One of the really great Christmas charts of the 00s now. A big battle at the top with an unexpected victor, and lots of new entries and festive cheer throughout.

 

1. Michael Andrews feat Gary Jules - Mad World (NEW)

2. The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) (NEW)

3. Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne - Changes (1)

4. Bo Selecta - Proper Crimbo (NEW)

5. The Idols - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (NEW)

6. Will Young - Leave Right Now (2)

7. Black Eyed Peas - Shut Up (3)

8. Atomic Kitten - Ladies Night (NEW)

9. Shane Richie - I'm Your Man (4)

10. Sugababes - Too Lost In You (NEW)

11. Blue feat Stevie Wonder - Signed Sealed Delivered I'm Yours (NEW)

12. Ultrabeat - Feelin' Fine (NEW)

13. Cliff Richard - Santa's List (5)

14. Westlife - Mandy (6)

15. Cheeky Girls - Have A Cheeky Christmas (10)

16. Outkast - Hey Ya (22)

17. Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy (14)

18. Evanescence - My Immortal (7)

19. UB40 feat United Colours Of Sound - Swing Low (17)

20. Girls Aloud - Jump (12)

 

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25. Fast Food Rockers - I Love Christmas (NEW)

26. Billy Mack - Christmas Is All Around (NEW)

29. G Unit - Stunt 101 (NEW)

36. Erin Rocha - Can't Do Right For Doing Wrong (NEW)

44. Basil Brush feat India Beau - Boom Boom/Christmas Slide (NEW)

46. Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros - Redemption Song / Arms Aloft (NEW)

48. Travis - The Beautiful Occupation (NEW)

49. John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (33)

55. Mew - She Came Home For Christmas (Re-entry)

66. The Diff'rent Darkness - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Darkness (NEW)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an epic tussle that many assumed would be won by The Darkness, with their attempt to bring classic Christmas glam rock back in the Slade and Wizzard style, Michael Andrews and Gary Jules snuck past to bag an unlikely Christmas No.1 with their ballad cover of Mad World by Tears For Fears, from the soundtrack to Donnie Darko. Even more impressive considering it had already been available for over a month as part of the Now 56 compilation. The Darkness settled for their second No.2 of the year on huge sales while Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne's pre-Christmas No.1 Changes dropped two places to round off a surprisingly alternative top three in a year that had actually been dominated by R&B.

 

Popular comedy Bo Selecta's first spin-off Christmas single, Proper Crimbo, had a star studded video that helped it to No.4, while the song that many assumed would be the easy Christmas No.1 weeks ahead of the day - a cover of John and Yoko's Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by the finalists of Pop Idol 2, actually only managed to end up at No.5, failing to follow the lead of Popstars: The Rivals the previous year.

 

More new entries lined up further down - with by far the record for Christmas week, with six in the top ten and two just outside. The mini battle of the girl groups was won by Atomic Kitten's cover of Ladies Night by Kool & The Gang, while the rather more classic Too Lost In You by Sugababes, from the blockbuster Love Actually, debuted at No.10. Blue suffered from heavy competition and surprisingly missed the top 10 with their Stevie Wonder collaboration, while this year's token big dance hit was lower than usual, Ultrabeat's follow up to Pretty Green Eyes only reaching No.12, although it hung around that area for a good few weeks well into early 2004. Outkast were on the rebound with Hey Ya, already a No.6 peaking hit on debut, and on its way back to No.3 in the new year.

 

And that wasn't all, with more festive fun from Fast Food Rockers and Billy Mack - Bill Nighy's character who was competing for No.1 in Love Actually with his Wet Wet Wet cover with a lyric change - he ended up somewhat lower in the real life chart. The un-festive G Unit, and another hotly tipped contender that really underperformed from Erin Rocha completed the top 40 new entries.

 

Outside the top 40, entries included Basil Brush (!), and Mew doing better than they did the year before, while John & Yoko themselves were back - presumably to offer an alternative to The Idols version but otherwise I'm not sure why it was re-released this year. Delta Goodrem also covered the track, and it was the b-side to Not Me, Not I here, which fell to No.50 this week. In Australia, her cover of Happy Xmas (War Is Over) was a double a-side with Predictable (not released as a single here) and - like everything else she released that year - peaked at No.1. The final new entry was The Diff'rent Darkness, an EP of three Darkness covers.

