B (6:31)

Rudolph the Red Mose Reindeer, the bible.

A (6:35)

Of the music industry, has never in nearly a century of charting hit songs and albums, had a consistent policy on holiday music that lasted more than a few years. Sometimes Christmas songs were included on the Hot 100, sometimes not. Holiday hits would chart one year, disappear for a few years, then come back on a different chart, and some of these songs were album cuts not issued as singles. Often they weren't allowed on the Billboard hit parade at all. So while these songs are exceedingly familiar to most Americans at this time of year, explaining how and why they have charted so poorly or not at all is like walking through a thicket of caveats and asterisks. For example, consider this classic. Darlene Love's immortal 1963 recording, Christmas Baby Please Come Home never appeared on a Billboard chart. In the entire 20th century, it has never cracked the top 40. And in the 21st century, Christmas baby Please Come Home only began appearing on the the Hot 100 when Billboard very recently started allowing old songs to reappear on the chart. By the way, the Darlene Love Songs chart peak to date number 43. Now, before you get outraged, let's consider why holiday music is such a hard fit for the charts. Maybe the problem isn't the songs, or even Billboard's chart rules but the very nature of tracking the popularity of seasonal music. Remember, the Hot 100 and most music charts only reflect popularity over week at a time. A typical Hot 100 chart run for even a modest hit is a dozen weeks or more. A chart topping smash might spend a dozen weeks in the top 10 alone and months more on the bigger chart. Remember also that holiday music, Christmas music in particular, has only a few weeks a year to make its impact. A roughly six to eight week window from about early to mid November through the last week of December. And then most folks don't want to hear any of that music for at least another 10 months. Seasonal music is just a hard fit for a pop chart that is designed to track how songs accrue their hit status. To be sure, Christmas music has long sold well in America. America dating back to the era of Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. But on the American charts, so many factors go into scoring a hit song. Not just heavy sales, but weeks of total cultural omnipresence from radio stations to nowadays streaming services. Indeed, when we get to the story of Mariah Carey's Christmas smash, digital music will play a big role. But first let's walk through what I will call the pre Mariah era on the charts. You may be stunned to learn some of the holiday classics that were chart under performers back in the day. The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley scored the first chart topping holiday music of the rock era with Elvis's Christmas album. It remains one of the best selling holiday LPs of all time. Certified for sales of 9 million copies in the US alone in December of 1957, Elvis Elvis's Christmas album topped Billboard's best selling pop LPs chart. But that was the album chart. Presley's holiday songs like Blue Christmas and Santa Bring My Baby Back were not issued as 45 RPM Singles in America at the time and hence were not eligible to appear on any of Billboard's singles charts. In 1957 the magazine had no Hot 100 yet and so holiday records, if they charted at all, would appear on a range of different charts tracking best selling singles, most played by disc jockeys or most played in jukeboxes or in the case of The Drifters, classic 1954 cover of White Christmas.

B (12:07)

Dreaming of a.

A (12:09)

White Christmas, the R and B chart where it reached number two on the pop side, the Drifters couldn't get past number 80. In the early days of rock and roll, some Christmas singles did do well in Billboard even though they had a very short window to peak on the charts. For example, country crossover star Bobby Helms managed to get as high as number six a couple of weeks after Christmas 1957 with his easygoing rockabilly Jingle Bell Rock. Of course, by the time the record peaked in early January 1950, the holiday season was over. The song only charted for six weeks total. Kitschy singles like Jingle Bell Rock worked as both holiday songs and to some extent novelty records, which by the way, couldn't have been hotter in 1958. But Bobby helms classic was downright stately compared with the goofy non holiday singles topping the charts that year. To digress for a moment, consider this non holiday hit from the summer of 1951.

B (13:32)

I said Mr. Purple People Eater.

A (13:34)

What?

B (13:34)

You're lying. He said it's eating purple people. And assured his kind. But that's not the reason that I came to land. I want to get a job being a rock and roll band.

A (13:45)

The Purple People Eater was a smash for Sheb Woolley, who like Bobby Helms was another country singer who crossed over to the pop charts and reached number one in the summer of 1958. Woolley's novelty hit about an imaginary monster used the then novel technology of sped up recording to make Woolie sound high pitched and comical. Woolley had picked up the trick from another 1958 performer who who had topped the charts a month earlier.

