2011-12-12
post/14134042207
photo 22:25:09
The UKs most played Xmas songs are quite different (2008 list from here) 40s - 1, 70s - 3, 80s - 5, 90s - 1
- Last Christmas - Wham!
- Do They Know It’s Christmas? (original 1984 recording) - Band Aid
- Fairytale of New York - The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
- All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Bruce Springsteen
- Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie
- I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
- Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
- Lonely This Christmas - Mud
- White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Aha. I was meaning to look this up, but soemone’s saved me the effort. I am a little surprised Imagine’s not on that list, though; the bloody song seemed to be very popular. Also, Slade and Wizzard feel far lower on that list than they deserve.
On the deeper “what does this say about the UK” subject, perhaps it’s the fact that the Christmas edition of Top of the Pops - just before the tradition of the Queen’s Christmas Message - and the attention paid to the number one that would be showed there encouraged a tradition of novelty pop singles (cf the top of the list, Wham’s Last Christmas) that wasn’t paralleled in the United States.
(An updated chart, covering the same period as XKCD, has a very similar list, with no songs before 1970 on it.)
See also: Timoni on the original XKCD thesis.
(Source: marathonpacks)
