Of course, Chris Rea's Driving Home for Christmas only became a big Christmas hit starting a few years ago.

 

And we do have Christmas albums from the legends Chris Kamara, Robbie Williams and John Barrowman out this year.

Of course, Chris Rea's Driving Home for Christmas only became a big Christmas hit starting a few years ago.

 

And we do have Christmas albums from the legends Chris Kamara, Robbie Williams and John Barrowman out this year.

Even in the days of downloads 'Driving Home For Christmas' was just a low top 40 hit each year. That track has suddenly started doing well since streaming was factored into the charts. I've never liked the song though. It was first released in 1986 as a B side then promoted to the A side in 1987 before becoming the lead track of a 4 track EP in December 1988. It's always been a massive radio hit though but as soon as I hear the intro I have to turn off the radio...

 

I’d love it to happen but I think people will always play the ones they know over hearing a new one tbh.

 

I’d love to see an OG Christmas track reach #1 though.

 

I miss the days of Christmas number one being a big event.

I'm afraid the X-Factor and then streaming killed off the Christmas number 1 being a big event. Though it's 10 years ago this Christmas since the big anti X-Factor campaign that saw Rage Against The Machine take the Christmas number 1. That may have been the last big Christmas number 1 event.

 

That was unreal - TWO iTunes threads had to be created for that week lol!!

well the race for xmas #1 last year was pretty exciting and unexpected

I don’t think you can say that Ariana, Leona, Sia etc etc aren’t big when they haven’t had nearly as long as Mariah, Wham, The Pogues to become Christmas staples. I’d call them Christmas staples already but as younger generations grow up with these newer ones they’ll only become bigger

Christmas song is very different to Xmas #1 as the latter can be any song and actually there are not many Xmas songs that have been number ones too. Stay Another Day is the last if we don't count the new version of Do They Know It's Christmas and that was whopping 25 years ago.

And Stay Another Day isn't even a Christmas song you could argue so you have to go back to Cliff I think!

It has some bells :P

 

But you're right I guess

I think now that Christmas songs have proven to be streaming gold we'll see more new ones being released again, although hopefully we get something by someone more exciting than Liam Payne and Jonas Brothers this year.

That's what I mean. Underneath the Tree and One More Sleep are fairly good but others like Ariana Grande/Katy Perry could release a big proper Christmas single but release fairly dull mediocre songs that don't feel like big Christmas songs. Surely Ariana Grande/Katy Perry could release a big proper catchy Christmas song like Mariah Carey did.

Keep in mind that 'Santa Tell Me' is from 2013, before Ariana was ever considered a big name in music. The song wasn't big at the time and has only grown along with her own star power.

 

Leona Lewis - modern day classic! :wub:

Why doesn't any big artist release a big Christmas single? We have had very average mediocre releases from Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Sia, Ariana Grande in the last few years. Hardly big hit Christmas songs. It doesn't seem like they put much effort into the songs really. Surely another Christmas classic like AIWFCIY can be written. It would be a money maker each year.

 

Cos radio won't play them! They like to play the 'classics'

They haven’t really managed to get attention in the UK, but in the US, Pentatonix has made an actual career out of Christmas music. Since 2012, they’ve put out either an EP or an album of Christmas songs every year. It’s quite the phenomenon.

One more sleep is the best Christmas song in the last few years and is standing the test of time. I wonder are the killers going to give us a surprise Christmas single this year.

 

This

I have just looked on an official Spotify playlist of Christmas songs - there are 41, including tracks by Leona Lewis, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Matt Terry, Sia...all recently released. Robbie Williams will have a major Christmas album this year, and Liam Payne has released a Christmas song this year, as that's also in said playlist. I think that as many artists release Christmas music as they ever did, to be honest. They just don't have the same status as the classics, because the other songs have 30 years of Christmas memories behind them!

On a separate note - do you think that albums that rely mostly on streaming for their chart position, will be driven down by increased physical/download sales over the Xmas period?

The answer is probably the same as why America never really had big Christmas hits because the charts are way to slow to accommodate a Christmas hit plus tv channels like Magic have their Christmas programmes already recorded so for example Kylie Minogue released The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year but all the music channels had their special programmes made so it didn't get played.

 

Spotify and I-tunes have made the UK charts so slow a Christmas song would have no time to build an audience, look at Niall Horan new song been out around 35 days and only just dragging itself up Spotify, I-tunes and the Official Chart.

 

Artists and record companies now realise there is no money in the Christmas single chart anymore it isn't worth the time to release a specific Christmas song, they will most likely be album pluggers on limited release rather than a specific single.

It's strange really. It seemed to be more of a thing to release big Christmas themed songs from the very dawn of the charts up until somewhere around the mid 90s, when obviously Mariah released hers in 1994 (although even that didn't get to the popularity it is now until it was done in Love Actually) and then no one else really seemed to do it after that in a big way, other than on B-sides to their then current December released singles. (Probably explains why Britney's 'My Only Wish (This Year)' and S Club 7's 'Perfect Christmas' have been on my Christmas rotation for precisely two decades).

 

I suppose for some reason now to do a Christmas record is either a signifier of a grab for Christmas number one or a move made by an artist who's quite some way into their career and well established enough but maybe are seen as more of an act with an established fanbase. I do believe Ariana Grande's one will become a classic with time, likewise Michael Buble's Christmas album.

 

Also I think more artists are dipping their toes into Christmas songs now as a one off than there used to be. Steps did theirs 'Dear Santa' a couple of years back which was lovely, and Emma Bunton's new one 'Coming Home for Christmas' that's out next week sounds like it'll be a future festive gem on my playlists.

Jonas brothers are releasing a Christmas song tomorrow