Ongarboy

A Christmas album in the top 40 in early October?? Dolly Parton in at #28 This must be the most reshuffled album chart since records began with all the new entries. New entries for veterans such as Queen. Oasis, Bon Jovi, Mel C, New Order, The Bangles, Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Robert Plant among others suggests its quite a struggle for newer artists. Was there some kind of Super Tuesday mass record release that triggered all these album releases the same week?

While it has been in the top 40 for about 6 weeks now, it seems album sales are so low now in general, that a few dozen sales can add a 10 place climb to an album's chart placement. I noted last week that there was only a difference of about 200 sales between #20 and #60 in the album charts. Crazy really for a population of 65 million!

The last 7 inch vinyl I bought was(don't laugh!!🙈) Saviour's Day by Cliff Richard in December 1990 (that year's Christmas No.1). I'm racking my brain for last cassette single but it could've been More Than Words by Extreme in 1991. I really wasn't a frequent singles buyer. My last CD single was Million Dollar Bill by Whitney Houston in 2009 (only cos I was/am a huge Whitney fan). I'm probably committing blasphemy on this forum by admitting I've never purchased a digital download single! I do love music and the charts but have no need to purchase such music myself if I can stream it for free.

I remember it being done with Whitney and Madonna in the 80s and Mariah and Whitney in the 90s.

Wow, I've never seen such euphoria on this forum for an individual artist to hit #1!! Lots of Gaga fans here obviously. It's great to see her enter her third decade of number one hits. 00s, 10s and now 20s!

So using your logic, any song ever released in the last 60 years, no matter how famous and beloved and still streamed or played repeatedly on radio 30 years later is a miserable flop if it never made number 1? A very narrow minded view as to what constitutes a hit!

I think you're confusing Ladbaby's song now... :D :D For the record, Shane McGowan (lead singer of the Pogues) has explained on numerous occasions about the context. It has absolutely nothing to do with Victorian sticks or meat. It was a derogatory term the alcoholic homeless lady in the song's story hurled at her ex as a put down. Google Shane McGowan and f***** and numerous articles will explain. I can't share links yet.

Is it me or are all the Christmas hits at lower positions this year then they were this time last year for 2018's equivalent chart?

I remember AIWFCIY well in 1994. I bought the Merry Christmas album from Mariah that Christmas also. If I remember correctly, it wasn't that big an airplay or ubiquitous hit on the radio etc at Christmas from the late 90s to the mid 2000s. It probably would have been played as often as Leona Lewis or Kelly Clarkson's festive hits during those early years post 1994. Familiar to everyone but not the huge behemoth it has now become. I really think it was the airing of the film Love Actually on BBC or ITV around Christmas time in the late 2000s which this song featured prominently that embedded the song in the public conscious as the sole modern Christmas classic. Then of course, downloading becoming chart eligible from 2008 onwards gave it increased prominence at Christmas time. It's the streaming that made it huge then as children seem to gravitate to it similar to Frozen's Let It Go and want to play/stream it numerous times a day. My biggest grievance with modern day chart calculation is not streaming per se but defaulted playlists that involuntarily give certain songs prominence and then they become the biggest chart hits. I do think AIWFCIY has peaked this year also and an element of fatigue has set in. Future generations may move onto newer classics or simply will not embrace Christmas hits in the same way current generations do. The 70s and 80s were golden eras for Christmas hits but new Christmas hits were not existent from 1995 to 2005. I think we are just going through another festive hit boom (albeit with very few new material - just rehashing of old hits). My favourite post 2000 hit is Kelly Clarkson's Underneath The Tree.