Robbie

Some of the TV music channels stopped playing Christmas music on Christmas Day evening. I tuned into a number of stations after 8pm and it was largely top 40 type non-Christmas countdowns. Many years ago, it was still common to hear Christmas songs into January but that was back when not that many charted each year and there wasn't wall to wall Christmas music (this is pre-digital days). 1995 was an odd one because both Mariah Carey ('All I Want For Christmas Is You') and Bon Jovi ('Please Come Home For Christmas') re-entered the top 75 just before Easter! I assume some record shop chain was selling off cheap CDs. Going back to the 1970s and 1980s the likes of 'Merry Xmas Everybody' by Slade, 'Lonely This Christmas' by Mud, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid and 'Last Christmas' by Wham! were still charting into February. The last two did have a reason though and the Wham! single was flipped in favour of 'Everything She Wants'. I'll probably listen to a few Christmas songs between now and New Year but only my absolute favourites. The problem with the charts being full of Christmas songs and radio playing Christmas songs in a way that was unheard of 20 or so years ago is that I'm bored of hearing the same Christmas songs day in day out.

It wasn't in the same way that the singles number 1 was but it was something much bigger than it has been in recent years. For one thing, sales used to be massive. Plus people used to talk about how many albums had sold over over 100,000 copies in Christmas week. It used to be close to 20 albums.

Slipped disc: The decline of CD sales and the Christmas No.1 album by Andre Paine Taylor Swift’s Midnights is this year’s Christmas No.1 album, following a chart contest with Cliff Richard and Michael Buble. At one point, it looked as if Midnights’ streaming total in the past week might be higher than its physical performance, something that has never happened for a Christmas No.1 album. In the event, physical made up 53.9% of Midnight’s weekly total, which is still by far the lowest ever share for a Christmas No.1. Wth CD sales diving in 2022, based on Music Week research, the longstanding tradition of physical music in the festive period is now looking uncertain. The Christmas No.1 single is still a mainstream media story even with the dominance of LadBaby in recent years. But the chart-topping album has become less of an event in the streaming era. In years gone by, securing the top spot in the albums chart with big numbers in the week of Christmas was a sign of a surefire hit, either from a chart mainstay of that year or a strategic Q4 release in the run-up to Christmas. Last year, despite becoming her first LP available on DSPs from release, Adele’s 30 still registered 62,083 physical sales in chart week 51 (out of a total of 70,813 - Official Charts Company) to retain the No.1 position for Christmas. During the final week of 2021’s gifting season, its physical sales increased from the prior week. The final weeks of Q4 have traditionally been a time when physical music could make its mark on the albums chart, even amid the ongoing switch to DSP consumption. But 2022 shows signs of being the year that streaming - already dominant in terms of consumption throughout the year - finally ends that end-of-year boost for physical. With no album managing to top 20,000 chart sales in the past week, Taylor Swift was able to cruise back to the summit for a third non-consecutive week at No.1 with Midnights. The album became this year’s Christmas chart-topper by registering a further 17,109 sales, including 9,216 physical copies, 7,690 from streams and 203 downloads. Its total stands at 404,600 after just two months. While that caps off a triumphant year for Taylor Swift, it does raise questions about the physical music market at Christmas and the long-term future of CD amid an accelerating decline for the format. Only one album (Cliff Richard’s Christmas With Cliff at No.2 - 15,837 sales) sold in excess of 10,000 physical copies in the past week. According to Official Charts Company data for the year up to week 50 (ending December 15), CD sales were down 18.9% year-on-year. That compares to a year-on-year decline of 10.5% (to 14 million) for the format during the whole of 2021. Physical represented 29% of the albums market in the past week compared to 28.2% in the prior week. A year ago, physical was at 37.2% of the albums market in the week leading up to Christmas. Back in 2016, almost 50 million CDs were sold, and Christmas was the period when sales peaked. Michael Buble’s Christmas reached No.1 with 317,114 copies sold in seven days in the run-up to December 25 in 2011. In 2015, Adele’s 25 (then not available to stream) sold a staggering 449,970 copies in a week. Of course, the market has since shifted to a consumption model, but weekly sales in the run-up to Christmas were still topping 100,000 as recently as 2017 (Eminem’s Revival at No.1 and Ed Sheeran’s Divide at No.2 both made six figures). In the last five years, physical has been on the wane but the Christmas No.1 album was still above 50,000 physical copies for that key week in 2018 (The Greatest Showman), 2019 (Rod Stewart’s You’re In My Heart) and 2021 (Adele). There was a credible challenge this year from three festive releases, new and old, by Cliff Richard, Michael Buble and Andrea, Matteo & Virginia Bocelli. But without the usual retail boost, the two 2022 releases - Christmas With Cliff and the Bocellis’ A Family Christmas - were unable to make up the ground. As the week progressed, Swift’s main threat appeared to be from Buble’s 11-year-old Christmas album, which was powered by streams (84.3%) and ultimately made No.3. SZA’s SOS, which finished at No.4, does not even have a physical edition. While fewer big albums dropping late in the year could explain the slower market performance in the past week, the difference was not just at the top of the chart. In Christmas week 2021 and 2020, four of the Top 5 albums topped 10,000 physical sales, while in 2019 each of the Top 5 albums surpassed 20,000 weekly physical sales. It’s also notable that big festive releases of recent years, such as LPs from Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, have not returned to the chart in 2022. The chart-topping Together At Christmas from 2020 by Michael Ball & Alfie Boe did manage to stage a revival this year, but only as high as No.51. The duo are in the Christmas week Top 20 with new release Together In Vegas. Part of the problem is the lack of availability of CD, a remarkably good value gifting option at this time of year. But record stores now give over much more floor space to vinyl, while many supermarkets have stopped selling music completely or limited it to select titles. Warner Music ingeniously got around this problem by packaging Cliff Richard’s Christmas With Cliff in a magazine format that could be stocked in supermarkets. Vinyl has made a big impact in Q4 with key releases from Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Arctic Monkeys. But with prices increasing - £30 is common for an LP - the format is not likely to be an impulse buy for the Christmas shopper looking for the right gift. In the latest issue of Music Week, ERA’s Kim Bayley noted the rise in prices for vinyl. “Great products which deliver high perceived value will always sell,” she said. “During the Christmas gifting season, we can expect more demand. But value and price need to be aligned. “We recognise that costs are rising for all parts of the industry, but there is a risk that if vinyl costs rise too much it may inevitably affect demand, in particular from younger, less affluent audiences.” In the latest issue, we crunch the Q4 numbers for the first eight weeks of the quarter that shows vinyl unit sales up by 7.4% year-on-year. But, as this Christmas week has shown, it’s been a bumpy quarter and vinyl is not set to grow at the same rate as last year, when sales soared by 10.6% for the 12 months. In terms of value, however, there has been a significant increase, which is good news for retailers and labels. According to Official Charts Company data up to week 50 in 2022, vinyl retail value is up 10.5% year-on-year. As well as consumers’ ability to absorb rising prices, there have been concerns about production capacity and supply issues. But if that has held back growth of vinyl at retail, there are hopes the situation could be improving. “The production of vinyl remains an issue, but there has been a massive improvement on the situation in the last 12 months,” HMV and Fopp MD Phil Halliday told Music Week. “There’s certainly an opportunity for growth in 2023, most notably on catalogue, where some segments have been significantly impacted over the last 18 months.” Subscribers can read the full story on vinyl and Q4 here. Christmas No.1 album weekly sales 2022 Taylor Swift - Midnights (17,109 - 9,216 physical copies) 2021 Adele - 30 (70,813 - 62,083 physical copies) 2020 Paul McCartney - McCartney III (33,079 - 30,557 physical copies) 2019 Rod Stewart - You’re In My Heart (71,330 - 68,015 physical copies) 2018 The Greatest showman (68,606 - 55,025 physical copies) from musicweek.com

