A couple of years in the past, Stereogum’s personal Chris DeVille wrote a column a couple of essential query: The place are the trendy Christmas requirements? Yearly, Mariah Carey’s 1994 music “All I Need For Christmas Is You” reliably returns to #1 on the Scorching 100. It’s a part of the flood of vacation music that dominates the Scorching 100 for about six weeks yearly. Many of the different songs Christmas songs that fill the chart predate “All I Need For Christmas Is You,” normally by loads. This yr, nonetheless, we now have two completely different Christmas songs within the high 10, and it’s the primary time this century that post-Mariah Christmas music has charted that top.
Many of the Christmas songs on this week’s Scorching 100 are midcentury classics: Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Round The Christmas Tree,” Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Fantastic Time Of The 12 months,” Dean Martin’s “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” In that context, Wham!’s 40-year-old “Final Christmas,” presently the #3 music in America, feels positively cutting-edge. However Billboard studies that this week’s high 10 options two songs, Ariana Grande’s “Santa Inform Me” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Beneath The Tree,” that got here out within the twenty first century — encouraging indicators that it’s at the very least attainable to make a brand new Christmas normal nowadays.
To make clear, these two songs will not be new. Each are greater than a decade previous. Ariana Grande launched “Santa Inform Me,” this week’s #9 music, in 2014. Kelly Clarkson’s “Beneath The Tree,” presently sitting at #10, got here out in 2013; it’s now Clarkson’s first top-10 hit since 2016. Very like “All I Need For Christmas Is You,” each of these songs riff on the type of the Motown and Phil Spector Christmas songs of the ’60s. Additionally, each Grande and Clarkson stay vastly well-known, which most likely helps. (Grande’s acquired a brand new “Santa Inform Me” stay video, which might increase its placement on subsequent weeks’ charts.) Each “Santa Inform Me” and “Beneath The Tree” peaked at #11 final yr.
This may not seem to be an enormous deal, however it at the very least signifies that stale vacation playlists are getting shaken up a little bit. Earlier than this, the latest vacation music to crack the highest 10 was Kenny G’s model of “Auld Lang Syne,” a #7 hit in 1999. It’s most likely additionally excellent news for Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande’s 2022 duet “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me,” which has but to get previous #76.
The one non-Christmas music on this week’s high 10 is Woman Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile,” nonetheless holding regular at #6.