B (14:18)

I told the witch doctor I was in love with you I told the witch doctor I was in love with you and then the witch doctor he told me what to do.

A (14:27)

He said that David Seville was a part time actor and songwriter. His composition Kamana My House had been a hit for Rosemary Clooney back in 1951. And it was Seville who stumbled across the clever trick of singing songs slowly, then speeding up the tape to pitch his voice high. Witch Doctor by David Seville, released under his own name, was a smash in April of 1958. Just wish weeks before Sheb Woolley's Purple People Eater, these two madcap singles sold millions of copies. And this wacky sped up vocal fad helps explain what happened to David Seville just six months later and why there was a number one Christmas single in 1958 at all. The Chipmunks were a brainstorm of David Seville's. Months after he had recorded Witch Doctor under his own name, he envisioned three talking singing rodents named Alvin, Simon and Theodore. A musical trio managed by a human named David Seville billed to the group name the Chipmunk with David Seville. The single the Chipmunks song Parentheses Christmas, Don't Be Late was a blockbuster. During the holiday season of 1958, it was the fastest selling vinyl 45 of the year, shifting 2.5 million copies in under a month. The Chipmunk song spent a month and at number one on the brand new Hot 100, which had launched just four months earlier. Billboard billed the Hot 100 as the first successful all in one chart, combining single sales and radio airplay. Sales and radio remain essential to the chart to this day. Radio in particular is a tempering force on the Hot 100. While a single might sell in an explosive burst, radio stations typically take months to determine a song is an enduring hit. Averaging out single sales and radio airplay turns out to be a good formula for measuring hit songs in a country as vast as America. It's why the Hot 100 is still our country's benchmark for hit status 61 years later. But the launch of the Hot 100 only made it harder for Christmas songs to be Top of the Pops. The Chipmunk song was a smash mostly because sped up vocal records were a fad in 1958. It's not actually a very Christmassy song at all. No sleigh bells, no snow. It's mostly about not being able to wait to to receive presents, including a very important hula hoop. The Chipmunk song stayed on top deep into January 1959, suggesting that radio stations kept playing it long after Christmas was over. For comparison, let's consider the 1960 hit Rockin around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee, a song still played heavily at the holidays to this day. Brenda Lee was the top pop vocalist of the early 1960s, and she was on a major role in 1960, having scored back to back number ones with I'm Sorry and I Want to Be One. But even coming directly off that success, Rockin around the Christmas Tree was only on the Hot 100 for four weeks and it got no higher than number 14. Even a holiday song as enduring as this one faced an uphill battle to top the Hot 100. So Billboard finally changed its policy on holiday music. Starting in 1963, the magazine removed holiday records from its pop album and singles charts and launched a Christmas records section with a Christmas albums chart and a Christmas singles chart. By eliminating non seasonal competition, Billboard readers in the music music business had a sense of which holiday records were performing best with retailers and at radio stations in that short holiday window. So a 1963 Christmas single like the Beach Boys, Little St. Nick that likely would have peaked low on the Hot 100. Wound up a top three hit on the new Christmas Singles chart. In particular, singles benefited most from this approach. But the Christmas albums chart would prove vital in 1963, if only for the appearance of one legendary holiday LP. Even on the Christmas list, it peaked at a modest number. Thirteen retailers in 1963 largely regarded it as a flop. But there are few albums in rock history, let alone holiday music history as influential as A Christmas Gift for you from producer Phil Spector. This various artists compilation was a showcase for the stable of Epcot on Spector's Phillies Records label. From the Ronettes to the Crystals Darlene Love to Bob B Socks, and all of the tracks featured Spector's legendary Wall of Sound production style. A Christmas Gift for you changed the sound of 20th century holiday music right down to the way the songs were sung. If you've ever wondered how the chorus of the 1930s Standard style Santa Claus Is Coming to Town changed from this. To this more syncopated, soulful style. That was Phil Spector and the crystal's invention, it was later famously imitated by everyone from the Jackson 5. To Bruce Springsteen. None of the tracks on Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for your were issued as singles in 1963. Not even the Ronettes Ring A Ling, a linging take on Sleigh Ride. Or Darlene Love's aforementioned Christmas Baby Please Come Home, a then new song co written by Spector with legendary songwriters Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barrett. Hence, none of these Phil Spector songs charted in Billboard. Under the magazine's new rules segregating holiday songs, they were now ineligible for the Hot 100 anyway. The Spectre stable of singers would only begin to see the extent of their influence in decades to come. As for what did make the Christmas singles list, the chart gave labels incentive to issue holiday songs as singles, including some former album cuts making their first appearance on 45 Elvis Presley's Rock and Roll slow dance Blue Christmas, originally a track on his 1957 LP, was a number one Christmas chart single in 1960. The Christmas chart also gave a leg up to R and B holiday records, including James Brown's Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto, a number four Christmas single in 1968.

