Entertainment For Lively Minds
Most played US Christmas songs - xkcd nail it, of course
Posted by millymollymandy on 9 December 2011 - 9:28am.
(Alt-text is: "An 'American tradition' is anything that happened to a baby boomer twice")
Any idea what the equivalent for the UK is? My hunch is that the '70s are up there, with Slade, Wizzard et al - but that's my teenage era, so I would say that, wouldn't I?
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I think 70s
is right for the UK. It's interesting that the US celebrates Christmas songs from arguably its most economically successful decade after WW2 whereas the UK looks back fondly on Christmas music from arguably its most economically disastrous decade.
I like this
The UK birth rates are shown in this graph. The baby boom here ended in 1972/1973:
Therefore, it's not surprising that the two great Christmas hits (Slade, Roy Wood) from 1973 are nostalgic for the past, and that there have been very few remembered hits since. There have not been enough young children around to carry the memory.
The only Christmas songs that were substantial hits in the last shaded area are by Cliff. Therefore, they are probably what people in their 20s remember.
Hadn't seen that graph before - thanks
Where is it from? Puts a rather different perspective on the idea of the overwhelming number of "baby boomers" dominating society.
I always thought I missed out, being born in 1960, but looks like "my" generation (never given a name - always thought I was too young to be a boomer and too old for Gen X) might have been quietly dominating after all.
Found it on the web
But the data is available widely, check out the Guardian data blog. The shaded areas are where the birth rate is above the mean. My theory is that only when there is an above average number of people of a receptive age to "something", is when you get nostalgia, and youth movements. Punk is probably related to birth rates in 1960.
Slade / Wizzard
They're also both bloody good songs. My teenage kids love them both, and there's no nostalgia playing a part in their enjoyment.
Only Cliff?
Are we forgetting the twin behemoths of the Pogues & Kirsty McColl (1987) and Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You (1996)? Both massive at the time and regular chart visitors several Decembers since.
And both magnificent, might I add.
Strictly number ones
But yes, Fairytale of New York is the best, by far.
Strictly Number Ones?
'Most played' is the xkcd criterion, or a meringue?
2000 Miles by The Pretenders
probably just creeps in there too.
Mind you, I'm surprised to see the Baby Boom as being said to finish up in the early 70s....back in the days before it was a marketing demographic, it was usually said to be the period 1946 - 58. Then Generation X came along, defined as being born around 1965 and after. This left that Twilight Zone for people like millymollymandy (and me), neither one generation nor another. In the years since, though, the Boom period has slowly expanded to where most sources will say it's those born between 1946-64 (because you can't have people you can't pigeonhole marketingwise).
biggest song
Like it or not, (i don't) but the biggest Christmas song here is probably Band Aid. The Pogues are quite high in the list as well. So I don't think we have the equivalent to the us situation. My take is that the US is often desperate to make traditions which, for such a young country is probably unsurprising. We don't have the same need here.
Band Aid
Gets played a lot, but it's not a singable song, and there is very little affection for it.
No Affection?
If that's true (and I'm not suggesting that it's not) then why do we seem to be subjected to it so much. To me its just a tedius dirge that they play at Christmas instead of Coldplay!
Because it exists
They have to fill the Christmas airwaves with something. I hear it less and less as the years go by, and the two remakes even less so. I firmly believe the song is unusable as an actual song, it's just a piece of pop culture.
xkcd?
What's that?
xkcd - cartoons for geeks
Sorry Patrick, should have made that clear.
It's an American website which posts regular cartoons, always geeky, often science-y, and one of the first things I look at when I log on. Comes with the following warning:
"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)"
http://www.xkcd.com
Thanks...
I was only wondering because I was interested in the post.
Happy to help!
Should also have mentioned that often the real joke with xkcd is in the alt text (the stuff which pops up when you hover your mouse over the image) - but I couldn't figure out how to make that work on on the blog.
I Like XkCD
this one though is just REALLY interesting:
http://xkcd.com/980/
Ooh, thanks for reminding me
Didn't have time to go through that one in detail when it popped up and forgot to go back to it. Shall waste lots of time getting really, really angry poring over it (then go back and watch Inside Story again).
According to the PRS
these are the ten most played Christmas hits in the 00s:
1. All I Want for Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
2. Fairytale of New York – Kirsty MacColl, The Pogues
3. Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
4. Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie
5. Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid
6. Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
7. Last Christmas – Wham!
8. I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake
9. Step Into Christmas - Elton John
10. Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
That's the list they produced in December 2009 covering the songs played in the previous 10 years (http://www.prsformusic.com/aboutus/press/latestpressreleases/Pages/Maria...)
Looks like confirmation bias is at work with my 70s hunch - whenever I hear Slade, Wizzard or Mud, my ears get all nostalgic and register the fact. When I hear Mariah Carey, my fingers get all nostalgic and hit the off button.
Step into Christmas
That was forgotten for many years, and resurrected in place of the Gary Glitter one, which no longer found favour with compilation producers.
Bo Rap
not in any way Christmassy but has to to be one of the most played songs ever released at Christmas.
Similarly the Pet Shop Boys' You Were Always On My Mind and the Human League's Don't You Want Me.
Imagine doesn't mention Christmas at all but must rank as one of the most played Christmas songs too.
It's even more rare now for the Christmas #1 to mention Christmas in any way.
