DanChartFan

Some puppets in the christmas chart in 1986, many years before Simon Cowell started doing it every year. 1986 – Spitting Image – Santa Claus Is On The Dole (^22) NNace1KBqac

1985, and it's that dance again, this time by a group who made an entire career out of novelty hits. 1985 – Black Lace – Hokey Cokey (^31) TMCthi3pFEQ

In 1984 a former beatle brings us a choir of animated amphibians... 1984 – Paul McCartney And The Frog Chorus – We All Stand Together (~3) gpevZ0-wUYQ

1983, and it's them blokes from Minder with a christmas conundrum. 1983 – Dennis Waterman and George Cole – What Are We Gonna Get ‘Er Indoors (*26) TbgW1mGY5sI

1982 saw novelty surge to the top of the christmas chart once again, and I've selected a lyrics video so that you can all enjoy singing along... 1982 – Renee And Renato – Save Your Love (Xmas #1) iigKAaw8zlU

Some men in suits so restrictive they couldn't properly perform the dance they were singing about, they never thought that through did they? 1981 – The Snowmen – Hokey Cokey (^18) rzQ9K7-J_PM

1980's christmas chart had several hits by John Lennon in it due to his recent death, but this hit managed to outdo them all. 1980 – St. Winfred’s School Choir – There’s No One Quite Like Grandma (Xmas #1) rsXJcIODLtQ

1979 brought this slice of cheese 1979 – Fiddler’s Dram – Day Trip To Bangor (Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time) (^4) x_XVixtKB7I and as a bonus I've also added a later comedy cover by Jasper Carrot which is really funny, but just a warning that you may not wish to play this version if you have any small children in the room. elmfnHHs8Yg

1978 brings some more children's characters, and we'll hear from them again much later after they had sacked Father Abraham. 1978 – Father Abraham And The Smurfs – Christmas In Smurfland (^19) ghrE0PKIAgo

And from 1977 here's a novelty hit that inspired another one. Whilst playing this hit, DJ Terry Wogan started singing along on his show with improvised lyrics, and ended up releasing his own version. 1977 – The Brighouse And Rastrick Brass Band – The Floral Dance (~2) Zz9QitmuH3w

The next act actually made three of these in different years for the christmas chart battle, always using the techique of taking samples from recent big hits and telling a story from the bits. 1976 – Chris Hill – Bionic Santa (^10) 2do7BOypXU8

1975 and a classic silent comedy duo got themselves into a fine mess in the christmas chart. 1975 – Laurel And Hardy – Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (!3 - #2 previous week) IyYZvO8S398

1973 is the one exception I mentioned in the opening to this, because that years christmas chart was only a top 30, and there were 27 fairly normal hits, and three christmas classics, so I'm at a loss as to what to include here and am open to your suggestions/opinions. Straight to 1974 then and some lovable furry children's characters 1974 – The Wombles – Wombling Merry Christmas (^5) _JhVkWNHaU4

1972 and with no disrespect intended to the artist of this it was really another novelty xmas #1 1972 – Little Jimmy Osmond – Long Haired Lover From Liverpool (Xmas #1) QHFJgbpETrI

1971 brought a novelty xmas #1, and one of my favourites 1971 – Benny Hill – Ernie The Fastest Milkman In The West (Xmas #1) 8e1xvyTdBZI

This is a little something I have prepared as a celebration of Christmas Chart Day 2013. Nowadays it's normally a given that the winning puppet from the high-trousered one's 'talent' show will be Xmas #1, but historically a whole host of weird and wonderful novelty hits entered the chart battle, and still do to this day. So here is one novelty chart hit from every Christmas Chart Battle, covering the years 1970-2013, with one exception. I'm going to fly through these quite quickly this afternoon but feel free to comment on any of these, add any relevant information about them, suggest other novelty hits you would have chosen over my choices etc. We start with 1970: 1970 – Clive Dunn – Grandad (^6 - later number 1) 6KJGJRd8pGE

Actually they are counting the 1998 Re-Issue of 'You're The One That I Want' as one of her top 5 hits, it even states that in the article at the start of this thread. The seven hits are : You're The One That I Want - 1978 - 1 Summer Nights - 1978 - 1 Hopelessly Devoted To You - 1978 - 2 A Little More Love - 1978 - 4 Xanadu - 1980 - 1 The Grease Megamix - 1990 - 3 You're The One That I Want - 1998 - 4

Singles/Tracks AC/DC - Highway To Hell (download album track) Big Reunion 2013 - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (2 track download single) Retrobot - Christmas Robot (1 track download single) Retrobot - Christmas Robot Remixes (3 track download single) Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad (download track) q-43GXLnjTo

In the case of Prodigy I think TOTP actually wouldn't have asked them to appear, because the one time they showed about 30 seconds of a video of theirs there were loads of complaints from parents that Keith looked too scary for the child viewers (I remember this being mentioned in the TOTP magazine at the time). I don't think the Sex Pistols ever appeared, but not sure if that was in effect a mutual decision by both parties.

I would say let Rufus Hound come back to it. He genuinely loved the show and has said so in interviews since, and his style sort of combined that of the Radio 1 DJs of old with that of the trendy new presenters of later years, so I think he would be popular with most people tuning in.

So happy to hear the shows are going ahead again this xmas, as this is the first I've read about them anywhere so I had been starting to think they weren't. On the other hand they did say somewhere that that stance was probably wrong in hindsight, and they did allow one of their tracks to go on a NOW album for the first time this year, so maybe they might've...

Ah so they were never genuine track purchases in the first place then, just constituent parts of an album purchase. So were they among the remaining tracks that completed the album (delayed grats?) rather than instant grats?

So what exactly is the controversy about those 1D tracks in this weeks chart? I have read the whole of this thread, the whole iTunes weekly thread and the sales thread and I still don't understand it. I gather there was an error on iTunes which resulted in the tracks being 'treated as instant grats', but shouldn't that mean that sales were mistakenly EXcluded rather than INcluded? And as one poster pointed out instant grats become eligible for the chart when the album is out anyway, and the album in question was out this week wasn't it? And finally has there been any actual confirmation that any error did happen or with the greatest respect is this just the opinion of regular iTunes chart followers trying to explain some unexpectedly high sales that could in fact have just been that high?

I've found this snippet of conversation online, that was written on the day of the Jo Whiley chart show in question, and it proves she presented the show with Colin Murray. Of course she could have had that exchange with Vernon Kay on a different show on Radio 1 perhaps or the following week on the chart show when Vernon presented it with Spoony (and Duran Duran dropped from 11 to 33). http://chrismoyles.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9006

Interestingly in an article about the xmas number one race on the OCC website it is mentioned that the chart will be presented on Radio 1 by Scott Mills and Jameela Jamil. Perhaps Jameela doesn't yet feel up to presenting such an important edition of the show in her own right? Or perhaps they have Scott there either in recognition of his years of service to the charts show, or (and I hope I'm wrong) to mark his retirement from the chart show? Scott has now appeared on the chart show in as many calendar years as the previous record holder, Mark Goodier, and is now, I think, the same age as Mark was when Radio 1 'retired' him from the show, allegedly for being too old for a show geared towards teens. It won't be the first time that Scott has been on the christmas edition of the show in any case.