Posted December 22, 2024Dec 22 Someone asked me this the other day and kinda realised i dont know And cannot make it make sense I mean why is the xmas @1 announced on Dec 20 And covers Dec 14-20 Wouldnt it have more sense if the xmas @1 Covered Dec 21-27 and included Xmas day and was announced on the 27th? Maybe back then shops closed around xmas? But right now with streams… Or is therea another reason?
December 22, 2024Dec 22 Initially it was a promo thing, when people actually went out to buy singles the marketers would say "Official Christmas number one" on a sticker or something to get the single to sell more before shops closed for Christmas. Now it's because the chart date actually falls on the 25th I think Edited December 22, 2024Dec 22 by gasman449
December 22, 2024Dec 22 cos it's whatever song is sitting at #1 on the official chart on Christmas Day itself even if the most consumed song on 25th December is a different song
December 22, 2024Dec 22 It also logically makes no sense to have to wait til after Christmas to find out what the Christmas #1 was. Even less people would care about it that way.
December 22, 2024Dec 22 The chart is a weekly chart and is therefore always inherently on a delay. A chart is deemed to be 'current' in the week after the sales week that was used to compile it. Christmas number one has long been defined as the song that is number one on the chart that is 'current' on Christmas day itself. The only year where it was any different was 1988, when a new chart was due to be announced on Xmas Day itself, which happened to fall on a Sunday, and they chose to unveil it on Boxing Day Monday instead but still referred to it as the official Christmas chart. Cliff stayed put in the top spot anyway so it didn't cause any dispute as to who was rightful Christmas number one. Generally speaking until the early 80s the Christmas chart was the last one of the year, with the following sales week's chart often never being compiled at all to give the compilers a week off, and possibly also due to seasonal postal issues trying to get the record shop's weekly log books back to the compilers in time. The other thing to consider is that it was thought to be likely that the number one wouldn't change hands again until somewhere in January anyway, so it probably wouldn't affect who the rightful Christmas number one was. If we changed the definition of Xmas number one to being the biggest seller in the sales week that happened to actually include Christmas day (and as reckoned by the same chart compilers we currently use) then we'd have to changed the following Christmas number ones: 1962 - Elvis Presley would be replaced with Cliff Richard 1968 - The Scaffold would be replaced with Marmalade 1978 - Boney M would be replaced with The Village People 1988 - Cliff Richard would be replaced with Kylie and Jason 1990 - Cliff Richard would be replaced with Iron Maiden 1998 - The Spice Girls would be replaced with Chef 2009 - Rage Against The Machine would be replaced with Joe McElderry 2011 - Military Wives/Gareth Malone would be replaced with Coldplay 2012 - Justice Collective would be replaced with James Arthur 2013 - Sam Bailey would be replaced with Pharrell Williams 2014 - Ben Haenow would be replaced with Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars 2015 - Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir replaced with Justin Bieber 2018 - LadBaby replaced with Ava Max 2019 - LadBaby replaced with Ellie Goulding 2020 - LadBaby replaced with Wham! 2021 - LadBaby ft Ed Sheeran and Elton John replaced with Ed Sheeran and Elton John 2022 - LadBaby replaced with Wham!
December 22, 2024Dec 22 A lot of the songs that would have been replaced would simply have been released a week later, thereby still being the Christmas number one.
December 22, 2024Dec 22 That's still a very interesting list, didn't realise just how rare 1-week Christmas #1s were in the 20th century.
December 22, 2024Dec 22 A lot of the songs that would have been replaced would simply have been released a week later, thereby still being the Christmas number one. Yeah certainly the 11 post-millennium ones would have been released a week later.
December 22, 2024Dec 22 That's still a very interesting list, didn't realise just how rare 1-week Christmas #1s were in the 20th century. Literally only Saviours Day and Goodbye, unless I've overlooked something, as the others all had weeks at the top either prior to the Christmas chart, after it, or both.
