Radio stations all across the country have pre-emptively flipped to the all-holiday-music format–despite Thanksgiving not even being until Thursday–so ASCAP figured the time was right to unleash a list of the 25 most popular holiday songs of the past five years, (Christmas music and lists? Somebody’s got their finger on the pulse!) Topping the chart is “Winter Wonderland,” which since being written in 1934 has been covered by the likes of the Andrews Sisters, the Eurythmics, the Cocteau Twins, and Air Supply (how have I not heard that cover?), while the most recent entry on the list is 1984′s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The top 25–with the recording artist whose version has received the most radio airplay over the past five holiday seasons–after the jump.
1. “Winter Wonderland,” written by Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith (performed by Eurythmics)
2. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” by Mel Torme and Robert Wells (Nat “King” Cole)
3. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin (the Pretenders)
4. “Sleigh Ride,” by Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish; (the Ronettes)
5. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie (Frank Sinatra)
6. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne (Michael Buble)
7. “White Christmas,” by Irving Berlin (Bing Crosby)
8. “Jingle Bell Rock,” by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe (Bobby Helms)
9. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” by Johnny Marks (Gene Autry)
10. “Little Drummer Boy,” by Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati and Harry Simeone (The Harry Simeone Chorale & Orchestra)
11. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” by Edward Pola, George Wyle (Andy Williams)
12 “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Johnny Marks (Brenda Lee)
13. “Silver Bells,” by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans (Kenny G)
14. “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” by Walter Kent, Kim Gannon and Buck Ram (Amy Grant)
15. “Feliz Navidad,” by Jose Feliciano (Jose Feliciano)
16. “Frosty the Snowman,” by Steve Nelson and Walter E. Rollins (the Ronettes)
17. “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” by Johnny Marks (Burl Ives)
18. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” by Meredith Willson (Johnny Mathis)
19. “Blue Christmas,” by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson (Elvis Presley)
20. “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays,” by Bob Allen and Al Stillman (Perry Como)
21. “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” by Tommie Connor (John Mellencamp)
22. “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane),” by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman (Gene Autry)
23. “Carol of the Bells,” by Peter J. Wilhousky and Mykola Leontovich (David Foster [instrumental version])
24. “Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World),” by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof (Band Aid)
25. “This Christmas,” Donny Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor (Gloria Estefan)
I’m sort of surprised by the Eurythmics’ take on “Winter Wonderland” topping this particular chart, although I guess your Lite-FMs aren’t exactly Cocteau Twins-crazy. Anyway, my favorite Annie Lennox-fronted Christmas song isn’t explicitly holiday-themed, but the video makes up for it:
It’s so shiny! The sound, I mean.
ASCAP lists most-performed holiday songs [Hollywood Reporter]
Put A Little Love In Your Heart [YouTube]
I’m not sentimental about Christmas at all but, damn, “Do They Know It’s Christmas” gets me all misty-eyed. GREAT song.
You could write this up like you write-up a “year-end best-of” list, with THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE WHAAAAA???? That could be fun…
@NeverEnough: “Do They Know It’s Christmas” has to be the most racist secretly racist Christmas song of all. Of course they don’t know it’s Christmas, or if they do, they don’t care! If you’re Muslim and getting murdered, do you know or care that it’s Christmas? This song has always baffled me.
I definitely don’t consider myself a fan of Xmas music, but these two (plus the obligatory “Fairytale of New York”) are perennial favorites:
I really feel like there’s been an unwelcome resurgence of “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime” recently.
+ Watch video
Okay, I’m just going to say it.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You,” is a fine Spector tribute/ripoff. It’s closer to being a new Christmas standard than 99% of the holiday-related dreck that’s come down the pike since its release.
What, no Christmas in Hollis?
Um. Where is “All I Want for Christmas is You”? It is my favorite Christmas song of all time!
@Eugene Langley: I first heard it when I was 10 and didn’t really delve deeply into the lyrics (although, “Tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you” as sung by Bono is hilarious). It was only years later that the whole Christmas in Africa slant hit me. Regardless, anything that could successfully unite the warring factions of Duran Duran, Culture Club AND Spandau Ballet is inherently A Good Thing.
