Saturday 23 December 2006

There's no place like radio for the holidays

It's interesting in Chart Beat that you note this is the seventh year in a row that a holiday song has hit No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In the '90s this didn't happen so much. Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is the most notable modern holiday song, yet it only peaked at No. 6. In 2006 it would undoubtedly hit No. 1. Why do you think holiday songs are doing so much better on the AC chart in the 00s?

Jason Englisbe

Dear Jason. The answer becomes clear when you realize that the Adult Contemporary chart is an airplay-only chart, measuring which songs are played on radio stations that are identified as playing AC music. Changes in the chart over the years are merely reflections of changes at AC radio.

The trend in recent years - particularly in the last seven - is to turn to holiday programming in the last two months of the year. Many AC stations only program holiday music with no non-seasonal songs being played; other AC stations provide a mix of current hits with holiday music.

While I love Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", and while it's selling well digitally (it's up 8-7 on this week's Hit Digital Songs chart, where it is the only holiday song in the top 10), your assumption that it would be No. 1 on the AC chart is incorrect. We do compile an Adult Contemporary Recurrent chart for older songs, and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" rebounds 15-10 this week after peaking at No. 9. Older holiday songs, including Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song", Burl Ives' "A Holly, Jolly Christmas" and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", all rank higher than "All I Want for Christmas Is You".

(Billboard's Chart Beat Chat)



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