B (23:41)

Santa Claus Goes Straight.

A (23:45)

To the Ghetto or easy listening perennials like the Carpenter's 1970 release Merry Christmas Darling, a chart topper on the Christmas singles list in 1970, 71 and 73. By 1973, however, the Christmas singles chart was starting to seem limiting. Superstars like Elton John were issuing very popular holiday singles, But they were restricted from appearing on the Hot 100. Would these songs have been competitive with mainstream pop fare for an act as big as Elton, possibly. Moreover, In England by 1973, the charts were gripped by the relatively new phenomenon of the UK Christmas number one competition. As we discussed in last December's Hit Parade, However, as I noted in our UK Christmas episode, the British charts were entirely based upon sales of singles no radio as on the American Hot 100. So it was comparatively easy for a blockbuster holiday song to to top the UK pop chart. Billboard's first Christmas chart lasted for about a decade. Maybe they should have kept it. In the mid-70s, when the magazine once again allowed holiday songs to compete on the Hot 100, the results were mixed at best. Slower moving US radio playlists continued to limit the performance of Christmas singles, so songs as popular as Boney M's holiday Eurodisco smash Mary's Boy Child, a number one blockbuster in the uk, Would go no higher in America than number 85 on the Hot 100. Billboard's shifting Christmas chart policy in the 70s also made it hard to compare apples to apples among holiday hits. For example, three former Beatles issued holiday songs within the decade, and their Billboard results were a mishmash. In 1971, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono issued their peaceful protest song Happy Christmas, War Is.

B (26:32)

Happy New year.

A (26:35)

And in 71 it was only allowed on the Christmas singles chart, where it peaked at a very respectable number three. Whereas in 1979, when Lennon's former bandmate Paul McCartney issued his deathless holiday chestnut.

B (26:52)

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time, Christmas.

A (26:58)

Songs were allowed on the Hot 100 again. But Paul's Wonderful Christmas Time didn't make the Billboard chart at all. In competing chart magazines Cashbox and record world, McCartney's single did no better than number 83. Believe it or not, the only former Beatle who scored a top 40 holiday hit on the Hot 100 in the 1970s was George Harrison. His now forgotten New Year's Eve song Ding Dong Ding Dong cracked the Hot 100 in early January 1975 and peaked at number 36. In case you're curious, fourth Beatle Ringo Starr would not record a Christmas album until 1999. Generally on the charts in the 70s and heading into the 80s, Christmas music could only compete if it was by an imperial act at its absolute peak. Like The Eagles in 1978, Their cover of Charles Charles Brown's Please Come Home for Christmas reached a respectable number 18 on the Hot 100. Or if the song didn't sound Christmassy at all, like Dan Fogelberg's Vaguely New Year's themed story song Same Old Lang Syne, A number nine hit that broke during the holiday season of 1980 but didn't reach its top 10 peak until February 1981. In 1983, Billboard tried reinstating the Christmas singles chart, and once again songs that would never have posed serious Hot 100 competition were given a leg up. Elmo and Patsy, a husband and wife duo from Kentucky, saw their novelty single Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer cross over from country radio to the top of the Billboard Christmas chart.

B (29:19)

Grandma got run over by a reindeer Walking home from our house Christmas Eve.