Brenda Bieber

Shaky misses the top 10 this year. This was number 1 this week in 1985 on sales of 186,949.

'Watching The Detectives' by Elvis Costello is excellent. Indeed his entire singles output from 1977 to 1980 is very good. During that time he also produced the first Specials album (which is also very good). The band have been in the news today following the death of lead singer Terry Hall.

There were phenomenal sales all round on both the singles and albums charts that week: SINGLES 502672 Rage Against The Machine 450838 Joe McElderry 61677 Lady Gaga 52605 Peter Kay 40742 3OH!3 38438 Robbie Williams (6) 36232 Cheryl Cole (7) 34094 Rihanna (8) 33337 Journey (9) 32517 Black Eyed Peas (10) 26571 Ke$ha (11) 24404 X Factor Finalists (12) 23415 Alicia Keys (13) 22243 George Michael (14) 21556 Chuckie & LMFAO (15) 19687 Timbaland (16) 18859 Cheryl Cole (17) 18457 Pogues (18) 18278 Jason Derulo (19) 17775 Chipmuink (20) 16449 Mariah Carey (21) 12865 Leona Lewis [sCYHO] (29) 12382 Saturdays (30) 11280 Miley Cyrus (31) 10062 Alexandra Burke [bH] (36) 9519 Leona Lewis [Happy] (38) 9250 Pet Shop Boys (40) 7286 Luther Vandross (48) 4051 The Glee Cast (75) ALBUMS 352612 Susan Boyle 251843 Michael Buble 143804 Black Eyed Peas 136480 Lady Gaga 131161 JLS 111599 Robbie Williams (6) 109730 Snow Patrol (7) 102750 Westlife (8) 100994 Leona Lewis (9) 100355 Take That (10) 97177 Will Young (11) 92114 Queen (12) 85938 Rod Stewart (13) 85059 Cheryl Cole (14) 74450 Paolo Nutini (15) 74009 Michael Jackson (16) 69076 Alicia Keys (17) 63492 Soldiers (18) 49896 Alexandra Burke (19) 47660 Rihanna (20) 37570 Beyonce (27) 36781 Paul McCartney (28) 16149 Cliff Richard & The Shadows (53) COMPILATIONS 195748 NOW 74 (1) (Total Sales: 819,850)

The top 16 are inside the main top 40. It will be interesting to see how many are inside the main top 40 both next week and the following (Christmas chart) week. Given when Christmas Day falls there will still be Christmas records in the New Year chart also.

