Welcome and glad you’re enjoying the countdown! :)

 

Thank you! Yes I’m really enjoying the countdown, unfortunately I missed the voting this time but I’ll hopefully be ready in future!

I hope you don’t mind Julian, but I was considering stealing your idea for a Richard Osman style ‘World Cup Of…..’ vote (a family tradition) on best the Christmas number 2s next Christmas!😂

Thank you! Yes I’m really enjoying the countdown, unfortunately I missed the voting this time but I’ll hopefully be ready in future!

I hope you don’t mind Julian, but I was considering stealing your idea for a Richard Osman style ‘World Cup Of…..’ vote (a family tradition) on best the Christmas number 2s next Christmas!😂

Feel free - I’m thinking of doing Christmas #3s here next year, though I’ll need to see if the list is actually any good!

Feel free - I’m thinking of doing Christmas #3s here next year, though I’ll need to see if the list is actually any good!

 

Great idea, I’d be up for that! It would be interesting which songs made #3 at Christmas, I have to be honest I can’t remember which they are!

I've got a list of Christmas number 3s, I'll get them into the chart vault in a little bit :)

Even allowing for the inevitable Mariah and Wham, I'm finding the top 10 of this countdown rather palatable. Pleasantly surprising

I've got a list of Christmas number 3s, I'll get them into the chart vault in a little bit :)

 

Great, thank you!

I've got a list of Christmas number 3s, I'll get them into the chart vault in a little bit :)

 

Now posted :D

My top 2 have ended up as the top 2! But in which order... quite appropriate that they're songs which peaked at #2 as well.

2nd: 363 points

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (2008)

Voters: rio309 20, awardinary 20, jimwatts 20, JulianT 20, Roba. 20, chrissmith276 19, chartjack2 19, dandy* 19, My…Stockings 19, Michael Bubré 19, DarrenJames 18, Chez Wombat 18, Tuttavilla 17, Severin 17, RabbitFurCoat 17, dancemberlexa 15, gasman449 15, Jade 15, Electroboy 13, Mangø ho! ho! 7, JackJones 7, Sausage Rollo 6, Viper* 3

 

09/06/2007 Jeff Buckley Hallelujah

Peak: 2

Chart run: 65-74R(41)-59R(29)-50R(6)-50-49-43-30-{2}-7-22-33-40-51-75->15

 

 

Jeff Buckley had no Top 40 hits in his lifetime, and this cover of “Hallelujah” was only released 10 years after his death in mid 2007, whereupon it reached #65. Alexandra Burke releasing a cover as her 2008 X Factor winning single brought huge renewed interest in this version, and it ended up as the Christmas #2 behind her, with Leonard Cohen’s original also entering the Top 40.

 

1st: 397 points

Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl (1987)

Voters: dancemberlexa 20, Chez Wombat 20, Severin 20, RabbitFurCoat 20, My…Stockings 20, Michael Bubré 20, Dobbo 19, jimwatts 19, Jason 19, Electroboy 19, WhoOdyssey 18, JulianT 18, popchartfreak 18, CoolHand501 17, Jade 16, Leonardo 16, rio309 16, Roba. 15, awardinary 14, dandy* 13, chrissmith276 11, Mangø ho! ho! 9, gooddelta 9, Tuttavilla 5, Boymetworld91 4, JosephCarey 2

 

05/12/1987 The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl

Title: Fairytale Of New York

Peak: 2

Chart run: 40-19-8-{2}-2-4-19-39-68-

 

31/12/2005 The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl

Title: Fairytale Of New York {2005}

Peak: 3

Chart run: {3}-5-12-41-63-46R(45)-23-10-6-13-33R(48)-12-8-4-9-62R(47)-44-19-13-12-19-58R(48)-31-18-18-12-75R(47)-51-27-26-19-17-47R(48)-23-15-13-13-68-53R(47)-27-15-18-12-32-53R(48)-16-15-14-24-67R(48)-18-11-11-17-58R(49)-20-15-13-46-66R(48)-16-18-15-15-55R(48)-10-7-7-5-66R(48)-18-10-11-4-71R(48)-22-14-14-4-63R(47)-26-8-4-5-6-5-44R(47)-16-7-7-7-4-57R(47)-30-14-9-13-9-53R(47)-18-4-5-6-6-48R(47)-34-13-8-10-6->110

 

 

This was blocked in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys with their cover of “Always On My Mind”. A 2005 re-release took it to #3 and on the back of that same release it climbed back to #6 the following year. Since then it has built a run of 20 consecutive years in the Christmas Top 20, both throughout the download and streaming years.

And so very much not for the first time in a Christmas related rate, it’s The Pogues and lovely Kirsty who emerge victorious. Thanks all for voting, commenting and reading and I hope to do it all again with #3s next year!

 

In the meantime please do participate in King Rollo’s Ultimate #7 hit!

Thanks for the great thread Julian!

 

If I had voted my top pointer would have went to Greg Lake so TT wouldn’t have been top 3 😮

My top 2 being the top 2 in the results!! :cheer:

 

Excellent taste all.

The Jeff Buckley version of 'Hallelujah' is so haunting and 'Fairytale of New York' is easily up there with my favourite festive songs, so great job all.

 

Thank you for running this, Julian!

Excellent and always the rightful winner of course, but wonderful to see Hallelujah as high as 2nd, one of the very best covers of all time :wub: (sadly beaten by one of the worst -_)

 

Thanks for running this!

