The UK’s obsession with predicting the Christmas number one
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27.11.2023

The UK’s obsession with predicting the Christmas number one

uk christmas number one
Words by Jessica Over

There are two kinds of people when it comes to Christmas music.

The first switches off the radio the second they hear Michael Buble, can’t understand the fascination with Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’, and is quick to voice their distaste when anyone mentions their love for the jolliest time of the year. The second person has been counting down the days until it’s socially acceptable to dive into every Christmas Music playlist on Spotify, even though they’ve been secretly listening the whole year round.

Christmas Music

But in recent years, a third type of person has emerged with a new response to the festive season: the UK residents obsessed with predicting the Christmas number one.

Summary:

  • The song that takes out number one on the UK Singles Chart on December 25 is a huge deal in Britain.
  • The first artist to take the crown was Al Martino (who you may recognise for his part in The Godfather as Johnny Fontane) in 1952 with his track ‘Here in my Heart’.
  • Ed Sheeran and Elton John have timed their run well this year releasing ‘Merry Christmas’ as they currently top the charts, with Adele, Wham!, and Mariah Carey hot on their tails.

Read all the latest features, lists and columns here.

Christmas Number One

For those who aren’t aware, the song that takes out number one on the UK Singles Chart on December 25 is a huge deal in Britain. To give an Australian context, it’s sort of the UK equivalent of triple j’s Hottest 100. Bets are made on who will come out on top, media outlets speculate over who the winner will be, and the results are always hotly debated.

Yet like most cultural phenomenons, the UK Christmas number one can be traced back to humble beginnings. The first artist to take the crown was Al Martino (who you may recognise for his part in The Godfather as Johnny Fontane) in 1952 with his track ‘Here in my Heart’. The real competition, however, didn’t heat up until just over twenty years later, when releasing festive tunes in an effort to take out the Christmas number one became the latest and greatest marketing ploy.

Christmas Numbers Ones UK

Slade and Wizzard led the way in 1973 with a Christmas music single each: ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ and ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, respectively. Slade’s track soon rose to sit atop the charts on December 25. From that point on, the chart position became the most prestigious of the year and the competition for first place only grew.

More often than not, the tracks that rise to the top of the UK Singles Chart at just the right moment are charity singles – three different versions of Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ have claimed the top spot – or even novelty songs, like Benny Hill’s ‘Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)’ in 1971 through to Bob the Builder’s ‘Can We Fix It?’ in 2000. But in 2002, a new contender arrived to shake up the competition: reality TV singing programs.

In what is, frankly, a pretty genius marketing move, the winners of reality TV singing competitions were soon releasing their first single in the lead-up to Christmas – just in time to claim the time-honoured Christmas number one. It was a bold move that paid off, with X Factor winners holding seven Christmas chart toppers to date. Of course, not everyone was especially fond of this growing trend, a feeling that culminated in what is now known as ‘Rage Against X Factor’.

Perhaps the most widely talked about year of the competition for the UK Christmas number one is 2009. After years of distaste with reality TV winners taking out the top spot, fans decided to launch an online campaign to knock 2009 X Factor winner Joe McElderry off the winning podium before he could reach it.

Taking to social media, a campaign to elevate a different song to the top of the charts began. The catch? The song chosen was Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’, which was released in 1992 and is the antithesis to the uplifting pop of McElderry’s single. Yet the powers of social media prevailed as against all odds, ‘Killing in the Name’ sold 500 thousand units in a week to be crowned the 2009 UK Christmas number one – 17 years after its initial release.

Wham! Last Christmas

The song that is perhaps most worthy to win for the Christmas music nostalgia alone is Wham!’s 1984 hit, ‘Last Christmas’. In 2017, a group of dedicated fans launched a social media campaign a la Rage Against X Factor in an effort to honour the late George Michael, narrowly missing out on the top spot which was claimed by Ed Sheeran.

The campaign continued in 2018 but was foiled once again, this time by YouTuber/dad blogger LadBaby, whose novelty cover of Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ (also known as ‘The Sausage Roll Song’) reached number one with all proceeds donated to foodbank charity The Trussell Trust.

Ensuring he wasn’t a one and done, LadBaby managed to complete the hat-trick claiming 2019 with ‘I Love Sausage Rolls (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ ‘I Love Rock n’ Roll’) and 2020 with ‘Don’t Stop Me Eatin” (Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’). A trifecta of sausage roll-themed Christmas number ones with all proceeds also donated to The Trussell Trust.

Ed Sheeran and Elton John have timed their run well in recent years releasing ‘Merry Christmas’ as they currently trail Wham! at the top the charts, with Mariah Carey hot on their tails with Raye ft. 070 Shake with ‘Escapism’.

With the countdown to Christmas getting shorter every day, it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top.

At the end of the day, the important thing to remember is this: if Benny Hill can do it, anyone can.

For a more comprehensive list, keep reading here.