I've not seen one but I imagine it would be quite a lengthy list, especdially for the early years of the charts where competing versions of songs were often in the top 20 at the same time as the original version.

#100 for Christmas week 1991 definitely isn't there as the chart isn't available. 1992 and 1993 are in the thread at https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-discussio...ts-thread/page9

'Don't You (Forget About Me)' had an extended chart run in 1985 and 1986 due to it being featured in the film "The Breakfast Club". The single sold over 60,000 copies in 1986 alone.

1965 was the first year. A late broadcast too, at 10.35pm https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/servi...ndon/1965-12-25

'All Stuck Up' by Hooray and the Henrys was the follow up to the probably-equally-ghastly 'Sloane Rap' by Rupert and the Rupettes on the same label. I can't find a video for that one. Both acts appear to be an offshoot of The Firm, who had a number 1 in 1987 with 'Star Trekkin''.

That's beacuse it's what people want to listen to. Which of course does help their popularity but Spotify would then say those two tracks are the most popular.

The other thing that worked in favour of 'River' was that it was being streamed heavily during a successful promotional campaign for Amazon Prime. This was off the back of AP obtaining exclusive rights to show two rounds of Premier League football during December 2019, one in early December and one over the Christmas / New Year period. Amazon Prime ran a promotional campaign that month where a user could sign up for a free month of AP, watch a lot of free football and have access to Amazon Music for free too - with streams counting as premium streams for chart purposes. Apparently Amazon had around 2.5 million extra subscribers to its Prime service that month. I was one of them. There were prominent ads for the Christmas music playlists and 'The River' was usually the first or second song to be played (which is why I gave up listening to the Christmas playlists).

They were never given at all back in the 1970s or indeed for much of the 1980s. It's only since Alan Jones started to quote some of them in his chart analysis columns in Music Week from 1991 onwards that they became known to the public. Even then he didn't give much at all until the 2000s.

Yes, the difference in sales will most likely be from streams.

The latest issue of Music Week (published today) gives a figure of 1,973,705 pure sales for 'Happy'. Other pure sales figures mentioned: She Loves You: 1.93m Anything Is Possible/Evergreen: 1,793,880 Moves Like Jagger: 1,554,613 Chasing Cars: 1,213,667

A chart controversy that isn't mentioned in the article is 'God Save The Queen' v 'I Don't Want To Talk About It' for the Silver Jublilee number 1 in June 1977. I think that one may have been done to death though. Plus the sales figures were never disclosed for that unlike for the Deee-Lite / Steve Miller Band controversy in 1990. In addition, despite what is written in the article, tied positions no longer exist as they vanished when Millward Brown took over from Gallup in compiling the chart back in 1994.

It's a good article. However, the author musn't be aware that by the time 'Please, Please Me' had been released, Record Mirror had stopped compiling its own chart and was publishing the Record Retailer chart which means that the single also peaked at number 2 in Record Mirror.

I'm wondering it it's a mistake? To gain 2.4m (4xP) in 6½ years without ever charting inside the top 100 sounds a bit unlikely. The track last made the top 100 11 years ago.

Not in the UK, but in the US 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer started as the B side to 'Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)'. The single flopped but the label noticed that the B side was attracting a number of plays, flipped the record and made 'I Feel Love' the A side. As mentioned above, the same happened to 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor which in the US started life as the B side to 'Substitute', a song that was charting in the UK at the time by a band called Clout. In the UK, the respective labels waited until the US labels had flipped the records and released the B sides as the A side.

Both these are from decades ago In 1990 Madonna released her 'The Immaculate Collection' album two weeks ahead of 'Justify My Love'. Even further back, in 1977, Donna Summer released her album 'I Remember Yesterday' a month before lead single 'I Feel Love' was released. I believe this was because the UK label didn't agree with with its US counterpart on the choice of lead single ('Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)', a slow song) which had 'I Feel Love' as the B side. Once the US label realised the first single was flopping yet the B side was very popular they promoted 'I Feel Love' to the A side and that's when the single was released in the UK. Even as far back as then it was quite a rarity for an album to be released ahead of the lead single.

The Radio Airplay Chart will look very different next Friday due to the current changes that are taking place with the music that radio stations are playing.

Hopefully kingofskiffle will see this but sometimes the owner (Chris) can take a few days to sort out subscriptions. I'd suggest sending an email just to double check everything is OK. Edit: I've just noticed you're a new member. kingofskiffle, who posts here, is one of the people involved with the publication. I've sent him a message.