Mariah Carey's 'Christmas' Climbs to No. 3 on Billboard Hot 100, Ariana Grande's 'Next' Leads for Seventh Week
12/31/2018 by Gary Trust Below Grande's "Thank U, Next," Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is the first top-five holiday hit on the Hot 100 in 60 years. Plus, three more seasonal classics hit the top 10 for the first time.
Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next" tops the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Jan. 5, 2019) for a seventh week.
Meanwhile, a record four holiday songs infuse the Hot 100's top 10 simultaneously, led by Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which dashes from No. 7 to No. 3, becoming just the second yuletide tune ever to hit the Hot 100's top five, and the first in nearly 60 years. It also takes over as the first holiday No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart, with a record weekly sum for a seasonal song.
Plus, Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" claims the record for the longest ride to the Hot 100's top 10 (60 years and two weeks), jumping 13-8 after it first appeared on the chart in 1958; Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" rolls 11-9, becoming her first top 10 since 1963, as she ends the longest break between top 10s for a female artist; and, Burl Ives returns to the Hot 100's top 10 after an overall record-breaking gap of 56 years, seven months and two weeks, as "A Holly Jolly Christmas" rises 12-10.
Let's sleigh ride through the top 10 of the newest Hot 100, which blends all-genre U.S. streaming, radio airplay and digital sales data. All charts will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Jan. 2).
Grande's "Next," released on Republic Records, and which debuted atop the Nov. 17-dated Hot 100, becoming her first No. 1 on the chart, rebounds 4-3 on the Digital Song Sales chart (which it led for two weeks), up 86 percent to 43,000 downloads sold in the week ending Dec. 27, according to Nielsen Music; all but two titles on the 50-position Digital Song Sales tally show gains, thanks to robust holiday shopping (both before Christmas Day and likely helped after by gift card redemptions).
"Next" holds at No. 5 on Radio Songs (90 million audience impressions, up 4 percent, in the week ending Dec. 30) and tumbles to No. 9 on Streaming Songs, after seven weeks at No. 1 (37.9 million U.S. streams, down 13 percent, in the week ending Dec. 27).
Halsey's "Without Me" spends a third week at its No. 2 Hot 100 high. It leads Digital Song Sales for a sixth week (47,000, up 27 percent); repeats at No. 4 on Radio Songs (91.8 million, up 4 percent); and drops 8-12 on Streaming Songs (32 million, essentially even week-over-week).
The gap again narrows between the Hot 100's top two songs, as "Next" increases by 2 percent in overall activity, while "Without Me" gains by 5 percent.
First top-five Hot 100 holiday hit in 60 years / First holiday Streaming Songs No. 1: Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which two weeks earlier became the highest-charting holiday season-themed hit on the Hot 100 in almost 60 years, now becomes the first such song to reach the top five in that span, jingling 7-3, passing its prior No. 6 peak. The carol joins "The Chipmunk Song," by David Seville & The Chipmunks, which spent four weeks at No. 1 beginning Dec. 22, 1958, as the only two top-five holiday hits in the Hot 100's 60-year history.
"Christmas" rules the Holiday 100 (for a 35th week of the chart's 40 weeks of existence, since its 2011 launch) and becomes the first holiday hit ever to reach No. 1 on Streaming Songs (which began in January 2013). Winning the Hot 100's top Streaming Gainer award, it pushes 3-1 on Streaming Songs, up 49 percent to 51.9 million U.S. streams in the week ending Dec. 27, a new record weekly total for a seasonal song.
"Christmas" also gains on Digital Song Sales (16,000, up 13 percent, although it falls 11-17), while plunging 18-43 on Radio Songs (24.2 million, down 41 percent), as the latter chart's tracking week covered five full days after Christmas (Dec. 24-30); conversely, all holiday titles sport gains on Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales, both of which reflect the Dec. 21-27 tracking week.
"Christmas" first appeared on Carey's 1994 album Merry Christmas, which concurrently makes its first appearance in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 since its original season of release.
Meanwhile, thanks to Grande, Halsey and Carey, women in lead roles monopolize the Hot 100's top three simultaneously for the first time in over four years; on the Nov. 29, 2014-dated chart, Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" rose 3-1, supplanting her own "Shake It Off" (1-3), marking the first self-replacement at No. 1 by a female artist, and Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" held at No. 2.
Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode," which topped the Dec. 8-dated Hot 100, drops 3-4, while leading the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a 10th week each. Rounding out the Hot 100's top five, Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" slips a spot from its No. 4 high to No. 5.
