Just finished watching a BBC special on Christmas Number One’s, and the great importance this country has traditionally consigned to it. In the exactly 60 years that Britain has published a pop chart, an artist topping the singles charts during Christmas week represents a major coup, enough to get gambling folk to place money on a particular tune. Since about 2002, the Christmas #1 has mostly been by winners of reality TV shows, but it’s interesting to see how much the UK cares about that coveted spot, and the lengths they will go to ensure a certain tune getting there.

               The reality show glut sort of killed off the gambling element, but in watching the special, it was fascinating how many of those 60 special songs touched a part of the average Brit’s heart. Many of the Christmas #1’s were specific seasonal tunes, like Harry Belafonte’s “Mary’s Boy Child” (1957), Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” (1973) or Cliff Richard’s “Saviour’s Day” (1990). The Beatles scored in ’63, ’64, ’65, and ’67 with secular tunes, and on the lesser end, The Spice Girls reached the top in consecutive years from 1996-98. More impressive are the ones that weren’t specifically seasonal, yet touched the heart in a way that could only happen at this time of year. Cases in point: Rolf Harris’s “Two Little Boys” (1969), Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” (1995), or Military Wives’ “Wherever You Are” (2011).  It’s hard to listen to any of those wthout getting teary-eyed. Then there were the “oops” moments, like “Mr. Blobby” (1993) and Bob The Builder’s “Can We Fix It” (2000). Incidentally, Bob The Builder has had more #1’s in UK than Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Bob Seger combined!  

                What has really emphasized UK’s more-than-passing interest in the Christmas #1 is the X Factor factor, and how the casinos suffered a major hit when the winner became too predictable. Every year from 2004 to 2008, the #1 was by an X Factor winner, and the backlash against Simon Cowell seemed to further mount in accordance with that dominance. When it appeared that 2009 winner Joe McElderry’s maudlin rehash of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” was the odds-on favorite, an enterprising Essex couple mounted a Facebook campaign that resulted in Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name” trumping Joe, Simon, and the whole mainstream. Joe had to wait a week to cop the prize.

                     Since then, every year has seen a campaign to throw some completely un-Christmas, unorthodox tune out there just to upset the equilibrium. In 2010, The Trashmen’s 1963 hit “Surfin’ Bird” got enough downloads to make #3, but not enough to beat Matt Cardle (who?) and his passable remake of Biffy Clyro’s “Many Of Horror” (re-titled “When We Collide”). One of the other contenders that year, but only reaching a peak of #66 for obvious reasons, was the doomed-to-cult-status “Use My Asshole For A C**t” which predictably got no airplay, but certainly trivialized the debate about Artistry. The fact that it made the charts at all says something.

                     So I wait with mild anticipation over what will be Christmas #1 #61. 2012 winner James Arthur is on top this week with “Impossible,” a routine genre of song that X Factor winners have traditionally scored with. Given the transient nature of the UK charts, it seems unlikely that James will hold on for another week, especially with a charity single re-make of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” featuring Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, and Gerry Marsden (Gerry & The Pacemakers) out this week. But sentiment is part of what Christmas #1’s is all about. Otherwise, there’s no explaining American crooner Johnny Mathis hitting the top spot in 1976 with a tune the US didn’t discover the beauty of until about 20 years later, as “When A Child Is Born” finally found its way into the playlist of American Christmas perennials.      “Merry Christmas Everyone!” (Shakin’ Stevens, Christmas #1, 1985)