wibble

The Christmas songs below are those that made it into the Christmas chart for 2007.  Let’s see how fast they fall out!

#4 - Fairytale Of New York - Pogues Featuring Kirsty Maccoll
#6 - All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
#16 - Last Christmas - Wham
#18 - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
#20 - Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
#21 - It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Andy Williams
#22 - Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin’ Stevens
#24 - Do They Know It’s Christmas - Band Aid
#33 - Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
#34 - Don’t Shoot Me Santa - Killers
#41 - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band
#42 - White Christmas - Bing Crosby
#44 - Wonderful Christmastime - Paul Mccartney
#47 - Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord - Boney M
#49 - It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like - Perry Como
#51 - The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
#53 - Step Into Christmas - Elton John
#60 - Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town - Bruce Springsteen
#68 - Mistletoe And Wine - Cliff Richard
#72 - Walking In The Air - Aled Jones
#73 - Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
#76 - Santa Baby - Kylie Minogue
#86 - Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
#87 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Dean Martin
#93 - Please Come Home For Christmas - Eagles
#94 - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
#105 - Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) - Darkness
#106 - When A Child Is Born - Johnny Mathis
#111 - Last Christmas - Cascada
#115 - Frosty The Snowman - Ronettes
#120 - Christmas Wrapping - Waitresses
#121 - Lonely This Christmas - Mud
#123 - Calling It Christmas - Joss Stone & Elton John
#128 - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra
#150 - Do They Know It’s Christmas - Band Aid 20
#151 - A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris De Burgh
#156 - Sleigh Ride - Ronettes
#157 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Michael Buble
#159 - Proper Crimbo - Bo Selecta
#160 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Frank Sinatra
#185 - 8 Days Of Christmas - Destiny’s Child
#187 - Winter Wonderland - Tony Bennett
#189 - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree - Mel Smith & Kim Wilde
#195 - Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

A few more Christmas songs entered the Top 200 this week.  This has been commented on in Music Week as well:

“This is the first Christmas in which singles available only as downloads have been eligible to chart, and it has had a massive effect on seasonal titles, with 10 in the Top 40, 17 in the Top 75 and 44 in the Top 200 – all record tallies.”

The full list for this week is:
#4 - All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
#8 - Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl
#14 - Last Christmas - Wham!
#16 - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
#21 - It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Andy Williams
#22 - Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
#23 - Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin’ Stevens
#27 - Do They Know It’s Christmas? - Band Aid
#35 - Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
#40 - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John And Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band With the Harlem Community Choir
#43 - Don’t Shoot Me Santa - The Killers
#44 - Here Come The Girls - Ernie K-Doe
#48 - White Christmas - Bing Crosby
#61 - Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord - Boney M
#64 - It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como
#65 - Elton John’s Christmas EP - Elton John
#70 - Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney
#72 - Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie
#76 - The Christmas Song - Nat ‘King’ Cole
#82 - Mistletoe And Wine - Cliff Richard
#83 - Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town - Bruce Springsteen
#85 - Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
#86 - Walking In The Air - Aled Jones
#92 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Dean Martin
#93 - Santa Baby - Kylie Minogue
#97 - Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby And David Bowie
#109 - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
#112 - Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) - The Darkness
#114 - Last Christmas - Cascada
#116 - Please Come Home For Christmas - The Eagles
#118 - When A Child Is Born - Johnny Mathis
#123 - Cool Yule - Louis Armstrong
#129 - Frosty The Snowman - The Ronettes
#130 - Stay Another Day - East 17
#131 - Lonely This Christmas - Mud
#138 - Calling It Christmas - Joss Stone And Elton John
#142 - Do They Know It’s Christmas? - Band Aid 20
#147 - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra
#151 - Proper Crimbo - Bo Selecta
#154 - Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
#158 - Let It Snow - Michael Buble
#171 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Frank Sinatra
#180 - A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris De Burgh
#184 - Baby, It’s Cold Outside - Tom Jones ??
#185 - Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes
#194 - Winter Wonderland - Tony Bennett

I think this song is starting to rival the record for the most number of artists to record a song.
As far as I know there are versions by
- Bellefire
- Jo O’Meara
- Rascal Flatts
- Cascada

Any more to come?

The power of downloads strikes again. Following on from this BBC article, the number of tracks that make it into the charts for holidays seems to go into full swing at Christmas.  Whilst there were a few for Hallowe’en, expanding the list of Christmas songs in this weeks chart, to the full Top 200 shows many more.  Some of these are genuine physical releases with a Christmas theme, mostly from adverts (#25, #44, #71), even more are from downloads alone. With another two charts due before Christmas, this number may increase.