December 22, 2024Dec 22 That's still a very interesting list, didn't realise just how rare 1-week Christmas #1s were in the 20th century. As you say, most of them are not single week no.1s, but in most cases where it changes in the 20th Century, they're just no.1s whose reign came to an end the sales week that included Christmas Day (if compiled) and so were not single week No.1s. However one thing to bear in mind is sometimes the next chart after Christmas may still not include the Christmas Day sales week. The Christmas chart for 1967 is presumably the chart dated the 23rd December as the next chart (w/e 30th December) would not have been announced until the Tuesday/Wednesday or 26th/27th December. The chart w/e 30th December 1967 actually covers the sales period from Monday 11th December to Wednesday 20th December (they added the sales data from Monday 18th to Wednesday 20th to the Monday 11th to Saturday 16th sales data -the Christmas chart). Something similar may have happened during the 70s for at least some of the Xmas no.1s.... Edited December 22, 2024Dec 22 by braindeadpj
December 22, 2024Dec 22 As you say, most of them are not single week no.1s, but in most cases where it changes in the 20th Century, they're just no.1s whose reign came to an end the sales week that included Christmas Day (if compiled) and so were not single week No.1s. However one thing to bear in mind is sometimes the next chart after Christmas may still not include the Christmas Day sales week. The Christmas chart for 1967 is presumably the chart dated the 23rd December as the next chart (w/e 30th December) would not have been announced until the Tuesday/Wednesday or 26th/27th December. The chart w/e 30th December 1967 actually covers the sales period from Monday 11th December to Wednesday 20th December (they added the sales data from Monday 18th to Wednesday 20th to the Monday 11th to Saturday 16th sales data -the Christmas chart). Something similar may have happened during the 70s for at least some of the Xmas no.1s.... Going by the Virgin Top 40 charts books the w/e dates for December 1967 are 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th. The OCC has w/e dates of 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th as they have started each chart week on the dates that the Virgin book has ended them on, but I believe that is a known wrinkle with the 60s charts on the OCC site. There are also new charts compiled every single week in Xmas 1967 and New Year 1968, so no reason to think they might have put certain sales days into the wrong chart week. Trying to get the chart arrangement straight in my head for each Xmas/New Year from the 50s to 1983 does make my head hurt though and I may well have misunderstood something.
December 22, 2024Dec 22 Going by the Virgin Top 40 charts books the w/e dates for December 1967 are 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th. The OCC has w/e dates of 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th as they have started each chart week on the dates that the Virgin book has ended them on, but I believe that is a known wrinkle with the 60s charts on the OCC site. There are also new charts compiled every single week in Xmas 1967 and New Year 1968, so no reason to think they might have put certain sales days into the wrong chart week. Trying to get the chart arrangement straight in my head for each Xmas/New Year from the 50s to 1983 does make my head hurt though and I may well have misunderstood something. The Virgin Top 40 dates are the publication dates for RR (6th, 13th, 20th, 27th) while the 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th December refers to the Saturday after this as most of the charts from the 70s to the 2015 use this....- so RR was published on the 27th December and the 30th December is often used as the Saturday week ending date (but actually covers sales to the 20th December - instead of the "usual" (probably) 23rd December for that week (and so wold not have included Christmas Day in its sales week either even without the adjustment. Edited December 23, 2024Dec 23 by braindeadpj
