The X Factor tried for a 5th in a row...the UK public were famously fed up.

 

1. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name (80)

2. Joe McElderry - The Climb (NEW)

3. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (1)

4. Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band - The Official BBC Children In Need Medley (2)

5. 3OH!3 feat Katy Perry - Starstrukk (NEW)

6. Robbie Williams - You Know Me (15)

7. Cheryl Cole feat will.i.am - 3 Words (14)

8. Rihanna - Russian Roulette (3)

9. Journey - Don't Stop Believin' (52)

10. Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway (4)

11. Ke$ha - Tik Tok (5)

12. X Factor Finalists 2009 - You Are Not Alone (11)

13. Alicia Keys - Doesn't Mean Anything (8)

14. George Michael - December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas) (NEW)

15. Chuckie & LMFAO - Let The Bass Kick In Miami Girl (9)

16. Timbaland feat Nelly Furtado and SoShy - Morning After Dark (6)

17. Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love (13)

18. The Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York (18)

19. Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say (7)

20. Chipmunk feat Talay Riley - Look For Me (10)

 

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29. Leona Lewis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out (Re-entry)

31. Miley Cyrus - The Climb (Re-entry)

32. Queen & The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody (NEW)

36. Alexandra Burke - Broken Heels (NEW)

40. Pet Shop Boys - Christmas EP (NEW)

46. Sir Terry Wogan & Aled Jones - Silver Bells / Sharon Corr - Me & My Teddy Bear (27)

47. Mumford & Sons - Winter Winds (48)

48. Luther Vandross - Dance With My Father (Re-entry)

52. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind (Part II) (NEW)

65. Cheryl Cole - Parachute (NEW)

72. Michael Bublé - Hold On (NEW)

73. Mini Viva - I Wish (NEW)

75. Glee Cast - Don't Stop Believin' (NEW)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For four years in a row nobody apart from The X Factor got a look in for the UK Christmas No.1, and it was clear they were going for it for a fifth time in a row - why change a winning formula? Problem being that the public who were not into the show and its sanitisied singles were sick to the back teeth of it dominating the Christmas No.1 spot. English DJ Jon Morter and his wife Tracy launched a group on the quickly growing social networking site Facebook to encourage people to buy Killing In The Name, a classic 1993 single by US rock act Rage Against The Machine, in the week before Christmas, with the aim of stopping the winner of The X Factor from what by this point was assumed to be an easy Christmas No.1 by default. It felt unlikely to work, and a bit of a David vs Goliath situation, but after a very close battle, the public's voice was heard, the machine (X Factor/Cowell) was sufficiently raged at, and Killing In The Name leapt up from No.80 (some people clearly misunderstood the assignment and bought it the week before), all the way to No.1, selling 502,672 copies, over 50k ahead of the X Factor winner's 450,838. It was the first track ever to sell more than half a million copies in a week as a download, and also achieved the best weekly sale ever for a rock track.

 

The winner caught in the crossfire was Joe McElderry, an 18-year-old from South Shields who was armed with a generic Miley Cyrus cover and a dream. The campaign was not against Joe himself, rather the show, Cowell and ITV, but he must have felt deflated to fail where the other winners had followed. Although by consolation he did jump to No.1 the following week once the campaign hype died down. Also in a very unfestive top 10 in 2009 were former No.1s from Lady Gaga and Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band (a medley of pop hits by a cast of children's TV characters, assembled by the comedian), and a smattering of songs that would go onto bigger things in the new year. The next highest new entry was Starstrukk by US rap duo 3OH!3 and the returning Katy Perry - this collaboration and an upcoming duet with Timbaland in the new year comfortably ramped up hype for Katy ahead of her mega Teenage Dream album the following summer.

 

Also on the way up in the top 10 were Cheryl's follow up the massive Fight For This Love, the subtle 3 Words with will.i.am, Robbie's new single You Know Me, and Journey's 80s song Don't Stop Believin', which Glee Cast's cover (which went on to outpeak it after debuting this week at No.75) prompted to finally become a smash here. George Michael provided the only new festive effort in the top 20, nothing to do with Last Christmas, which by this point was languishing at No.41 in a very poor year for the Christmas classics, but new track December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas). Fairytale Of New York was the only standard in the top 20, but itself was as low as No.18.

 

There were also plenty of new entries and re-entries in the top 75, many the result of X Factor performances or other plays on the show. Leona Lewis was hoping to repeat the success of Run, with another cover of a rock band's early 00s single as a power ballad, but her version of Stop Crying Your Heart Out by Oasis rather underperformed in comparison at No.29. Fellow former winner Alexandra Burke was also back with a new single, Broken Heels, at No.36, while Miley's original version of The Climb was also back in sympathy, at No.31. New entries came from veteran acts Queen (with The Muppets!) and Pet Shop Boys, who had reactived a fan club release from the 90s as the lead song on a new Christmas EP, which also featured a single version of All Over The World from the Yes album, and a cover of Coldplay's Viva La Vida mashed up with their own Domino Dancing.

