christmas songs on the hot 100
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Topic: christmas songs on the hot 100
Posted By: edtop40
Subject: christmas songs on the hot 100
Date Posted: 25 December 2021 at 1:23pm
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anyone know how billboard calculates its christmas songs on
the hot 100....for example, if someone else does "last christmas' say, carrie underwood, does that count as a unique play by carrie underwood or does it get counted as by wham!?....just wondering.. ------------- edtop40 |
Replies:
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 25 December 2021 at 2:13pm
Versions of the same songs by different artists are counted separately. |
edtop40 wrote:Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 25 December 2021 at 7:23pm
These days Ed, they just chart. Usually for five weeks from the first week of December to the first week of January and whatever the main artist is. So if it's Mariah Carey it would be All I Want For Christmas Is You. If there is a remake under another artist, it would be under their name. Thats why I end my year at the end of November. While I understand the Hot 100 should reflect Christmas songs, I agree with Brian W that actual charted songs should not miss the top 10 or #1 because of Billboard's policy to let Xmas hits chart for 5 weeks. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 26 December 2021 at 6:29am
Not that anyone asked me, but to me allowing non-current-release Christmas songs to chart is BS. Makes a mess of the year-end rankings when a 40 year old song could get enough plays in one month to "count" as one of the top hits of the year. |
Posted By: Santi Paradoa
Date Posted: 20 December 2022 at 4:17pm
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FYI, currently there are two Christmas songs missing
entries in the online database. The CD they appear on is already listed, but these two songs are not listed under it. The soundtrack CD Friday After Next (Hollywood 62378) includes both Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" and Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" which have both recently charted decades after they were first released. ------------- Santi Paradoa Miami, Florida |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 4:13pm
I agree! According to Billboard, one of the top 100 artists of the year (in '22 or '21) was Andy Williams! By no metrics should he have been considered one of the top 100 artists of the year (no offense to Andy Williams, and I actually like some of his stuff). But unless someone specifically looked at Billboard's weekly charts and saw "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" in Billboard's top 10 portion of the Hot 100, most people would ask, "Did Andy Williams have a comeback I missed???" Also, this past season, besides Christmas songs, there were weeks when Taylor Swift and other artists released albums that had 15-17 songs chart. As a result, Jax's "Victoria's Secret" had a #35 peak on the Hot 100, right before about 6 weeks of all the "craziness" happening. Yet, it peaked at #8 on the all-genre radio charts, about that high on Pop Radio / Mainstream chart, #1 or #2 Hot AC, #15 AC - so I feel it got slighted for its hot 100 peak of #35. If it weren't for the Christmas songs, and weekly debuts of album cuts by superstar acts, I believe this would have gotten much higher. And then having reached higher #s (like, say, top 20), it could have even led to more radio stations playing it more (from seeing how well it was doing on the Hot 100) and it becoming an even bigger hit. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 4:38pm
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Speaking of Christmas songs on Billboard's Hot 100, a friend and I recently
noted that there was only about 1 Top 40-charting Christmas song in the '70s (Please Come Home for Christmas by the Eagles) and 1 Top40-charting Christmas song in the '80s (Band-Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas). I might be forgetting a few. But basically - Christmas songs weren't allowed to chart in those 2 decades, so how did these 2 manage to slip through the rules? I guess the Band-Aid one could be argued that it was a charity single. But the Eagles.. well, they were superstars by then but that's not a reason to make an exception for that one 45. Surely, Lennon's "Happy Xmas" would have charted high, and Elton's "Step Into Christmas" would have made top 40 or 100. Has anyone read why these 2 songs slipped through the cracks, so to speak? |
Posted By: davidlg1971
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 4:55pm
Two 70s/80s Christmas songs that always spring to mind for me are Paul McCartney's 'Wonderful Christmastime', which hit #28 on the Top 40 in 1979, and Wham! with 'Last Christmas', which hit #4 in 1984/5. It was also #2 for like 10+ weeks straight in the UK, behind 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 6:16pm
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Yes, but those are not US peaks in 1979 or 1984.
Those 2 songs didn't chart in Billboard until the past few years. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 12 March 2023 at 5:48am
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From 1963 thru 1973, and from 1983 thru 1985, Billboard published a separate Christmas Singles chart and did not
chart Christmas singles on the Hot 100. Yes, the Band Aid song was considered an exception. Remember, this was an era before the all Christmas music stations started popping up. Starting around Thanksgiving, Top 40 stations would slowly start sprinkling in some Christmas music, gradually increasing the frequency as Christmas got closer. It's my guess that Billboard didn't like the fact that a few songs (such as White Christmas) would come back every year for a few weeks on the Hot 100, thus the change in policy in 1963. There were a smattering of Christmas singles to make the Hot 100 from 1974-82, with the Eagles song being the most popular, by far. Frankly, I'd like to see Billboard allow only brand new Christmas songs to make the Hot 100 and for the older ones to be accounted for on the Holiday 100 chart only. After all, I think most people consider them to be "re-currents" and no one would confuse Andy Williams, Perry Como and the like to be "hot" artists. |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 13 March 2023 at 3:43am
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People tend to forget that Billboard, at that time, was a
newspaper for the Record and Radio industries. It was not targeted for the consumer (note the out-of-whack subscription price & lack of availability on most magazine racks). Most likely the reason why the Eagles hit the Hot 100 was the Eagles' management (possibly Irving Azoff) wanted it to be treated as a "regular" release (it came out right in between the 'Hotel California' and 'The Long Run' eras). Influential people in the industries could conceivably contact Billboard in advance of the record's release and discuss the action plan. Oftentimes great Christmas singles such as "Step Into Christmas" were issued when there were contemporaneous "regular" singles being worked and albums active in the marketplace. Andy |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 13 March 2023 at 5:29am
Both of you make good points. It never occurred to me that the Eagles' management could have somehow convinced BB to treat their Christmas song differently. I'm a bit surprised that John Lennon's management didn't think of that in 1971, especially given that in the early 70s a solo release by a Beatle was a big event. |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 13 March 2023 at 7:11am
Well, the 'Imagine' LP was then-currently top 10 on the Billboard LP chart and maybe they were thinking of pulling a second 45 off of it (which I don't think ultimately happened). Conjecture on my part. And between 1963 and 1972 Billboard published their special Christmas chart, apparently not allowing Christmas-themed singles to chart on the Hot 100. Andy |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 14 March 2023 at 3:31am
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As I posted earlier, Billboard didn't allow Christmas singles on the Hot 100 from 1962-73, but
other trades did. For example, "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John peaked at #56 in Cash Box and at #90 in Record World. The Lennon single did even better in 1971, when it peaked at #28 in Record World and at #36 in Cash Box. IMO, there were no "shenanigans" with the Eagles single in 1978. It was a legit Top 40 hit across all 3 major trades at the time. It was a combo of a popular band with a solid performance of a classic tune. I heard it and the flip side ("Funky New Year") plenty on the radio at the time. |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 14 March 2023 at 4:33am
Yes, no dispute it was a very legitimate hit at that time; I heard it on Pop, AC and Rock (album) formats in regular rotation that season. And it always received seasonal airplay every year thereafter! Andy |