Not a vintage top 10 on the whole in this year but the top 2 are both fantastic for me. Would've been nice for The Darkness to get the number one though so shame for them having a near miss.

 

Will Young, BEP and Sugababes the other good songs in the rest of the 10 and the Idols song is alright.

 

Another strong hit from Ultrabeat outside it too. 'My Immortal' is also excellent and GA's 'Jump' I like a lot too.

 

Bo Selecta and Billy Mack *_*

My Christmas chart. Very mainstream in that year.

 

28.12.2003 (Week # 52)

01. ( NE ) Fast Food Rockers - I Love Christmas (1 week) (1 week at # 1)

02. ( 02 ) Delta Goodrem - Not Me, Not I (3 weeks)

03. ( 01 ) Cheeky Girls - Have A Cheeky Christmas (2 weeks)

04. ( 03 ) Madonna - Love Profusion (2 weeks)

05. ( 04 ) Dido - Life For Rent (3 weeks)

06. ( 07 ) Madonna - Nothing Fails (2 weeks)

07. ( 05 ) No Doubt - It's My Life (4 weeks)

08. ( 06 ) Jewel - Stand (6 weeks)

09. ( 09 ) Shonagh Daly - All I Want (7 weeks)

10. ( 08 ) Sophie Ellis Bextor - Mixed Up World (10 weeks)

11. ( 11 ) Emma Bunton - Maybe (10 weeks)

12. ( 10 ) Tamee Harrison - Every Time We Touch (6 weeks)

13. ( NE ) Simone Stelzer - Die Frau Im Zug (1 week)

14. ( 17 ) 4 Girlz - Berichtje (2 weeks)

15. ( 12 ) Vanilla Ninja - Tough Enough (4 weeks)

16. ( 13 ) Kym Marsh - Sentimental (8 weeks)

17. ( 19 ) Christina Groth - Rock Your Body (2 weeks)

18. ( 14 ) Holly Valance - State Of Mind (8 weeks)

19. ( 15 ) Shania Twain - When You Kiss Me (5 weeks)

20. ( 16 ) Svenska Damlandslaget - Gula And Bla (Tjejernas Ar I Ar) (10 weeks)

 

Classic Christmas top two, this year instantly comes to mind when I think of standout Christmas #1 chart battles of the 21st century, as well as 2009.

 

This chart features one of my favourite hit singles ever ('Hey Ya!') but also one of my least favourite ('Changes') :puke2:

 

Songs like 'Proper Crimbo' and 'Have A Cheeky Christmas' take me back to watching random festive countdowns on music channels like 4Music, I don't think I've ever heard them in the wild outside of that context :lol:

My Christmas chart. Very mainstream in that year.

 

I loved the 0304 album by Jewel, Stand is great.

 

I remember my Christmas top two because it was versions of the same songs in the top two very unusually - Delta's cover of Happy Xmas (War Is Over) at No.1 and The Idols' version at No.2. I think Not Me, Not I was No.3, but had previously been at No.1 for six weeks.

Songs like 'Proper Crimbo' and 'Have A Cheeky Christmas' take me back to watching random festive countdowns on music channels like 4Music, I don't think I've ever heard them in the wild outside of that context :lol:

 

Although I meant to mention in my commentary that the latter had that unexpected renaissance in Saltburn!

 

I probably should have posted the videos to that and Cliff, after a new low for festive themed songs in 2002, everyone was in on it in 2003.

 

 

 

I can't believe just how many acts joined the battle for No.1 this year, you can tell it was a very open race until Christmas week itself when the two frontrunners revealed themselves.

 

This is what BBC thought a month beforehand: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3281245.stm

 

According to NME, Mad World started off at 50/1, so I'm sure the bookies loved the payouts they had to make on that: https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-darkness-111-1374216

Edited December 2, 2024Dec 2 by gooddelta

I loved the 0304 album by Jewel, Stand is great.