December 22, 2024Dec 22 The chart is a weekly chart and is therefore always inherently on a delay. A chart is deemed to be 'current' in the week after the sales week that was used to compile it. Christmas number one has long been defined as the song that is number one on the chart that is 'current' on Christmas day itself. The only year where it was any different was 1988, when a new chart was due to be announced on Xmas Day itself, which happened to fall on a Sunday, and they chose to unveil it on Boxing Day Monday instead but still referred to it as the official Christmas chart. Cliff stayed put in the top spot anyway so it didn't cause any dispute as to who was rightful Christmas number one. Generally speaking until the early 80s the Christmas chart was the last one of the year, with the following sales week's chart often never being compiled at all to give the compilers a week off, and possibly also due to seasonal postal issues trying to get the record shop's weekly log books back to the compilers in time. The other thing to consider is that it was thought to be likely that the number one wouldn't change hands again until somewhere in January anyway, so it probably wouldn't affect who the rightful Christmas number one was. If we changed the definition of Xmas number one to being the biggest seller in the sales week that happened to actually include Christmas day (and as reckoned by the same chart compilers we currently use) then we'd have to changed the following Christmas number ones: 1962 - Elvis Presley would be replaced with Cliff Richard 1968 - The Scaffold would be replaced with Marmalade 1978 - Boney M would be replaced with The Village People 1988 - Cliff Richard would be replaced with Kylie and Jason 1990 - Cliff Richard would be replaced with Iron Maiden 1998 - The Spice Girls would be replaced with Chef 2009 - Rage Against The Machine would be replaced with Joe McElderry 2011 - Military Wives/Gareth Malone would be replaced with Coldplay 2012 - Justice Collective would be replaced with James Arthur 2013 - Sam Bailey would be replaced with Pharrell Williams 2014 - Ben Haenow would be replaced with Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars 2015 - Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir replaced with Justin Bieber 2018 - LadBaby replaced with Ava Max 2019 - LadBaby replaced with Ellie Goulding 2020 - LadBaby replaced with Wham! 2021 - LadBaby ft Ed Sheeran and Elton John replaced with Ed Sheeran and Elton John 2022 - LadBaby replaced with Wham! Please add: 1955 - Dickie Valentine replaced by Bill Haley and His Comets 1956 - Johnnie Ray replaced by Guy Mitchell The rest above are perfect!
December 22, 2024Dec 22 Someone asked me this the other day and kinda realised i dont know And cannot make it make sense I mean why is the xmas @1 announced on Dec 20 And covers Dec 14-20 Wouldnt it have more sense if the xmas @1 Covered Dec 21-27 and included Xmas day and was announced on the 27th? Maybe back then shops closed around xmas? But right now with streams… Or is therea another reason? Excellent question: I know that I am in a distinct minority but I prefer to recognise the Christmas No 1 as the song which was most popular in the week which includes 25th December, even if it means waiting to find out what it was. I do the same for birthdays, Easter Day, Valentine's Day or any other date!
December 22, 2024Dec 22 Someone asked me this the other day and kinda realised i dont know And cannot make it make sense I mean why is the xmas @1 announced on Dec 20 And covers Dec 14-20 Wouldnt it have more sense if the xmas @1 Covered Dec 21-27 and included Xmas day and was announced on the 27th? Maybe back then shops closed around xmas? But right now with streams… Or is therea another reason? Shops would have been closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day (St Stephen's Day) and Sunday, leaving just four days of sales.
December 23, 2024Dec 23 Author I dont see why not Its the xmas @1 not the xmas day @1 I still cannot make sense of calling the sales from 11-17 Dec the xmas @1
December 23, 2024Dec 23 Because for most people it just isn’t that deep. Christmas no.1 is the song that you can refer to as no.1 if anyone asks you on the day. It was the song played as no.1 on TOTP. It’s an old and pretty pointless tradition now.
December 23, 2024Dec 23 I dont see why not Its the xmas @1 not the xmas day @1 I still cannot make sense of calling the sales from 11-17 Dec the xmas @1 Well 12th-18th is the earliest it can be x It's the chart that you'd see if you look it up on Christmas Day.
December 23, 2024Dec 23 I dont see why not Its the xmas @1 not the xmas day @1 I still cannot make sense of calling the sales from 11-17 Dec the xmas @1 It wouldn't be since can only go up to 18th to allow it to be #1 on xmas day. It makes total sense to me, it's the one that is #1 on the day itself.
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