Brenda Lee's holiday classic "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" finally reached the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week, smashing plenty of records for the 78-year-old singer's 1958 release and dethroning perennial holiday leader, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", in a heated chart battle.
Billboard's top 10 includes a total of six holiday songs: after Lee, Carey ranks at No. 2 with "All I Want for Christmas Is You" - Carey fell behind Lee in streams, garnering 32.4 million for her holiday classic, but outperformed Lee on radio, with 21.5 million airplay impressions, Billboard reported. Carey also led Lee in sales, selling 4,000 downloads of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" to Lee's 3,000 downloads. Also in the top 10 are Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" at No. 4, Wham!'s "Last Christmas" at No. 5, Burl Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas" at No. 6 and Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" at No. 10.
Carey's Christmas hit ranks No. 1 on this week's Billboard Global 200, a worldwide ranking of singles based on streaming and sales from more than 200 countries. Lee, however, ranks fourth. Wham!'s "Last Christmas" is the second-biggest holiday song on this week's Global 200, ranking No. 2.
Lee and Carey's tight chart battle captured the attention of social media - and of the artists themselves, both of whom have stepped up their promotional efforts. Lee released a music video for "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in November to celebrate its 65th anniversary, and she joined TikTok to promote her holiday hit and reminisce on its long history. In one TikTok video, Lee addressed her "Brendanators", telling them: "Grandmother is here."
Carey rang in the holiday season on November 1 with a video of herself defrosting, which garnered 650,000 likes on X. She also embarked on a holiday tour and discussed her holiday dominance on the cover of People magazine. Carey's fans have fervently organized streaming parties on social media to help her win the chart battle, while an X account called "Brenda Lee Charts" emerged this year to promote Lee's song and monitor her chart performance.
(Forbes)
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