A (29:27)

In this period, Billboard would allow certain superstar holiday singles onto the Hot 100. In nineteen nineteen eighty four, band aid's do they know It's Christmas made the big chart, given its cast of megastars and strong radio profile. But as we explained in our charity Mega Singles edition of Hit Parade, the short holiday window yet again limited the success of Band Aid in America. It peaked at number 13 in January 1985, and the other blockbuster British holiday hit of 1984, Wham's perennial Last Christmas, wasn't issued as a single in America and didn't chart in Billboard at all. For the rest of the 1980s, holiday songs were rarities on the charts. Six years after Band Aid, the boy band New Kids on the Block managed the only US top 10 Christmas single of the decade. At the height of their teeny bopper fame, this one's for the Children managed to break into the winner's circle in the closing weeks of 1989. Although it did originate on the New Kids seasonal LP Merry Merry Christmas, the pillowy ballad didn't seem holiday themed at all. Most of the new 80s Christmas classics were album cuts that didn't chart. The 1987 Special Olympics charity LP a very special Christmas produced a slew of superstar tracks that became perennials, including U2's take on Darlene Love's classic. Run. DMC's original composition now raps holiday standard Christmas in Hollis It's Christmas time in.

B (31:46)

Hollis, Queens, Mom's Cooking Chicken and collard.

A (31:49)

Greens and Whitney Houston's roof Raising gospel take on do you hear what I hear? A staple on RB radio. In a way, Whitney Houston pointed the direction that not only holiday music but all of mainstream pop would go in the next decade, and she foreshadowed the career of the woman who would dominate the 1990s. When we come back, the top vocalist of the 90s had so many hits, her Christmas classic was at first first an afterthought. It Would be ironic if generations from now, the most remembered recording by Mariah Carey was a Christmas record. Because almost 30 years ago Carey racked up a catalog of hits on unparalleled in chart history. And her streak began when the 1990s were just months old. Vision of Love, Carrie's debut single, topped both the Hot 100 and RB chart simultaneously in the summer of 1990. Reportedly, Sony Music had signed the multi octave singer out of hopes that they would replicate competing label arista Records blockbuster 80s success with Power diva Whitney Houston. But Carrie emerged from Houston shadow and distinguished herself almost immediately. For one thing, she was both a singer and a songwriter, taking a co writing credit on virtually all of her hits, including all four number ones on her self titled debut album. For another thing, Carrie possessed an acrobatic voice that was both impressive and distinct from Houston's gospel trained instrument. The media made much in the early 90s of Carrie's five octave range, including her so called whistle tune. It is rare for a singer to begin a career with what might be called an imperial phase, but possibly no artist had a more auspicious unveiling than Mariah Carey. From the summer of 1990 through the fall of 1991, five straight Carrie songs, her first five single releases, all reached number one on the Hot 100. Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday, I Don't Wanna Cry and Emotions. She became the only artist in charge chart history to launch a career with five number ones, beating a mark set in 1970 by the Jackson 5 who launched their career with four. Mariah's opening quintet of chart toppers was only a warm up for most of the 90s. Everything Carrie touched turned to platinum. Whether she was covering the Jackson 5 on the MTV franchise Unpack Hugged. Or singing inspirational power anthems like hero, a number one at Christmas of 1993. It was around this time that Sony Music encouraged Carrie to consider recording an actual Christmas album. By her own telling, Mariah was skeptical. She perceived holiday LPs as the sort of thing aging stars did later in their careers. But the label, particularly Carrie's then husband, Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola, convinced her it would burnish her stature as a vocalist. So Carrie and frequent collaborator, songwriter and producer Walter Afanasiev went into the studio, ironically in the hot summer of 1994 to record a holiday disc, Joy to.

B (37:14)

The World, the Lord Is Gone.

