WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
And so this is almost Christmas.
We officially hit that moment in the year when analysis of the charts as a barometer of tastes in current popular music essentially flies out the window. The Yule Log has now hit a high of 50 Christmas-themed songs on the Top 100 and from now until the new year it is not the latest and greatest sounds that dominate but the parade of perennial Christmas favourites. You would think there would be nothing new to say about any of this, but you would be wrong. Because every single year there is still something new to tease out.
We, first of all, have a brand new Number One as the sound of jingle bells becomes all-pervading. Taking over at the top of the charts once again, and breaking the run of solo female acts at the top, is Last Christmas by Wham. It is fitting in a way, the single last week having celebrated its 40th birthday, debuting at No.2 on the chart for week ending December 15th 1984. Counting them all individually Last Christmas becomes the first track ever to climb to No.1 five different times. It first summited the Official UK Singles chart on the final chart of 2020 (dated 7th January 2021), was No.1 twice either side of Christmas week itself in 2022, No.1 for four weeks at the end of 2023 (during which time it was Christmas No.1 itself) and now once more in 2024. It would be a spectacular feat for an "ordinary" record, but having it seems taken over as the nation's favourite Christmas song it is now more or less a certainty that it makes an annual pilgrimage to the top of the UK charts. For the third year running it is No.1 the week before the Christmas chart and marks not so much the true official start of the festive period but the point at which the singles chart starts to become a running nonsense. And we still have another fortnight of this to come.
Branching Out
Not that the biggest contemporary hits of all aren't still holding their own. Projected for a larger fall midweek, That's So True by Gracie Abrams clings on doggedly at No.2 with Rose and Bruno's APT sliding a mere single place to No.4. Sandwiched between the two is - inevitably - All I Want For Christmas Is You. You will note that it looks set to miss out on its own perennial journey to the top of the charts for the second year running, despite the added bonus of its own 30th anniversary.
Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (a song she recorded when she was just 13) is No.5 - coinciding with her 80th birthday this week. She's the oldest living artist on the chart this week (the 77 year old Elton John and 78 year old Cher running her close) although Bing Crosby's White Christmas (No.66) is the oldest recording, dating from 1947.
Alexa Play That Christmas Song
"Just what is it", someone asked me midweek, "that makes Amazon exclusive tracks so popular". And I guess it has been a few years since I've had to spell it out. Amazon Echo devices are far and away the most ubiquitously popular smart speaker brand. If you don't deliberately plug them in to a Spotify, Apple or Deezer subscription then they default to playing tracks from Amazon Music when commanded - and if you haven't signed up to an Unlimited subscription then you are restricted to music from generated playlists. So it is almost inevitable that the command "Alexa, play Christmas songs" fires up an Amazon approved playlist, into which they naturally sprinkle liberally their own exclusively made songs.
Recipient of that boost this year is Tom Grennan with It Can't Be Christmas which flies to a new peak of No.6 - benefitting from "lean back" plays from those who know no better and the fact that as a new recording it is not subject to the yoke of the perma-ACR that are in theory supposed to inhibit the vintage classics around it. The song is now the British star's fifth Top 10 hit single, his first since he featured on KSI's Not Over Yet in 2022. Last year's Amazon star Sam Ryder came within an ace of the top of the charts when That's Christmas To Me peaked at No.2, but that was also down to his own relentless promotion of the track. Grennan has been more laid back about this, inhibiting its chances somewhat. But It Can't Be Christmas still stands out as the biggest new festive track of the moment. However much it has "cheated" to do so.
A Beautiful Sight
Also brand new to the Top 10 at long, long last is Underneath The Tree from Kelly Clarkson, hitting a new peak of No.10 11 years after it was first released and peaked at No.30. One place ahead of her is Ariana Grande with Santa Tell Me which makes the Top 10 for the second year running. That's at the expense of Wicked soundtrack hit Defying Gravity which for now cannot and slides to No.12.
Notable by its absence from the upper end of the chart is Merry Christmas from Ed Sheeran and Elton John. After weeks of confidently predicting that there was no way Official Charts would strictly enforce the three year guillotine on the track in the middle of its festive chart run, they have done just that. The plunge of the song from 9-45 is by no means due to an instant drop off in appeal but merely the fact that it now counts as back catalogue and is permanently on ACR. And I guess nobody asked for the rule to be waived.
Now For The Special Part
Amidst the festive cheer it takes a single that is a huge deal to make both waves and chart progress. So it is nothing less than phenomenal to see Messy, the debut hit single from up and coming British star Lola Young rocket 35-11. Your spidey senses should be tingling about this. One of the songs we see here will be the first No.1 of the new year when the Christmas songs make an immediate exit in two weeks' time. And Messy surely has to be a massive contender. Success has been long overdue for the 23 year old from Croydon, releasing her first mini album in 2019 and being a nominee for the Brits Rising Star award in 2021. That was the same year she became the voice of the John Lewis Christmas advert, performing her version of Together In Electric Dreams although it would ultimately never make the singles chart. On a chart with a Christmas filter applied Messy is effectively No.3. Something big is going to have to get in the way of it being No.1 in three weeks..
Other contemporary songs making waves are The Days from Chrystal which lifts to No.24 amongst all the noise ahead of what too must surely be a high-level chart run in the new year, and Sabrina Carpenter's A Nonsense Christmas which reached No.78 last year but which now rockets to No.25 in the wake of the release of her Netflix special of the same name in which she performed songs from her Christmas EP Fruitcake. That too makes chart waves of its own, hitting No.5 on the albums chart as it makes the Top 100 for the first time after finally being released physically. A Nonsense Christmas is itself a reworking, a lyrically altered version of her own hit Nonsense which crept to No.32 in January 2023.
Taylor's World
Atop the albums chart once more is Taylor Swift with The Tortured Poets Department, that album now enjoying a tenth non-consecutive week at the top of the charts. It is the longest No.1 run by an album from a (deep breath) female international solo artist since Shania Twain's Come On Over had a total of 11 weeks at the top between September 1999 and January 2000.
And so that was the week before Christmas. We now enter Christmas No.1 week, and if you are clicking here looking for insight as to what might help stage a betting coup you are out of luck. Having been the festive champion last year by default Last Christmas is odds-on to repeat the trick again. And as I'll explain next time, if that happens it will do more than Ladbaby ever did to kill off the whole idea of the "Christmas race" once and for all. We are left hoping against hope for a charity single of some kind to do a smash and grab raid on the singles chart. Words I never ever thought I'd find myself typing. But if you ask the bookmakers, none of them can see anything other than Wham being a runaway favourite. Sausage roll anyone?