Panic! at the Disco's "High Hopes" holds at No. 6 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 5, and rules Hot Rock Songs for a ninth week and Radio Songs for a sixth frame (124.6 million, down 1 percent). Marshmello and Bastille's "Happier" drops 5-7 on the Hot 100, after hitting No. 3, as it tops Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for a 15th week.
Longest trip to Hot 100's top 10: Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" sets the record for the longest ride to the Hot 100's top 10: 60 years and two weeks. It jingle-hops 13-8 after first appearing on the Hot 100 dated Dec. 22, 1958, just after the chart's Aug. 4, 1958, origin; Helms first released the song for the 1957 holiday season. It surges 11-2 on Streaming Songs, up 53 percent to 44.2 million U.S. streams.
Helms, who died in 1997, appears in the Hot 100's top 10 for the first time. He charted two other titles: "Borrowed Dreams" (No. 60 peak, August 1958) and "The Fool and the Angel" (No. 75, January 1959). As "Dreams" debuted on the third Hot 100 ever (dated Aug. 18, 1958), Helms ends the longest wait for an artist's first top 10: 60 years, four months and two weeks.
Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" two-steps 11-9 on the Hot 100, also reaching the top 10 at last; originally released in 1958, it first appeared on the Hot 100 dated Dec. 12, 1960, reaching No. 14 two weeks later, its best rank until last week. On Streaming Songs, "Tree" rises 12-3 (44.9 million, up 50 percent).
Lee, who celebrated her 74th birthday Dec. 11, adds her 13th Hot 100 top 10 and first since 1963, when "Losing You" reached No. 6. Her 55-year and seven-month break between top 10s is the longest among women and second overall to the song that enters the region directly below …
Longest break between Hot 100 top 10s: Burl Ives returns to the Hot 100's top 10 after a record-breaking 56 years, seven months and two weeks, as "A Holly Jolly Christmas" climbs 12-10. The track bounds 9-4 on Streaming Songs (42.6 million, up 36 percent).
Ives, who passed away in 1995, rewrites the mark for the longest wait between Hot 100 top 10s held … for a week by Andy Williams, who last week posthumously ended a 47-year, eight-month and three-week break between top 10s, when "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" rose 13-10 (before retreating to No. 13 this week).
Ives had last hit the Hot 100's top 10 in 1962, with his sole two other top 10s: "Funny Way of Laughin' " (No. 10 peak that May) and "A Little Bitty Tear" (No. 9, that February).
All-time holiday top 10s on the Hot 100: Helms, Lee and Ives add just the seventh, eighth and ninth yuletide hits ever to reach the Hot 100's top 10 (with the rise of streaming assisting their, and Carey's, ascents).
Highest-Charting Holiday Songs in the Hot 100's History
No. 1, four weeks, beginning Dec. 22, 1958, "The Chipmunk Song," by David Seville & The Chipmunks
No. 3, Jan. 5, 2019, "All I Want for Christmas Is You," Mariah Carey
No. 7, Jan. 8, 2000, "Auld Lang Syne," Kenny G
No. 7, Jan. 6, 1990, "This One's for the Children," New Kids on the Block
No. 8, Jan. 5, 2019, "Jingle Bell Rock," Bobby Helms
No. 9, Jan. 5, 2019, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," Brenda Lee
No. 9, Feb. 21, 1981, "Same Old Lang Syne," Dan Fogelberg
No. 10, Jan. 5, 2019, "A Holly Jolly Christmas," Burl Ives
No. 10, Dec. 29, 2018, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," Andy Williams
As for holiday songs and their eligibility, or lack thereof, for the Hot 100 over the years, chart historian Joel Whitburn notes in his book Christmas in the Charts, "From 1963 through 1972, and from 1983 through 1985 [with minimal exceptions], Billboard published a seasonal Christmas Singles chart and did not chart Christmas singles on the Hot 100." Per current Hot 100 rules, in place in recent years, older songs, including seasonal titles, can rank in the top 50 if experiencing significant multi-metric gains, and multiple holiday standards re-enter or debut each season.
(Meanwhile, as noticed by Billboard senior director of charts Keith Caulfield, thanks to the influx of holiday titles, no artists sporting a featured billing appear in the Hot 100's top 10 for the first time in over four years, since a two-week span of only lead acts on the charts dated Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, 2014.)
Find out more Hot 100 news on Billboard.com this week, and, for all chart news, you can listen (and subscribe) to Billboard's Chart Beat Podcast and Pop Shop Podcast and follow
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