A (37:19)

Like most most holiday albums, Mariah's cd, simply titled Merry Christmas, would feature her takes on hymns and pop standards. She even took on the most famous original composition from Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for your Darlene Love's Christmas Baby, Please Come Home. But Carrie's boldest homage to Phil Spector wasn't her Darlene Love cover. It was one of the handful of original songs on the album, a song that she and Walter Afanasieff wrote in the style of Spectre that very impressively sounded like it could have come straight off that 1960. The stories surrounding the creation of All I Want for Christmas Is yous are a Rashomon tale, the full details of which are beyond the scope of this podcast. Carrie and Afanasieff the themselves have differing takes on the song's genesis, though to this day they share equally in the songwriting royalties. Afanasyev came up with what he called the boogie woogie piano chords that sounded like early rock and roll and called back to the girl group E. But the indelible melody was largely Carrie's creation, a sturdy, familiar chord progression that she reportedly came up with in less than 15 minutes. She also came up with the heartfelt, earnest lyrics about wanting nothing more than a lover's devotion. At the holiday season, All I I Want for Christmas Is yous became the standout track on Carrie's Merry Christmas album. Sony shot a video of the song with Carrie cavorting in the snow and issued it in October 1994, the same month the CD reached music stores. And this is where the tangled chart history of All I Want for Christmas is you begins. Sony elected not to issue All I Want for Christmas Is yous as a retail single. At the time, this was simply cold business logic. As I explained in our Great War against the Single episode of Hit Parade, the music industry in the 1990s was gradually phasing out the single in an effort to encourage full length CD album purchases. This was still a bit odd for a Mariah Carey song as a pop chart dominator. She normally issued her hits as singles, but for Sony, not issuing this holiday song as a single was common sense. Remember, for the prior four decades, most holiday songs from Brenda Lee to Band Aids underperformed on the Hot 100. Why break Mariah's streak of chart topping hits? And why not encourage music buyers of 1994 to buy the Merry Christmas CD? So because it was not a retail single and under chart rules at the time could not appear on the Hot 100. The only chart more Mariah's new holiday track appeared on in the holiday season of 1994 and 95 was Billboard's Radio Songs chart. On that chart it peaked at number 12, impressive for a Christmas song competing with non holiday songs by the likes of current hitmakers tlc, Brandy and Boyz II Men. As for the album, in its first year K Carrie's Merry Christmas was certified triple platinum. And like so many holiday LPs from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald to Kenny G, Carrie and her label expected the album to become a regular selling holiday perennial. It has since been certified Sextuple platinum. This could have been the end of the All I Want for Christmas Is yous Story Mariah moved on in her record breaking career. If anything, she moved away from pop and deeper into R and B and even hip hop. Her 1995 chart topper fantasy was built out of a sample of the Tom Tom Club breakbeat hit Genius of Love and its memorable remix featured Wu Tang Clan rapper OL Dirty Bastard. After this success, Carrie also went on to set a storied Hot 100 record. Her late 1995 hit One Sweet Day, pairing her with Premier 90s R&B vocal troupe Boyz II Men, spent a stunning 16 weeks at number one on the the Hot 100. It was a benchmark that would not be defeated for 23 years until Lil Nas X's Old Town Road spent 19 weeks on top in 2019. Even into the late 90s, Cary seemed to hold the key to the top of the charts, whether it was with the critically acclaimed number one Always Be My Baby. Or the following year, a collaboration with then hot producer Sean Puff Daddy Combs on the number one hit Honey. But cracks in Carrie's bulletproof chart success began to show toward the end of the decade. Her divorce from Sony's Tommy Mottola and her shift toward hip hop and R B shook the foundations of her sturdy hit making apparatus. In 1998, a heavily hyped duet with her vocal diva contemporary and forebear Whitney Houston called When you Believe underperformed on the charts peaking at number 15, While Carrie bounced back in 1999 and scored a couple more number ones, including the Jay Z collaboration and Fantasy sound