This is a list of Christmas number one singles in the United Kingdom. Christmas number one singles are those that are at the top of the UK Singles Chart on the week before Christmas Day. The official UK Singles Chart began in 1952, after appearing in the New Musical Express.[1] The positions of all songs are based on week end sale totals, from Sunday to Saturday,[2] but pre-1987 they were released on a Tuesday due to the need for manual calculation.[3]
The Beatles are the only artist to have four number ones, three consecutively starting from 1963. Cliff Richard also spent four Christmases at the top; two with his own songs, one with The Shadows and one as a part of Band Aid 2. Paul McCartney has been top seven times; four times with The Beatles, and once each with Wings, Band Aid and Band Aid 20. The Spice Girls equalled the record of having three consecutive Christmas number ones, from 1996 to 1998. "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, which reached the number one spot at Christmas 1975 and 1991, is the only record to have reached the top twice.
"Mary's Boy Child" is the only song to be Christmas number one for two entirely unrelated artists (Harry Belafonte in 1957 and Boney M in 1978), although "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has been Christmas number one for three generations of Band Aid.[4] The (original) Band Aid version of this song is the second best selling single in UK history.[5] Many of the Christmas number ones were also the best-selling song of the year.[6]
From 2005 to 2008, the winners of the talent competition The X Factor took the number one spot — beginning with Shayne Ward in 2005, followed by Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke. In 2007, bookmakers started taking bets on who Christmas Number Two would be instead. The trend was broken in 2009 when a campaign to get Rage Against the Machine's 1992 single "Killing in the Name" to number one, started on social networking website Facebook, was successful.[7] This made them the first group to get a Christmas number one with a download-only single, and was the most download sales in a single week ever in the UK charts.[7]
List
See also
Christmas number-two singles in the UK
List of Christmas number one singles (Ireland)
References
- ^ "The story of the single". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/entertainment/1234212.stm. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
- ^ "FAQ". The Official UK Charts Company. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/faq.php#howcompiled. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
- ^ "UK Singles Charts: History of the Charts". When We Were Kids. http://www.wwwk.co.uk/music/hit-singles/singles-chart-story.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
- ^ a b "All the Christmas number ones". CBBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/music/newsid_2580000/2580729.stm. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
- ^ "Record-Breakers and Trivia". EveryHit. http://www.everyhit.com/record4.html. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
- ^ "UK Top 100 Best Selling Singles". UK Charts. http://ukcharts.20m.com/bestsell.html. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
- ^ a b "Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts". 2009-12-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8423340.stm. Retrieved 2009-12-20.
- ^ "Christmas Number Ones : Singles". EveryHit. http://www.everyhit.com/christmasnumber1.html. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
- ^ "Thirty years of Christmas No 1s". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/christmas2002/story/0,,864869,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
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