number one at Christmas was Boney M's cover of Mary's Boy Child - probably anything might be more traditional. To be honest.