No “Last Christmas” by Wham? A travesty. First hearing that song (and seeing Starbucks’ egg nog lattes on sale) are how I know when Christmas-time is officially here.
Aw, no love for Phil Spector’s “Christmas (baby please come home)!” Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is absent, too. Too depressing?
@joshservo: There is no shame in the Mariah Christmas song! It’s bright, jubilant, and I still find the video adorable. Definitely a modern classic.
Do I live in some weird part of the country that plays Mariah Carey on every station at least once an hour? I don’t understand how that could not be on this list. Although I suppose there’s only one version of it, as opposed to 284726264298747626 of Winter Wonderland.
I wish they’d stop playing fucking Jingle Bell Rock though. I hate that song.
Also, I don’t know what version of the Little Drummer Boy that is but I thought these days the Bob Seger one was the standard.
Being a Scrooge, I think the worst job on earth has to be working at one of those retched, year-round Christmas stores. I’d blow my fucking head off the first day.
i love that mariah carey track so much. and ‘last christmas.’ and ‘wonderful christmastime.’ and ‘christmas in hollis,’ too.
i actually held off on posting this comment so i could listen to ‘all i want for christmas is you’ in its entirety just now. SERIOUSLY GUYS
@Eugene Langley: Haha. I thought the same thing. I think their hearts were in the right place, though.
Sweet, time to bust out Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland by the Flaming Lips!
@joshservo: I enjoy the original, but my holidays are not complete without this cover version:
No ‘Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays’ by NSYNC? I mean, they got Gary Cole for the video!! They rubbed dirt onto “homeless” people’s faces and danced with small children!
Where is the love in the room (from the floor to the ceiling)??
The only thing I like about “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is Paul Weller was involved.
My local alternative rock station usually plays songs by artists they’d never play otherwise (Wham! is hardly alternative even in an “in the 80′s most rock from the UK is alternative-80′s-retro-lunch game”), but they do sneak in my two favorite christmas songs of them all. Those being:
Kate Bush “December Will Be Magic Again”
Squeeze “Chirstmas Day”
(no video. Apparently searching for “Squeeze Christmas Day” on Youtube gets you memorials for Pimp C of UGK instead of a song by a popular new wave band).
@DocStrange: Oh yes, and “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues, which every alternative station on the planet is required by law to play because. Which is great because it’s fantastic.
So… is it not cool to like “Christmas Wrapping” anymore? The Waitresses are pretty much the only Christmas music I’ll tolerate outside of family obligations.
I think I’m the official backlash-against-the-backlash when it comes to “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” I still love it, despite hearing smart-alecky disembowelings of it by critics for more than a decade now.
It’s like, Wow, you guys are smart! You’re right, Africans wouldn’t see any snow, ever! How incisive of you! And their religion doesn’t even involve Christmas! What were Geldof and those Ultravox guys thinking?
Forgive me for being cynically uncynical, but isn’t some of the obviousness of the song the fucking point?
Everyone makes fun of the “snow in Africa” line, but no one goes on to talk about the next line, which I will admit still chokes me up a little 24 years later: “The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life.”
Geldof et al. are trying to grab overfed Westerners by the lapels and say, Look, the trappings of a consumerist Christmas are fun and all, including your equation of snow and presents and shit with the spirit of giving, but maybe you could spare a thought for some people who can enjoy neither the frills of Western society nor the basics, like, say, nourishment.
I mean, isn’t it possible that a charity record designed to sell millions of copies isn’t supposed to exhibit the wit of Dylan as his most sly or, I dunno, Morrissey at his most ironic, and is instead supposed to rouse millions of people to sing “Feed the world,” buy the record and donate money to a deserving charity, en masse? Isn’t it possible that by “let[ting] them [Africans] know it’s Christmastime again,” we’re reminding ourselves of what Christmas is supposed to mean, even if the people we’re giving to don’t actually celebrate the same holidays we do? Does it matter if Africans celebrate Christmas if they find out, through our yuletide giving, that we care about them? Didn’t anybody really listen to Linus when he schooled Charlie Brown?
In short, I basically find the complainers about this song to be far more literal- (and narrow-) minded than the supposed numbskulls who wrote and recorded it.
@Poubelle: That is terrific. So long, indie cred!
O Love Gloria Estefan’s version of “This Christmas”