So Bloody True
Gracie Abrams is still No.1. That in itself isn't so unusual given it is the same chart position she has occupied with That's So True for the last five weeks, but given the time of year it is also quite unexpected. The single is - believe it or not - the first non-festive single to be atop the Official UK Singles chart at this point in the year since 2019. Dance Monkey by Tones And I was the last "normal" pop record to be No.1 two weeks out from the Christmas chart. Since then we've had Mariah Carey in 2020, Ed and Elton in 2021, Mariah again in 2022 and Wham in 2023. For those still keeping count this is now the 15th week in a row that a female soloist has been No.1.
All things being equal though it seems almost inevitable that this will be her last. The American singer squeaked to No.1 by the skin of her teeth, Last Christmas by Wham easing its way into second place as one of six festive classics in the Top 10. We all knew this was coming, and so it must be. This is effectively the last chart of the year even glancingly to resemble normality. The festive wave is coming and there is very little anyone can do about it. Except perhaps embrace it.
World Still Feeding, Come Back Later
It is by no means an exaggeration to suggest that Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid is the most important record ever made. The original 1984 recording was a unique moment in time, the never before seen gathering of some of pop's biggest names to record the first in what would end up a long series of ensemble charity records. Released in 1984 it flew straight to the top of the charts with a reported sale of over 800,000 copies in a single week - in due course taking over as the biggest selling single of all time in this country. It would be 13 years before anything exceeded it.
Since then there have been numerous remakes. The 1989 Band Aid II version wasn't necessarily seen as an "official" project of the cause. It featured the distinctly international voices of Kylie and Jason (all thanks to producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman) after all and for a long time it ended up with the status of "the version we pretend didn't happen" despite closing out the 80s as a No.1 single and raising its own share of charity money.
In 2004 we had Band Aid 20, a proper remake of the project featuring the biggest stars of the day. It was huge enough for me to wax lyrical about it in an entire column dedicated to it. The song was Christmas No.1 for the third time and everyone was in awe.
Then came 2014 and another journey to the well, the cause this time Ebola rather than famine. But times had changed, the sensation was less, and although the Band Aid 30 project saw the song return to No.1 for a further spell, its moment in the (winter) sun was brief and indeed it has the somewhat unwanted legacy of being the only Christmas-themed song to be No.1 in November but not make it to the festive month itself.
I fear I managed to personally manifest what has happened now, thanks to this Twitter post I made a few weeks ago. How was I to know that plans were afoot for a 40th-anniversary edition?
If we don't hurry up we will run out of time for there to be a cause to peg a "Band Aid 40" project to.
— 🎧🎶 James Masterton 🎗️ (@ChartUpdate) October 25, 2024
But this time it is slightly different. Rather than assemble the stars of today for yet another remake (and hopefully in the process burying memories of Ladybaby's own 2022 abomination) producer Trevor Horn has returned to the original master tapes to weave together a true all-star remake. The Band Aid 40 rendition of Do They Know Its Christmas features digitally edited contributions from the stars from the 1984, 2004 and 2014 editions - including Bono doing his iconic "Well tonight…" line in the bridge three times over.
That's not to say the project was plain sailing PR wise. The lack of inclusion of anything from the 1989 version was explained away by the master tapes being available, prompting the ever-grumpy Mike Stock to complain nobody asked him about them. Then Ed Sheeran expressed disquiet about his 2014 vocals being recycled perhaps churlishly noting that nobody asked him if this was OK. Leaving the whole project to feel a tiny bit presumptive.
Band Aid 40 is undoubtedly well made, but the need to shoehorn in an example of every version of every line means the full unedited track runs about seven minutes and appears to go on for three times as long. There was general interest in the release - but perhaps tellingly not as much as there could have been.