alike Heartbreaker. The chart's move toward teen pop in the era of Britney Spears and NSYNC posed a tangible threat to Carrie's chart reign. When her 2001 movie Glitter flopped and its soundtrack produced only one short lived top ten hit, Loverboy, It appeared that the chart era of Mariah Carey was over. During promotion for the movie, she suffered a highly publicized emotional breakdown and she entered an unexpectedly cold early aughts period where her singles began to miss the top 40 entirely. It would take Carey almost half a decade to come back from her chart fall off. But in the meantime, the rules underpinning Billboard's charts were changing. And so was the chart trajectory of holiday music. As I explained in the Great War against the Single Episode, Billboard changed its rules at the end of 1998 to allow non retail songs album cuts to appear on the Hot 100 for the first time. Within the first year of this rule change, some holiday album cuts that would previously have been ineligible were allowed loud on the chart. This Christmas song by the then hot boy band 98 Degrees called this Gift scraped the top half of the Hot 100 thanks to this rule change. Perhaps most remarkably, for one week during the holiday season of 1999 and 2000, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is yous, which was still an UN album cut, not a retail single, made its debut on the Hot 100 at position wait for it, number 83. It was remarkable for appearing on the chart at all, an indication of how beloved the song was five years later, even when it was not being actively promoted. And this would not be the last time a Billboard rule change would help Mariah's holiday song. Other industry trends were also beginning to help holiday music at this time. By the early 2000s, many adult contemporary or AC radio stations would switch to an all Christmas music format. Every November and December, Christmas songs began regularly topping Billboard's AC chart and getting a boost on the Hot 100 tracks that would never have been chart hits in the 80s or 90s, like classically trained vocalist Josh Groban with his AC radio dominating recording of the hymn O Holy Night. Then came one of the most epochal changes to the music business in a generation. The launch of Apple's iTunes Music store, which inaugurated the era of legal downloadable music. What was revolutionary about Apple's download store when it opened for business in 2003 was that it finally made it possible to acquire album cuts songs that had never been singles in the first place, like Stairway to Heaven for the price of 99 cents. And what were Americans buying in 2003 for a buck a song. Just weeks after Billboard began tracking Download Sales In 2003, Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is yous debuted on their Hot Digital Tracks chart. It eventually rose into to that chart's top 10, the highest ranking digital track that was not a current single. This was the song's first appearance in the top 10 of any billboard chart. What was also remarkable was that in 2003, Carrie was not a major current hit, making artist. In fact, if it hadn't been for her guest appearance that year on a number three hit by rapper Busta R Times, Carrie would have gone more than three years without a single top 40 hit. And yet her Christmas single sold steadily as a download during the holiday seasons of both 2003 and 2004. During these years, All I Want For Christmas Is yous was the main thing keeping Carrie not only on the holiday hit parade, but in the goodwill and good graces of the music buying public. Who knows, it may even have contributed to Mariah Carey making one of the most remarkable comebacks in pop history. The epic torch song we belong together spent 14 weeks at number one on the the Hot 100 in 2005. It was Billboard's top hit of that year, a turnaround in Carrie's fortunes that no one, including her, saw coming. The biggest single from Carrie's multi platinum album, the Emancipation of Mimi. We Belong Together was embraced by the public not only as a sturdy ballad, but as a meta narrative about Carrie's perseverance after her early aughts breakdown and her years spent in the chart wilderness. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Mariah Carey was a chart titan again. Five years earlier, when her amazing run of 90s singles had petered out, she had amassed 15 number one singles, the most of any female artist. And among all artists, Carrie's list of number ones put her in third place in chart history behind only Elvis Presley, who had 17 pop chart toppers, and the Beatles, who had 20 number ones.