Mariah Carey's
Christmas record is great. Cookie-cutter Phil Spector, but I don't have a problem with that. Apart from maybe that guff right at the start of the record.
80s
That's 50% 80s, which makes 80s Crimbo songs the peak rather than the previous decade.
Give it another couple of decades and nobody will notice the difference between the two decades, they'll all blur into one.
A quick 20 minutes on Everyhit.com with my cuppa...
... gave me the following list by decade - I only looked at the top 10 records for December in each year (so Macca's Wonderful Christmastime in 1979 didn't quite make it), and was strict about them being Christmas songs, not just songs we associate with the season, so there's no Rolf Harris, Clive Dunn, Benny Hill, My Ding-A-Ling, Mull Of Kintyre, Bo-Rap, Frankie GTH, Housemartins, East 17 etc. Surprisingly little in the 60s, and the 80s were more active than I remember, but it's definitely died since then...
1960s
Johnny & The Hurricanes Rocking Goose (1960)
Nina & Frederick Little Donkey (1960)
Adam Faith Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop) (1960)
Brenda Lee Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (1962)
Engelbert Humperdinck Winter World Of Love (1969)
1970s
John & Yoko Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (1972)
Slade Merry Xmas Everybody (1973)
Wizzard I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (1973)
Mud Lonely This Christmas (1974)
Wombles Wombling Merry Christmas (1974)
Greg Lake I Believe In Father Christmas (1975)
Johnny Mathis When A Child Is Born (1976)
Boney M Mary's Boy Child (1978)
1980s
Jona Lewie Stop The Cavalry (1980)
Shakin' Stevens The Shakin' Stevens EP (inc. Blue Christmas) (1982)
David Bowie & Bing Crosby Little Drummer Boy (1982)
Band Aid Do They Know It's Christmas? (1984)
Wham! Last Christmas (1984)
Shakin' Stevens Merry Christmas Everyone (1985)
Pogues & Kirsty MacColl Fairytale Of New York (1987)
Comic Relief/Kim Wilde & Mel Smith Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (1987)
Cliff Richard Mistletoe And Wine (1988)
Band Aid II Do They Know It's Christmas? (1989)
1990s
Cliff Richard Saviour's Day (1990)
Mariah Carey All I Want For Christmas Is You (1994)
Cliff Richard The Millennium Prayer (1999)
2000s
The Darkness Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) (2003)
Band Aid 20 Do They Know It's Christmas? (2004)
So you got sucked into Everyhit.com too...?
They've done an "all-time best selling singles about Christmas" list too
http://www.everyhit.com/christmas/festivefifty.html
Band Aid up there are number one, but Boney M's "Mary's Boy Child" at number 2?!
Hmmm, combining BM's 1978 best seller with Alan Dente's graph, does this show "the perfect storm"?
A post-WW1 baby boom in 1919, driving the post-WW2 baby boom, resulting in the mid 60's baby boom - who all wondered "what shall we get granny for Christmas?" in 1978 ...
Good theory
Probably right. Lots of young kids of the age where they get to choose what to buy Granny.
I've got the damn thing stuck in my head now.
Seems to me that in order to create a Christmas hit, you have to have a good knowledge of demographics and time it right. Can't help but feel that the Mad World / How Wonderful You Are "Christmas hits" of a few years back were targeting the boomers who were of the age that felt pop culture had left them behind. I suspect the record companies understand this far better than we realize.
Johnny & the Hurricanes
Rocking Goose is an instrumental. Where's the Xmas theme?
Could it be
goose?
As eaten as an alternative to turkey at Xmas?
Eating goose?
If you insist. They ate little else at Xmas on the council estate where I grew up in the 50s, after all. I had to take goose sandwiches to school for weeks afterwards. We got sick of it in the end. That and the suckling pig. And the peacocks stuffed with quails.
A bit tenuous that one.
The sax is clearly making a goose-like honking sound throughout. Hence the title.
Goose
Was the main Christmas bird in my mum's family's Christmas dinners. Never turkey. And given that my mum's dad was a steel worker, and all her uncles and cousins were miners; that the terraced house she grew up in still only had an outside toilet until the early 70s, I wouldn't think they were posh or privileged.
Yes
perhaps I did go off on a flight of fancy there ;-)
I still reckon the Johnny & the Hurricanes single was not a Xmas record though.
Not particularly Festive
No you're probably right, especially having listened to the track.
Anyone heard Mick Hucknall's Xmas song?
I've heard it twice now, and still can't quite believe my ears. And not in a good way.
Hucknall
There's a man who's never let you down.
PhD
Shurely?
Band Aid II
Not on any compilations or itunes and I don't own it. Does anyone? I can't even recall who sang on it. Or Band Aid 3 for that matter, except Dizee Rascall.
Stop The Cavalry always makes me feel really Christmassy, as does Mike Oldfield's In Dulce Jubilo.
Band Aid 3
I believe that was a Nigel Godrich produced wrist-slash-athon. Think of the original, with the tune removed, and filtered through the mogadon-comedown atmosphere of Beck's Sea Change. Only not as good.
IIRC
Band Aid II was a lot of the Stock Aiken Waterman stable performing. There were a few others, but it's genuinely best forgotten about.
The next decade
will be dominated by the growing popularity of "Christmas in the heart", to the extent that by 2016 it will be on constant replay in all supermarkets from November, and all other Christmas Cds will be forgotten.