The result is Do They Know It's Christmas charging from outside the Top 40 to No.8 on the chart this week. This is largely thanks to a boost from physical sales - although there weren't all that many. The track sold just shy of 5,000 CD singles and 2,438 on vinyl - digital sales and streams making up the remainder of its 28K chart sale. Perhaps controversially the streams didn't count as much as they might have done. All the existing versions of Do They Know It's Christmas have long had their streams count towards the same chart entry, and the new Band Aid 40 mix is merely considered a new edit of an existing song. But that does mean no ACR reset was available to it. Do They Know It's Christmas is Top 10 for the first time since 2020, but without those physical sales it would still have been just outside the Top 20. In line with its normal progress for this time of year.
Humbug
The one Christmas song in the Top 10 not on perma-ACR (for now) is Merry Christmas from Ed Sheeran and Elton John, which rockets 31-9 to make the upper reaches for the fourth year running. Technically from this point on it shouldn't be, this being the 156th week since its release meaning it passes the three year threshold for falling to ACR. Needless to say this is unlikely to happen to the single while it is in the middle of a chart run, but based on its true level of streaming popularity it is fairly safe to say this is the last year we shall see it automatically make the Top 10.
The Yule Log now reaches 41 songs out of the Top 100 with a festive theme - that number also counts Kesha's rather startling version of Lindsay Buckingham's Holiday Road. It wasn't originally a Christmas song - a novelty romp recorded as the theme of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. But Kesha's rendering is released as part of Spotify's holiday specials and so I guess now has to be taken into consideration.
My two favourite newer festive hits appear to be making better progress than ever before, in marked contrast to many others whose chart placings are lagging behind where they were 12 months ago. Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me has advanced to the No.11 position it occupied over the Christmas lead-in last year, possibly set to eclipse the No.8 peak it scaled on the final chart of 2023. Just behind Kelly Clarkson's Underneath The Tree has now matched the No.12 peak it scaled two years ago. Could the track (which reached No.30 when first released 11 years ago) be poised to make the Top 10 for the first time?
The New Boys
The DSP exclusives mean the usual smattering of contemporary releases mixed in with the classics. Leading the way is It Can't Be Christmas from Tom Grennan at No.25 (an Amazon exclusive) which is one place behind Winter Wonderland by Laufey. Bizarrely this was her Christmas release from LAST year. This time around she has recorded Christmas Magic for Amazon (and the Red One soundtrack) which has now made it to No.39. They are for now still the only major chart hits from the much-pushed Icelandic star. Her most notable release From The Start could only creep to No.92 in September 2023.
I said to keep an eye on Ma Meilleure Ennemie from Stromae and Pomme. It rises two places to No.19 - an impressive feat given the dramatic festive invasion that has begun. In a festive-free chart it would be No.8. And as I keep reminding everyone - in four weeks' time the chart will indeed be festive-free. And the hidden normality always contains its fair share of surprises.
Ending As She Began
A glance at the albums chart may startle you, the presence of Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department back at No.1 a matter of some curiosity. Needless to say there's method behind it, the belated physical release of the "anthology" bonus digital tracks. A premium purchase for sure, but there were plenty of collectors still determined to have the full set. This means the album returns to the top of the charts for its fifth such spell after an absence of 22 weeks (July was its last visit to the summit). The album has now been No.1 for nine weeks in total - easily more than any other record released in the 2020s.
Save Your Money
Two weeks away from what media will insist is the important reveal of the Christmas No.1, and nobody really has any inkling of what it might be. The damp squib of the Band Aid 40th anniversary record has removed any speculation in that area, meaning most bookmakers are playing it safe and installing Last Christmas as the favourite (not wishing to get caught with their pants down like last year). While it remains more or less inevitable that the Wham track will top the charts next week, it is hard not to view it as a pretty dismal state of affairs if it makes Xmas No.1 by default for the second year running. But if there is any other charitable release in prime position to nick in and steal matters, it has yet to identify itself. So little money has been staked on the live market at Betfair this year that it too is more or less unreadable. Even this Christmas tradition appears to be slowly melting away to nothing.
That's a miserable note to end on, so try some positivity. Despite miserabilism about the state of pop music in general and the sheer grinding predictability of matters this time of year, consumption of single tracks is at the highest level it has ever been - Official Charts logging over 31 million singles units (that's paid sales and streams calculated on a strictly 1:100 basis) for the very first time.