B (51:26)

I wanna hold your hand, I wanna hold your hand.

A (51:32)

With We Belong Together, Carrie began moving up in the record books again. It was her 16th number one and she followed it just three months later with her 17th, don't forget about Us. And two years after that, Touch My Body became her 18th Hot 100 leader. That put her past Elvis as the solo artist with the most number ones in Billboard pop chart history. Mariah's second wave of chart conquering hits was shorter than her first wave in the night 1990s. By 2009, her singles were once again falling short on the charts in an era of younger pop dominators like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus. But Carey's comeback had already been exceptional. Seven more top 40 hits in the second half of the aughts, including three number ones. If Carrie never scored a number one hit again, she would be firmly enshrined in the record books. But there was this song of hers that kept coming back. From 2005 through 2010 each year like clockwork. All I want for Christmas Is yous would return to Billboard's digital songs chart, selling hundreds of thousands of digital downloads. In fact, in one of Those Years, Christmas 2005, the song actually topped that digital chart and went gold, something that could only have happened after itunes put the track on sale as a single. But as a song that in industry parlance was considered a recurrent, Carrie's Christmas song was ineligible to return to the Hot 100. Remember I told you at the top of our show that the story of this song is the story of changing chart technicalities. This was yet another long standing Billboard rule. Unless an old song was being actively repromoted to radio stations and retailers like for example Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody in in 1992. Or the Beatles Twist and shout in 1986, both of which were revived in those years by movies, a song was only allowed one Hot 100 chart run that included Christmas songs, perennials like Bing Crosby's White Christmas. But Billboard would not track these recurrence on the Hot 100. In short, for most of its first two decades, all I Want For Christmas Is yous was a stealth hit in the 90s. When it wasn't a retail single, it was off the Hot 100 by the early aughts when album cuts were allowed. It charted once as an airplay song, but only modestly. In the era of the download it was a digital bestseller. But as a recurrent it couldn't come back to the Hot 100. Mariah's Christmas classic was a smash, hiding in plain sight and it was also becoming a standard and not just its original recording. Michael Buble's Christmas album. His multi platinum 2011 LP of holiday favorites included a cover of All I Want for Christmas is yous that made the Hot 100 and topped the adult Contemporary chart. Even Carrie herself got into the act. She re recorded the track in both 2010 for a sequel holiday album and the following year with a rising teen idol named Justin Bieber. The Carrie Bieber version was not a big hit, peaking on on the Hot 100 at a lowly number 86 in 2011, Cary's original version was still the ultimate standard. That same year, Billboard relaunched its Christmas music chart in a new improved form employing radio airplay and for the first time in a holiday chart digital data. They called it Holiday songs. It was later expanded and renamed the holiday 100 and in the holiday chart's very first week in December 2011, its number one song was what Else? Mariah's 1994 original edition of All I Want for Christmas Is yous. This rebooted holiday chart included both new and recurrent songs from Bing Crosby to Bobby Helms to Wham. That distinguished it from the Hot 100, which in 2011 still did not allow old songs. But that was about to change too, and ironically and sadly, Mariah Carey's former peer and competitor was the impetus for the change. When Whitney Houston died in February 2012, her songs flooded the radio airwaves and sold piles of digital singles. Billboard took this sad occasion to make a rule change on the Hot 100. It would now allow recurrent songs to appear on the chart as long as they amassed enough points to make the top 50. According to the magazine's director of charts, the digital age had changed their calculus. The line has blurred between the relevancy of new and older recordings. What this meant for the late Whitney Houston that week in February 2012 was that three of her songs re entered the Hot 100, including I Will Always Love youe, which cracked the top 10 for the first time in nearly two decades. But the real impact of the rule change was most keenly felt the following holiday season. By then, Billboard had also added Spotify data to its chart, and the addition of large scale streaming finally gave a window into the songs that Americans most wanted to consume at the holidays. That holiday season of 2012, Mariah Carey performed a special live version of Of All I Want For Christmas Is yous with host Jimmy Fallon, house band the Roots and a classroom full of kids. It was part of Fallon's long running video series of song covers on classroom instruments. This spirited performance spurred another wave of digital downloading and streaming of Mariah's 1994 classic. Only this time, after the Whitney Houston rule change, the song was eligible for the Hot 100. It redebuted on the big chart at number 29. In 2012, all I want for Christmas Is yous was Finally a top 40 hit. Now, for the first time in Hot 100 history, thanks to digital downloads and streaming, chart followers could see just how popular old holiday perennials were compared with current hits on the same chart. The following year's holiday season, in 2013, Carrie's song came back debuting a little higher and it was joined on the Hot 100 by other Christmas classics like Nat King Cole's the Christmas Song chestnuts.

B (60:38)

Roasting on an open fire.

A (60:42)

Two years after that, in the 2015 holiday season, Mariah's Christmas song broke into the chart's top 20 and she was joined on the Hot 100 by Brenda Lee, whose classic Rockin around the Christmas Tree was back in the top 40 for the first time in 55 years. Two years after that Christmas week of 2017, all I want For Christmas Is yous broke into the top 10. Streaming was now the single biggest factor on the Hot 100, and Christmas playlists from Spotify and Apple Music were fueling more holiday song streams than ever on the Hot 100. Mariah was joined in the top 40 by recurrent holiday hits by Brenda Lee, Nat King Cole, Burl Ives, and Andy Williams.

