Time to get festive.
This past week the good folks at musicMagpie have done a great service for the British public, and it’s all in the name of Christmas.
At this time of year there’s always a lot of talk about our favourite Christmas songs. So, what are they? Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas”? Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”? East 17’s “Stay Another Day”? Wham’s “Last Christmas”? Or perhaps The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”?
While these might be some of your favourites, how festive are they really? Attempting to settle the debate once and for all, musicMagpie has examined 20 of the UK’s most popular Xmas songs. Using a list of 170 different words and phrases, each song was analysed and given a score on how festive their lyrics are.
The results might surprise you.
Topping the chart was “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens, with 21.8% of its lyrics containing festive words. Brenda Lee’s “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree” came in second place, with a festive score of 14.2%.
Despite always being a very popular song at this time of year, East 17’s “Stay Another Day” came in last place with no Christmassy lyrics at all. In fact the only thing that ties the song in with Christmas is the snowy video and the fact it was released at Xmas time (November 1994) .Go figure.
Take a look at the chart below to see if your favourite made the cut and where it lands on the festive scale:
Also analysing how commercially successful each song is and which of them are most commonly used in movies and television, you can take a look at musicMagpie’s festive findings in their entirety here.
Congratulations to Shakin’ Stevens, you’ve done your country proud. Not just content with being the UK’s biggest-selling singles artist of the 80s, you had to take the title for most festive song too. We’ll have a toast in your honour.