 

Other new entries included Terry Wogan and Aled Jones trying for another hit but this time on a double a-side with Corrs' violinist and backing singer Sharon Corr, going where her sister Andrea had never gone by achieving a solo hit single, kind of, with the very twee Me & My Teddy Bear. Songs by Alicia Keys, Cheryl Cole and the aformentioned Glee Cast would go on to be big hits in 2010 while the winter themed hit from Mumford & Sons would peak the following week, but some of the other singles were peaking here, including Michael Bublé and a very poorly planned second single from Xenomania produced pop duo Mini Viva; I Wish was another great pop song but why put it out on Christmas week, drowned out by the noise of X Factor and chart campaigns?

 

Cowell did bag the Christmas No.1 album, with Britain's Got Talent winner Susan Boyle shifting a massive 352,612 of her debut album on Christmas week, while every album in the top 10 cleared 100k - those were the days.

 

Here's how BuzzJack reacted to this monumental chart from 15 years ago, plus a few classic quotes:

 

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=104698

 

Daniel. on the big battle:

 

This is so tense. I thought on friday Joe had it in the bag, but the amount of downloads RATM got on Saturday was shocking (the live version was at #11 as well). On Amazon it was #1, #3 and #6 (I'm pretty sure this is correct).

 

I just hope KITN is No.1 I'm fed up of Cole and Cowell saying how much Joe 'deserves' it as if it's his God given right to be No.1 this week because he won a talent show. Big woop- he has to earn his No.1 and he should have to fight for it just like everyone else does . If Rage does beat him I can't wait to see peoples reactions- especially the ITV1 camp especially after the fuss they made about how well Joe's doing in the Winner's Story.

RabbitFurCoat on the state of the charts - and we had it so good:

 

It shows how boring the charts are now when people label a 10 place drop a 'massive fall' :|

 

Callum on The Climb:

 

Joes version is dog crud compared to Mileys....Mileys has emotion and feeling. Joe just sounds like any old pop crap

*Ben* on Miley Cyrus...luckily she would get better:

 

LOL Miley don't have emotion or anything in her songs, she's just a Disney muppet.

 

Only Human on Leona...sadly it never saw the light of day as a single but at least we got Collide:

 

Hope Outta My Head will be released sooon!

such a gooood song and people will be shocked to see a bit more uptempo single from Leona

Aled counting up his years in sevens, but not around for the big moment

 

Oh lol. First time in dogs years I take any notice of the chart show and it turns out im not gonna be here for the big reveal sad.gif St Trinians: Frittons Gold is where i'll be at 7pm...

 

Dandy* not a fan of George Michael's Christmas single:

First time I've heard this and it was DIRE. I really thought it was the latest Cliff Richard effort.

PaulM1983 had a choice to make:

 

God damn it, my other half just phoned and I need to go and pick him up from work. Do you think I could leave him standing in the snow for another half an hour?

 

gooddelta on Katy Perry...a two-hit wonder, surely not?

 

excellent for Starstrukk, love this. Great to see Katy Perry back in the top 5, I was worried that she'd be a two hit wonder! 3OH!3 are excellent on this song too

Jester with the final word - this battle was so fierce that the number of users viewing posed a threat to the forum's infrastructure:

 

Phil has turned the users viewing off so the site doesn't crash!

 

Thanks for a brilliant chart thread today everyone and happy christmas!

Edited December 24, 2024Dec 24 by gooddelta

And with that, is the end of this series, for this year at least! Thanks all for following along, commenting and wallowing in the nostalgia of when Christmas charts were actually interesting.

 

Merry Christmas!

Sharon Corr - Me & My Teddy Bear is my big favourite. :heart:

Iconic chart.

 

'Starstrukk' I really liked but only got to know it in the new year - great production and better imo than Kesha's rival 'Tik Tok'.

Edited December 24, 2024Dec 24 by TheSnake

The record for users viewing the site (nearly 1000) when RATM was revealed as number 1 stayed for years!

 

That was a great Xmas chart.

Was a monumental time indeed this chart. Journey at the time getting a top 10 hit was so awesome and Gaga, BEP, Robbie and Rihanna's tracks were great inside the top 10 for me. George's track was fine but not one I ever check.

 

Christmas classics were sliding somewhat for a few years after the initial download era boom

When was it beaten?

 

I remember we went through at least 2 mid week threads that Xmas week of 50 pages or am I thinking of iTunes chart threads??

This is the most exciting Christmas #1 race that I can remember in my lifetime! I didn't really have people to discuss the charts with pre-BuzzJack but this was an exception, genuinely talked about at school / on Facebook. I was an X Factor viewer at the time but love 'Killing In The Name' so I'm glad it triumphed!

 

Glee was also huge during that first season (well the second one too, poor brave S3 onwards) and I was all over Gaga, 'Bad Romance' a clear highlight in this chart :wub:

What amazes me is that Killing In The Name sold another nearly 70k the following week falling to No.2, while Joe went up to No.1 on just shy of 200k.

 

I've never really seen a Facebook campaign outlast the first/focus week, which suggests the song got quite a lot of sales through the No.1 hype/people hearing it for the first time/and possibly also people misunderstanding the end of the tracking week and buying it the day the chart was revealed. Anyway, 80-1-2-40 seemed pretty impressive for a focused one-week raid on the charts.