1 397 Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl (1987)

2 363 Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (2008)

3 320 Patience - Take That (2006)

4 314 I Believe In Father Christmas - Greg Lake (1975)

5 301 Uptown Funk - Mark Robson Featuring Bruno Mars (2014)

6 295 Last Christmas / Everything She Wants - Wham! (1984 / 2022*)

7 269 Caravan Of Love - The Housemartins (1986)

8 256 Downtown - Petula Clark (1964)

9 255 Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) - The Darkness (2003)

10 242 All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey (1994 / 2020*)

 

11 230 She Loves You - The Beatles (1963)

12 222 Magical Mystery Tour EP - The Beatles (1967)

13 219 What’s My Name - Rihanna Featuring Drake (2010)

14 214 Sweet But Psycho - Ava Max (2018)

15 194 Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations (1968)

16 188 Y.M.C.A. - The Village People (1978)

17 187 Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley And His Comets (1955)

18 166 Especially For You - Kylie Minogue Featuring Jason Donovan (1988)

19 151 Human - Rag’n’Bone Man (2016)

20 150 JCB Song - Nizlopi (2005)

 

21 149 Chocolate Salty Balls - P.S. I Love You - Chef (1998)

22 147 Happy - Pharrell Williams (2013)

23 135 My Oh My - Slade (1983)

24 128 You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1974)

25 126 I Have A Dream - ABBA (1979)

26 120 Impossible - James Arthur (2012)

27 114 Merry Christmas - Ed Sheeran And Elton John (2021)

28 109 Jeepster - T. Rex (1971)

29 106 River - Eminem Featuring Ed Sheeran (2017)

30 104 Heal The World - Michael Jackson (1992)

 

31 102 Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice (1990)

32 100 Saving All My Love For You - Whitney Houston (1985)

33 99 Love Yourself - Justin Bieber (2015)

34 97 Sunshine Superman - Donovan (1966)

35 89 (Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon (1980)

36 79 Babe - Take That (1993)

37 71 Sacred Trust / After You’re Gone - One True Voice (2002)

38 69 It’s Now Or Never - Elvis Presley (1960)

39 67 You’re Christmas To Me - Sam Ryder (2023)

40 66 Teletubbies Say “Eh-Oh!” - Teletubbies (1997)

 

41 63 When You Tell Me That You Love Me - Diana Ross (1991)

42 54 The Climb - Joe McElderry (2009)

43 46 Hoots Mon - Lord Rockingham’s XI (1958)

44 41 (6 voters) Under The Moon Of Love - Showaddywaddy (1976)

45 41 (5 voters) Wonderwall - Mike Flowers Pops (1995)

46 39 Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town - Kenny Rogers And The First Edition (1969)

47 34 What A Wonderful World - Katie Melua And Eva Cassidy (2007)

48 31 (5 voters) Own It - Stormzy Featuring Ed Sheeran And Burna Boy (2019)

49 31 (3 voters) Cannonball - Little Mix (2011)

50 29 Father And Son - Ronan Keating Featuring Yusuf Islam (2004)

 

51 26 What Makes A Man - Westlife (2000)

52 24 That’s So True - Gracie Abrams (2024)

53 15 (4 voters) My Ding-A-Ling - Chuck Berry (1972)

54 (2 voters) Floral Dance - Brighouse And Rastrick Brass Band (1977)

55 15 (1 voter) When I’m Dead And Gone - McGuiness Flint (1970)

56 13 Let’s Party - Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers (1989)

57 6 How Wonderful You Are - Gordon Haskell (2001)

58 5 Daddy’s Home - Cliff Richard (1981)

58 5 The Next Time / Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard (1962)

60 4 (2 voters) The Millennium Prayer - Cliff Richard (1999)

 

61 4 (1 voter) Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door - Dunblane (1996)

62 3 Ma He’s Making Eyes At Me - Johnny Otis And His Orchestra With Marie Adams (1957)

63 2 I Love You Love Me Love - Gary Glitter (1973)

63 2 Tower Of Strength - Frankie Vaughan (1961)

65 1 Singing The Blues - Guy Mitchell (1956)

65 1 You Belong To Me - Jo Stafford (1952)

67 0 Answer Me - David Whitfield (1953)

67 0 Blue Christmas EP - Shakin’ Stevens (1982)

67 0 Santo Natale - David Whitfield (1954)

67 0 What Do You Want? - Adam Faith (1959)

67 0 Wind Me Up (Let Me Go) - Cliff Richard (1965)

Well that winner was totally unsurprising but a great one at that. Very pleased to see Jeff Buckley in second

 

 

Thanks for running this Julian and the hard work put into it like you do with other projects!

Fantastic top 3, all at the high end of my votes, great taste all! Thank you Julian for running this

Wow the top 3 in the results here exactly matches my own top 3 (and the 4th placer was 5th for me so it was almost the whole top 4) - me being a festive bellwether *.*

 

Not a surprising winner by any means but as my all time favourite Christmas song it's only right that it takes the crown, testament to its genuine popularity that it's still managing to make the top 10 every year fighting against the tide of playlist support being nowhere near as much in its favour as other big Christmas hits.

 

Alexandra's version of 'Hallelujah' is awful but the fact that it brought more attention to the beautiful Jeff Buckley version is at least a silver lining. And 'Patience' is still my favourite Take That song, very well played comeback. Great to see Greg Lake and The Housemartins doing so well here too.

 

Thanks for running this Julian, has been fun, and why not at doing the Christmas #3s next year (though I fear there might be a lot more songs I don't know very well there x).

Delighted to see Jeff Buckley as high as second :wub: it's one of the first songs I downloaded when I got an iPod which just happened to coincide with its Top 75 debut at #65 that week - I think his greatest hits compilation had just come out, but I knew his version of the song had already gained a fair amount of acclaim over the previous 10 years since his death. It was quite surreal to witness it then ending up a Christmas #2 the following year, but it's fantastic to see it so well-regarded still - and with The Pogues & Kirsty's song being the only one to beat it here, the ending to this rate could hardly have panned out better!

 

Thanks Julian for running this!