B (61:38)

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

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Finally, the week after Christmas 2018, Mariah Carey had the number three song on the Hot 100, and Holiday Songs took up 16 spots in the top 40, from Gene Autry to Wham to Jose Felician, whose 1970 recording Feliz Navidad was now a top 40 hit, Much the way SoundScan technology in 1991 had evened the playing field and made it possible for rap songs to top the Hot 100. The addition of downloads and especially streaming to the chart gave holiday music a truly even playing field for the first time. By the end of the 2000 and tens, the Christmas music chart renaissance was fully established and the people had spoken. Mariah Carey was the Queen of Christmas. In addition to getting as high on the Hot 100 as number three, all I want for Christmas Is yous had utterly dominated Billboard's holiday songs chart for the entire decade. In fact, here's some remarkable and fairly hilarious trivia. Billboard brings back holiday songs for five weeks a year, including the three weeks the chart has been back this year. That's 43 weeks in total from from 2011 through 2019, spread across nine holiday seasons. And in these 43 weeks, the entire history of this chart, it has only ever been topped by five songs. In 2012, it was topped for one week by Justin Bieber's Mistletoe. In 2013 and 2014, it was topped for three weeks by a pair of songs from Acapella superstars Pentatonix, their remake of the Little Drummer Boy. Don't Worry, Drummer Boy Challengers, I'm Not Going to Play that Song right Now, and their cover of the contemporary Christian song Mary Did. You'd Know. In 2015, for just one week, Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me was on top. And oh yeah, for the other 38 weeks, Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is you. This holiday chart, it's basically the Mariah chart, but that's holiday songs, which is limited to seasonal music. What about the big chart, the Hot 100, which Carrie topped 18 times between 1990 and 2008. Going into the holiday season of 2019, the question in chart nerd land was could All I Want For Christmas Is yous give MARIAH that elusive 19th number one hit? What would it take? Well, it so happens that this year is also the 25th anniversary of both the song and the Merry Christmas album, and Team Mariah left nothing to chance. Mariah Carey is Christmas in 2019 alone, Mariah Carey has released a slew of anniversary Christmas product a deluxe reissue of the Merry Christmas lp, A new version of the All I Want for Christmas music video with outtakes from the original 1994 video, a vintage live video of Carrie singing the song at the cathedral Cathedral of St. John the Divine. By the way, views of these new videos count for the Hot 100. A new release of the song as a physical single for the first time on CD and even cassette. Billboard counts these sales for the chart too. And even a new mini documentary from Amazon Music entirely about the song I was trying to do my own version of the Wall of Sound, those background vocal parts that become almost the lead. In short, wherever and whenever you are experiencing Holiday Music In 2019, you are hearing Mariah Carey and this campaign worked. Here at Hit Parade, we've been planning this Mariah centric Christmas themed episode all year since last December, and we thought there might be some suspense over whether All I Want For Christmas Is yous would reach number one. Well, we were wrong. Last week, as this episode was being recorded, All I Want For Christmas Is yous was declared the new number one song in the the USA more than two weeks before the end of the 2000 and tens and Mariah Carey had her 19th number one hit, just one shy of the Beatles. It's easy to be cynical about the D Day like campaign that gave Carrie her newest number one. Indeed, critics have long complained from the moment Mariah Carey debuted in 1990 that her success seemed foreordained by the music industrial complex. As I often say on this podcast, hit making is both an art and a science, a combination of inspiration, public affection and raw commerce. But there are things you can't fabricate. As a singer, Mariah Carey came by her talent naturally. As a songwriter, her instinctual knack for a hook is hard to deny. And now that the charts fully reveal which holiday songs are most consumed by Americans, We can better define the fullness of the Christmas canon. Over 25 years, the chart data has been clear. Whenever Americans were given the opportunity to buy, to request, to stream to consume All I want for Christmas is you. They took it it's no mean feat to write a new holiday standard. And Carrie's song song sounded instantly familiar the first time everyone heard it. Mariah Carey is number one in America in December 2019 because all the evidence shows we love her song. And now, well, pardon the cliche, but that wish of hers. Yeah, you know what we did with it. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. My producer is Justin D. Wright and we had help this episode from Asha Soludzha and Rosemary Belson. June Thomas is the senior Managing producer and Gabriel Roth, the Editorial Director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows at Slate. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, make your wish come true. True. And keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.