week ending 15/12/2007
#8 - All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
#12 - Fairytale Of New York  - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl
#25 - It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Andy Williams
#27 - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
#33 - Merry Christmas Everyone  - Shakin’ Stevens
#37 - Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
#38 - Do They Know It’s Christmas? - Band Aid
#44 - Don’t Shoot Me Santa - The Killers
#51 - Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
#60 - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John And Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band With the Harlem Community Choir
#61 - White Christmas - Bing Crosby
#71 - It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como
#77 - Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney
#82 - Elton John’s Christmas EP - Elton John
#83 - Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord - Boney M
#86 - Mistletoe And Wine - Cliff Richard
#90 - Walking In The Air - Aled Jones
#100 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Dean Martin
#101 - Santa Baby - Kylie Minogue
#106 - The Christmas Song - Nat ‘King’ Cole
#108 - Stay Another Day - East 17
#118 - Lonely This Christmas - Mud
#120 - Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town - Bruce Springsteen
#121 - Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie
#123 - Frosty The Snowman - The Ronettes
#128 - Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
#134 - Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
#137 - Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby And David Bowie
#139 - Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) - The Darkness
#148 - When A Child Is Born - Johnny Mathis
#152 - Cool Yule - Louis Armstrong
#153 - Do They Know It’s Christmas? - Band Aid 20
#160 - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra
#161 - 9 To 5 - Dolly Parton
#181 - Please Come Home For Christmas - The Eagles
#184 - Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses

from this week’s chart - week ending 27/10/2007

#1 - About You Now - Sugababes
#4 - Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers
#7 - Happy Ending - Mika
#11 - Hey There Delilah - Plain White T’s
#12 - She’s So Lovely - Scouting For Girls
#23 - Big Girls Don’t Cry - Fergie
#26 - Kanye West - Stronger
#30 - Young Folks - Peter Bjorn & John feat Victoria Bergsman
#31 - It Means Nothing - Stereophonics
#40 - Foundations - Kate Nash

I might do this each week - as a sort of ‘personal chart’

As a sort of follow-on from the previous chart run post, I put this together before that post.  It doesn’t provide a definitive answer to the whole copyright aspect of charts on websites, but explains my reasoning for re-instating the search in a round-about way…

(more…)

This week’s chart sees many re-entries in response to the concerts that have been happening at Wembley over the last few weeks - the Diana Concert and to a lesser extent Live Earth.

32 - I’ll Be Missing You - Puff Daddy Featuring Faith Evans
58 - Love It When You Call - The Feeling
67 - Fill My Little World - The Feeling
72 - LDN - Lily Allen
86 - Breakfast In America - Supertramp
97 - Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
103 - Maggie May - Rod Stewart
105 - Never Be Lonely - The Feeling
110 - Your Song - Elton John
112 - Can’t Stand Me Now - The Libertines
118 - Sailing - Rod Stewart
122 - Back For Good - Take That
123 - Rio - Duran Duran
126 - Give A Little Bit - Supertramp
132 - The Logical Song - Supertramp
138 - No Tomorrow - Orson
171 - Tiny Dancer - Elton John
173 - Are You Ready For Love - Elton John
182 - Dreamer - Supertramp
185 - Undiscovered - James Morrison
186 - I Wanna Have Your Babies - Natasha Bedingfield
190 - Baby Jane - Rod Stewart

and probably a few more as well

TV in general also now plays more of a role.  For the last two Doctor Who episodes of the last season, the songs played have entered the charts: Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders (re-entry) and I Can’t Decide by Scissor Sisters (new entry)

And finally, this week also sees another attempt to get a song to #1 that didn’t make it before.  This time it’s the turn of The Spice Girls’ Stop, which only made #2 when it was originally released.  However, it only made #78…

The Brit Awards have come and gone, and most went according to plan.  However, you must feel sorry for Lily Allen.  Nominated in four categories, but managed to win none. In my opinion, much better than Amy Winehouse, who I can’t see the attraction of.  I guess she’s one of those “critical acclaim” artists, but not really too popular.   (Lily Allen has been in the chart longer with her first album than Amy Winehouse was.)

Following on from the previous post, the ‘new’ chart has now been with us for two weeks, and whilst most of the popular deleted songs have indeed made an appearance again.  Other than a few old songs, such as Livin’ On A Prayer and Eye Of The Tiger lower down in the charts, there hasn’t been the massive influx of download only singles that some were expecting.  These are likley to remain in the lower numbers.

However, there are some artists that ‘get’ popular before they have a single out.  An example of this last year was Arctic Monkeys, and this year it would seem to be Mika.  Arctic Monkeys were hampered by all sorts of rules that meant they could only chart when they brought out a single. Nowadays, of course, this all changes with Mika as he can chart from whenever the single is available.

Happy New Year to all!

Today sees the start of the new chart methodology, in which if a song registers enough sales to chart, then it will chart.  Although there’s many comments about the chart changing very suddenly, I don’t think it wil change that dramatically.  There may be a few, still popular, deleted songs that may make a re-appearance, such as Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars, but other than that I think it will carry on as normal.

Of course there is a small spanner in the works in the form of iTunes.  As it’s so popular, there may be some interesting “blips” when a song first get released digitally, and then become physically available a few weeks later.  This may result in songs climbing steadily up the charts, like they used to all those years ago.

We’ll have to wait and see…