Happy 2018 All!
Many apologies for the lack of new content throughout December. Christmas was a very busy time with a lot going on so I didn't get to write as much as I should have done or would have liked to. It does mean I have quite a few bits to catch up on over the coming weeks though. I hope you all had a wonderful festive season full of celebrations. It does feel a bit weird doing a music chart rundown now that we are making our way through January but for consistencies sake, here is the chart for December;
In terms of the stats, whilst the Total Songs played was down ever so slightly, the total play count was up by just over a quarter meaning a bigger average play count and an increase in the number of plays coming from the Top 20 songs. Oddly, the Top 20 ended up being less of a percentage of the overall play count which I thought was quite unusual but there was a lot of songs with play counts that fell just outside of the Top 20; mainly Christmas stuff.
The Re-Entries came from Kylie Minogue and her version of 'Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)' from Christmas 2016 - you might remember it from the Boots ad campaign. The other re-entry came from Meatloaf with 'Life Is A Lemon (and I Want My Money Back)'. Yeah, very seasonal I know...
I won't go into all of the Christmas songs because you probably know most of them but I will note a few bits and pieces.
You'll notice that 'Walking In The Air' appears four times with different versions, all but the actual original! 'Walking In The Air' comes from one of my all-time favourite Christmas movies to watch; The Snowman. It was always one of the films that my primary school insisted on showing every year and additionally, we sang it in the choir too so it has a special spot in my heart. You'll also spot that two versions of it are listed with the artist Mark. Yep, that's me. At the time I was recording an album and writing new songs, I also played around with the idea of recording a version of the song. I put together an arrangement of the track but never actually recorded vocals for it. One version simply had a piano playing the vocal melody over the top of the arrangement I had put together. I don't often listen to my own recordings but these two do come out around Christmas simply because I love the song and enjoy the instrumental versions.
Five of the Top 20 also came from the Spice Girls. Although they are not all strictly Christmas songs, my Christmas Playlist also includes a lot of songs that were Christmas number 1. Essentially, I set up a playlist to use when we had friends over for parties and the like and in order to mix it up a bit it includes all Christmas songs, any songs that were the official Christmas Number 1 and any songs I have that were used in the big TV advert campaigns from various companies - ie, the Kylie Minogue one which isn't really a Christmas song.
All three of the Christmas Number 1's that the Spice Girls had hit my chart as well as the two Christmas B-Sides they recorded, 'Sleigh Ride' and 'Christmas Wrapping' from the singles '2 Become 1' and 'Goodbye' respectively.
I was astounded to find out that my absolute favourite Christmas song, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' from Mariah Carey had never actually hit the Number 1 spot in the official charts and she didn't quite make it here either! Seriously, how has this song never been Number 1? I imagine she isn't too fussed either way as every year it re-charts and makes her a whole bunch more money.
Another version of the same song also made it onto the chart and it comes from Chase Holfelder. Chase is an incredibly talented artist who I follow on YouTube. He has had a fair few videos go viral, particularly when he takes a popular song that is arranged in a Major Key and transforms the song by performing it in a Minor Key. That won't mean a great deal to some people who don't know the difference but if you give it a listen, you will get the gist:
It really does give the song a whole different texture that is for sure. It is dark, brooding and very powerful so naturally, I love it. I almost find it creepy and like it should be in some kind of Christmas horror movie. Chase has a whole bunch of material he has worked on and I definitely recommend going to check him out HERE
If you like your Christmas songs a little different, the number four spot was taken up by Ben Adams (you will remember him from A1 fame) and his alternative Christmas song. This was never actually released but he recorded it at the time I was working with him on recording my own album and he made the track available to download via MySpace - yes, that's how long ago it was! I've always loved the song because of how it makes fun of all the typical Christmas clichés. Perhaps it is a sort of anti-Christmas song but it really is a lot of fun:
This month's Number 1 surprised me a little bit as I didn't realise I had listened to it quite so many times in about a week. Every so often I discover, or in this case, revisit a song that I can't help replaying several times over which has meant that in the month of December, my number 1 isn't even a Christmas song! Still, it is Britney so wahoo! 'Clumsy' is a track from her most recent album.
Unfortunately, I can't actually find a video of the song so you can hear it but I love the track. It would seem that every version of it has either had the audio stripped or doctored so if you want to hear what I think was the strongest track on the latest album you'll have to go find it. Sorry about that :-(
Anyways, that wraps things up for December and for 2017. I will also share my Top 20 for the whole of 2017 in a few days. In the meantime, here is the full Top 20 for December:
Thanks for stopping by and reading xxx
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