Following our impassioned plea last week for Mariah Carey’s holiday classic, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, to finally be given the respect it deserves, it seems the quintessential Christmas hit is… finally being given the respect it deserves. I’m not saying this is our influence, but I’m not not saying that, either.
According to the latest Billboard chart, the song is currently sitting at number 6, making it the highest-charting holiday song in 60 years. The only song beating it? Um, ‘The Chipmunk Song‘.
Feel free to mention this to anyone who complains to you about how much better music was ‘back in the day’.
‘The Chipmunk Song’ is the only Christmas-themed song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, doing so on December 22, 1958. It stayed in first place for an entire month.
It’s not like 1958 was a slow year for music. Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, The Everly Brothers, Perry Como and Chuck Berry all charted on the Billboard Hot 100 that year. But I guess when December rolled around, there was nothing people wanted more than to get into the holiday spirit by listening to fictional chipmunks sing about wanting hula-hoops.
Meanwhile, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ only entered the top 10 for the first time last year. A lot of it has to do with changes to the chart’s rules (when the song was first released, songs couldn’t chart unless they were physically released as singles, and recurrent songs weren’t eligible), but still. Mariah deserves better. Mariah deserves this number one. All I want for Christmas is for this song to reach number one.
Still, second-highest Christmas song is a win. Fingers crossed that next year, Mariah takes down those annoying chipmunks and claims her rightful spot in history.
You are now are obligated to listen to the song, so I’m including it below. You’re welcome.
