So this years Christmas number one has now been revealed. It's "Rockabye" by Clean Bandit. It makes a change from recent years as its not from the X Factor and its not a charity record or part of any X Factor campaign. In fact it was probably never intended to compete for Christmas number one given it was released at the beginning of November and has been number one for 7 weeks. The last time a Christmas number one had already been at number one for 7 weeks by Christmas was 60 years ago back in 1956 with Johnnie Rays "Walking In the Rain". I first encountered Clean Bandit a couple of years ago as I quite liked the music on the M&S advert, so I went to Google to find out what it was. Unfortunately the actual tune that charted had some awful vocals added to it, but an instrumental version does exist on YouTube which is far better. As for this record, again some awful vocals on it by a singer called Anne-Marie and some ok vocals from Sean Paul, someone I used to listen to back in 2003. Can't really say its my cup of tea, but its better than most Christmas number ones we've had in recent years.
As for the X Factor winner, well he is a man called Matt Terry and he has actually released a Christmas record called "When Christmas Comes Around" which also surprisingly for the X Factor isn't a cover.
The highest charting Christmas song this year is "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey, which has reached number 5. Then there is the annual outing of "Fairytale Of New York" by the Pogues at number 15. One place below is "Last Christmas" by Wham. At number 22 we have "Merry Christmas Everyone" by Shakin Stevens. Then back at number 26 is "Driving Home For Christmas" by Chris Rea, which is actually an improvement on the number 53 it reached when it first charted in 1988. One place below is "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" by Wizzard. Then we have "Do They Know Its Christmas?" by Band aid at number 35, then at 38 we have a Michael Buble cover of "Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" which it turns out was first released in 2011. Finally we have "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade at number 19.
So basically, the only new Christmas song this year comes from the X Factor, which would be considered a flop for not reaching number one and nearly a quarter of the top 40 are Christmas songs from yesteryear re-entering the charts. Given that people have had 29 years to get their copy of "Fairytale Of New York", you would think that everyone who wanted to own it would own it by now. However, streaming counts towards the charts these days and given the number of Christmas parties etc you get with Christmas playlists being played, it looks very much like these songs will continue to chart in years to come. Merry Christmas!
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