The eagerly-anticipated John Lewis Advert has been unveiled, officially kicking off the countdown to Christmas. As expected, fans have taken to social media in their droves to give their nod of approval after getting their heartstrings pulled for two minutes.

Having grown accustomed to pop stars like Ellie Goulding and Aurora Aksnes recording a song for the iconic commercial, it came as a surprise to some that department store has drafted indie band Elbow to cover The Beatles song, Golden Slumbers.

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The Mercury award-winningact band, consisting of frontman Guy Garvey and Craig Potter, Mark Potter and Pete Turner are one of the Britain's biggest little bands of the past 20 years.

You may have stumbled across some of their hits including One Day Like This and Grounds for Divorce.

They released their debut album Asleep In The Back in 2001, but it wasn't until their Mercury Prize win in 2008 for their album The Seldom Seen Kid that they were thrust into the front line of music stardom.

A year later they took home the Brit Award for Best British Group and their song First Steps was the BBC's official soundtrack for the London 2012 Olympics.

Earlier in 2017, they released their seventh studio album, Little Fictions, which topped the albums chart and spawned the hit Magnificent (She Said).

Golden Slumbers was written by Paul McCartney and originally formed part of the "long medley" on the 1969 album Abbey Road. The retailer previously delved into the Beatles-related discography back in 2014 when Tom Odell performed a cover of John Lennon's Real Love.

Bookmakers Paddy Power offers 6/1 that the cover song, which is barely unchanged from the orchestral original, will be this year's Christmas number 1.

Elbow
Pete Turner, Richard Jupp, Guy Garvey, Pete Turner and Craig Potter of Elbow pose for photos in front of the worlds first digital branding board from Sony at the Xperia Access Q Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel on October 22, 2014 in London, England. Getty