Mariah Carey Leads a Top Songs Chart Almost Completely Devoid of Non-Christmas Tunes

Chris Willman
·3 min read
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Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the nation’s top song for the fourth week in a row, as it again tops the Rolling Stone songs chart. Nothing unexpected about that; what is unusual is how far down the chart you have to go to find a song that isn’t seasonal.

To cut to the chase: the top non-holiday song for the week ending Dec. 24 was Taylor Swift’s “Willow”… at No. 37. Just squeaking in behind that at No. 40 was “Mood,” by 24kgoldn featuring Iann Dior. Thirty-eight of the other selections in the top 40 — ranked by active consumption in streaming and track sales — were oldies devoted to making the season bright.

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Following Carey in the top 10 was the perennial December No. 2, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” followed by Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run,” Dean Martin’ “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow,” José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad,” the Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” and Perry Como’s “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas.”

Certainly only in December will you find a top 10 in which there is not a single song released this century. (Carey’s track, the newest, dates to 1994.) One from this millennium does finally pop up at No. 11 — Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree,” released in 2013. Among the top 20, Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” and Michael Buble’s version of “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas,” at Nos. 14 and 19, are the only other tracks released in the last 20 years.

If you’re looking for a song that was released in the year 2020, the first one that comes up on the chart is Dan + Shay’s “Take Me Home for Christmas,” at No. 22. After that, the next non-recurrent song on the chart is Carrie Underwood’s “Favorite Time of Year” at No. 34. Underwood also has another song from her recent Christmas album close behind at No. 38, “Hallelujah,” a duet with John Legend that is not a cover of the Leonard Cohen classic.

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” had 49.6 million streams for the week. Lee’s “Rockin'” clocked in 44.7 million streams. And in third place, Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” was the choice of 42.4 million streamers.

By comparison, the week’s top non-seasonal favorite, Swift’s “Willow,” collected 12.4 million streams.

Carey may well have another week at No. 1, since the next chart will include streaming on Christmas Day itself, although the overall chart should start to see a shift back toward the hip-hop that was dominant in the year’s first 11 months.

See the complete list of the week’s top 100 songs here.

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