 

"America" was my favourite track and 'Intuition" was big # 1 hit.

1. Michael Andrews feat Gary Jules - Mad World (NEW) - nice song but very miserable for Christmas!

2. The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) (NEW) - really grown to love this over the years! The video is brilliant.

3. Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne - Changes (1) - unlistenable

4. Bo Selecta - Proper Crimbo (NEW) - nooooo

5. The Idols - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (NEW) - used to like this at the time, not heard it in ages

6. Will Young - Leave Right Now (2) - a classic! Another one I have grown to love!

7. Black Eyed Peas - Shut Up (3) - always preferred this to Where Is The Love?

8. Atomic Kitten - Ladies Night (NEW) - one of their weakest singles for me and a bit of a comedown of an era

9. Shane Richie - I'm Your Man (4) - at the height of his popularity as Alfie Moon lol

10. Sugababes - Too Lost In You (NEW) - never been a Sugababes essesntial for me

11. Blue feat Stevie Wonder - Signed Sealed Delivered I'm Yours (NEW) - much preferred their previous cover

12. Ultrabeat - Feelin' Fine (NEW) - ???

13. Cliff Richard - Santa's List (5) - ???

14. Westlife - Mandy (6) - just more of the same from them

15. Cheeky Girls - Have A Cheeky Christmas (10) - I think my Cheeky fandom ran out at this point

16. Outkast - Hey Ya (22) - loooooove this!

17. Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy (14) - snooze

18. Evanescence - My Immortal (7) - stunning! Back when these sort of songs could actually do well in the chart. :wub:

19. UB40 feat United Colours Of Sound - Swing Low (17) - ???

20. Girls Aloud - Jump (12) - never used to be a GA fave of mine but in the past few years it's become one of my favourites and arguably their best cover!

 

I count 7 cover versions in this top 20. :o

The top 2 are highly iconic. I agree that 'Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)' would have been a more apt festive #1

 

I have thought for a long time that Ultrabeat's - Feeling Fine is like a dance version of Bryan Adams - Cloud Number Nine

 

I really like this dance tune that was #28 on Christmas week

 

Edited December 3, 2024Dec 3 by TheSnake

Yeh Cry Little Sister was the remix of the song on the Lost Boys, wasn’t it?

 

Loved this Xmas chart due to the reemergence of the first new successful Xmas song in 9 years in the chart. Also always felt the emergence of the Darkness in 2003 was the precursor for the Brit pop mark 2 revival in 2004 with bands like Feanz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol getting heavy support going into 2004!

 

Was this the final Atomic Kitten release?

Not sure why I've turned these threads into posts about compilations, but I guess for me it's a good reference point to what was around in the charts at the time.

 

Christmas 2003 was quite decent actually, with one of the most emotive #1 singles of my lifetime.

 

Christmas came between the releases of Now 56 (2003) and Now 57 (2004).

 

Here's some other compilations I owned from this time period;

 

 

And also;

 

 

Not too sure I saw many other compilations around at this time featuring music I wanted to purchase.

I absolutely love that Ultrabeat song, way moreso than 'Pretty Green Eyes'.

 

Also I'm still so glad 'Mad World' won the battle! That knob from The Darkness' reaction was priceless.

Also I'm still so glad 'Mad World' won the battle! That knob from The Darkness' reaction was priceless.

 

Is there any video footage of this anywhere?

Think there’s a mid week article of him slabbering about it being close, think it was in gest though tbf

Nah he threw a complete wobbly after the chart was revealed and was like "that isn't even a Christmas song!!!!11"

I’m sure we can all unite in the view that Changes is one of the worst songs in the history of the chart

Nah he threw a complete wobbly after the chart was revealed and was like "that isn't even a Christmas song!!!!11"

 

Reminds me of when he competed to represent the UK at Eurovision in 2007 and stormed off in a huff when Scooch went through to the final round over him.

I’m sure we can all unite in the view that Changes is one of the worst songs in the history of the chart

 

Vile :puke2:

I’m sure we can all unite in the view that Changes is one of the worst songs in the history of the chart

 

It's an abomination to say the least.