{"id":1826,"date":"2015-12-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=1826"},"modified":"2015-12-25T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T08:00:00","slug":"christmas-number-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/art-literature-music\/christmas-number-one\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes a good Christmas number one?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Dr Catherine Tackley from the OU\u2019s music department examines what\u00a0makes certain songs\u00a0a hit at Christmas time.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The official UK singles chart began in 1952, but many of the songs (as distinct from traditional Christmas carols) which remain popular at Christmas were established before that. \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 by James Lord Pierpoint, dates back to 1857; perhaps setting a trend for \u2018jingling bells\u2019 on more recent Christmas tracks. In many of the hits on this <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_UK_Singles_Chart_Christmas_number_ones\">list\u00a0<\/a> overtly seasonal lyrics are backed up by obvious sounds of Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes seasonal links are made mainly visually, rather than musically, as in the wintery setting for the Spice Girls\u2019 video for \u2018Goodbye\u2019 (Christmas number one in 1998) and Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman\u2019s duet \u2018Somethin\u2019 Stupid\u2019 (2001). But there are also plenty of examples of chart-topping singles which don\u2019t seem to be about Christmas at all. Recently there was strong competition for the number one spot over the festive season, fuelled by social campaigns encouraging support for singles which subvert the dominance of large corporate ventures such as X-factor.<\/p>\n<p>In the video below Jon Morter talks about his successful campaign to get \u2018Rage Against the Machine\u2019s \u2018Killing in the Name\u2019 to number one ahead of X-factor winner Joe McElderry in 2009:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BBC News: Rage Against Machine #1 - Jon Morter Interview\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iiRre1yNY8w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Christmas hits promote community harmony<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although musically very different, there is perhaps a common feature which explains the popularity of an old song like \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019, classic examples such as the BandAid charity single \u2018Do They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u2019 (1984) and even the apparently non-festive \u2018Killing in the Name\u2019. Whether overtly \u2018Christmassy\u2019 or not, songs that get to number one at Christmas often draw on a spirit of community and togetherness. Similarly to the traditions of pantomime, these songs seek and achieve appeal across generations \u2013 perhaps individual musical tastes are abandoned for the sake of family unity &#8211; which allows Bob the Builder (2003) and even Mr Blobby (1993) to achieve pop success.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Mr Blobby - Leicester by Paul Conneally\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/11368228565_8efee3ed75_mr-blobby.jpg\" alt=\"mr blobby photo\" width=\"349\" height=\"261\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><small>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98509073@N00\/11368228565\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Conneally<\/a> <a title=\"Attribution-NonCommercial License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ounews.co\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-inject\/images\/cc.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Musically, songs that are successful at Christmas often feature massed backing choirs which allude to religious choral traditions &#8211; check out the massed gospel voices backing Alexandra Burke on her rendition of Hallelujah (2008). Choirs have also achieved success in their own right \u2013 whether involving celebrities (\u2018Do They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u2019) or military wives (\u2018Wherever You Are\u2019 2011). But Christmas number ones often actively encourage participation akin to the type of informal, communal singing which can be heard at football grounds or pubs. \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 is extremely repetitive (a characteristic of many of the most popular songs) and uses only five pitches in its chorus; the chorus of \u2018Do They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u2019 has similar qualities (but with six pitches) making these both relatively easy to sing along to. \u2018Can We Fix It?\u2019 by Bob the Builder achieved number one status with a simple four pitch refrain and \u2018call and response\u2019 device which involves the listener. Some take a melancholy slant on this theme, such as glam rock band Mud\u2019s 1974 hit \u2018Lonely this Christmas\u2019, Wham\u2019s \u2018Last Christmas\u2019 (1984) and The Pogues \u2018Fairytale of New York\u2019 (1987), number one in Ireland. Even \u2018Killing in the Name\u2019 will forever be linked with the strength of communal action against corporate dominance.<\/p>\n<p>No doubt you have your own favourite Christmas song \u2013 some of my personal favourites didn\u2019t necessarily make number one at the time of their release but scored highly in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/the-50-best-christmas-songs-bells-continue-to-ring-for-the-pogues-fairytale-of-new-york-8399101.html\">\u2018all-time\u2019 chart compiled by the PRS in 2012\u00a0<\/a>. You may also be interested in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prsformusic.com\/aboutus\/press\/latestpressreleases\/pages\/fairytaleofnewyorkmostpopularchristmassong.aspx\">finding out the most played Christmas songs in 2014\u00a0<\/a> on TV, radio, online, bars, gyms (essentially anwhere that plays music).\u00a0\u00a0Recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9YUsiwRlz2s\">Brett Domino\u00a0<\/a> has experimented with putting all the key features of a Christmas hit into one song \u2013 see what you think!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/history-the-arts\/what-makes-great-christmas-number-one\">OpenLearn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><small>Main Photo &#8211; &#8220;Wham, Last\u00a0Christmas&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/45097561@N00\/3144283551\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jacob Whittaker<\/a>\u00a0on Flikr\u00a0<a title=\"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ounews.co\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-inject\/images\/cc.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<p><small>\u00a0<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Catherine Tackley from the OU\u2019s music department examines what\u00a0makes certain songs\u00a0a hit at Christmas time. &nbsp; The official UK singles chart began in 1952, but many of the songs (as distinct from traditional Christmas carols) which remain popular at Christmas were established before that. \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 by James Lord Pierpoint, dates back to 1857; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[393,423,444,449,1490,1550],"class_list":["post-1826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-literature-music","tag-catherine-tackley","tag-charts","tag-choirs","tag-christmas","tag-music","tag-number-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}