Christmas Music
Lindsey Stirling breaks down her Christmas album, Snow Waltz, track by track
A deep dive into the process behind her 2022 album. Lindsey Stirling Breaks Down Her Christmas Album Snow Waltz Track by Track Mary Siroky
Mark Tremonti (Creed, Alter Bridge) announces first-ever holiday album
Christmas Classics New & Old will be released on October 27th. Mark Tremonti (Creed, Alter Bridge) Announces First-Ever Holiday Album Anne Erickson
How Pentatonix Became Today’s Most Popular Holiday Act
Mariah Carey may have had the most popular song of the 2022 holiday season, but Pentatonix was its most-listened-to act. The five-person vocal group had 92 recordings in the top 10,000 holiday tracks and total consumption of 2.58 million song units, based on sales and streams from Nov. 4 to Dec. 22, according to Luminate — more than any other artist. While Pentatonix doesn’t have the same kinds of smash singles as Christmas-time mainstays like Carey, Andy Williams and Burl Ives, the group uses a combination of quantity and popularity to drive its seasonal success. Pentatonix’s top holiday track, a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” ranked No. 43 and accounted for about 10.5% of its total track consumption. Its cover of the David Foster-Jennifer Thompson-Jenner song “Grown Up Chr...
Ariel Pink and Winston Marshall Go on Tucker Carlson to Promote Song “Rudolph’s Laptop”
You know Hilary Clinton and the emails she dropped, Hunter Biden’s laptop in the Delaware shop, but can you recall the stupidest laptop of all? It was the subject of a recent episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, which saw January 6th insurrectionist Ariel Pink and former Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall promoting their new song, “Rudolph’s Laptop.” This latest computer scandal, which is about as real as the first two, was co-composed by Pink and Marshall alongside Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble. The tune is set to jangling bells and the same Marshall banjo lick you’ve heard a thousand times before, as Pink sings, “Rudolph, what have you done?/ They found your laptop, it’s a smoking gun.” Pink was dropped from his label after participating in the Capitol r...
‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ Soundtrack Hits No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart
Vince Guaraldi Trio’s evergreen soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas hits a new peak on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, as the set rises 5-2 (on the list dated Dec. 24). That surpasses its previous high, notched just a week ago, when the album rose 7-5, beating its earlier peak of No. 6, achieved last holiday season (Dec. 18, 2021). The companion album to the 1965 animated TV special sold 17,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 15 (up 24%), according to Luminate. Most of that sum (14,000) is driven by vinyl album sales. A Charlie Brown Christmas is available across more than 15 vinyl variants (most differing in the color of its vinyl LP), including versions exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Newbury Comics, independent record stores, Target, Urban Outfitters, Vinyl Me, Please...
Mac DeMarco Wears Inflatable Santa Costume in “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” Video: Watch
Mac DeMarco has continued his tradition of Christmas covers with his rendition of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” Written by Meredith Willson, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” is perhaps best known for being a Top 10 hit in 1951 for Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra. Bing Crosby also shared a popular version that year, with Johnny Mathis and Michael Bublé releasing their own covers decades later. DeMarco’s take on “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” adds a slightly jazzy touch to the standard with his signature piano, while bells make the cover even more whimsical. It comes with a fun music video in which DeMarco and Dan McNeill ride around Los Angeles on motorcycles while wearing inflatable costumes of Santa Cl...
Will Adele Ever Release a Holiday Album? Here Are 12 Acts We’d Love to Make a Seasonal Set
While it may seem like most every major artist has released a full-length holiday album, there are still quite a few superstars that have yet to drop a seasonal project – including such chart-topping acts as Adele, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran. On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), hosts Katie and Keith discuss a dozen artists that are missing from the holiday cannon and debate whether we’ll ever actually get a seasonal album from them. (We’re looking at you, Paul McCartney!) Also on the show, the Pop Shoppers chat about SZA scoring her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with SOS (and securing one of the biggest debuts of 2022) and how Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reaches double-digits at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, spending i...
Xman Xmas: Ed Christman’s Christmas Classics, Deep Cuts & Oddities
Christmas is a time for music and memories. In that spirit, this playlist is an excerpt from Ed Christman‘s yesteryear Xman Xmas mixtapes, compiled circa 1986-1988. The Xman XmasTape Ed Christman Encompassing well-known classics by Burl Ives and Bobby Helms, long-lost gems (e.g. The Gems’ “Love for Christmas”) and surreal oddities such as Edd “Kookie” Byrnes’ “Yulesville,” here are some Christmas classics to revisit and deep cuts to discover. In particular, Christman, Billboard senior editor/analyst, would like to call your attention to Dean Martin’s reference of Rudolph as “Rudy, the red-beaked reindeer.” Andy Williams, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” The Crystals, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt Kickers, “Monster’s Holiday” The Trashmen, “D...
How Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ Became a Christmas Hit Decades After Its Release
Since the business of Christmas music is growing so fast – it occupies five of the top 10 places on the Billboard Hot 100 this week – we are re-presenting some of our stories from Christmas past. This piece, about how Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” came to be considered a holiday song, originally ran in 2019. The story of the song is recounted in the recent documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song. Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” with its ambiguous, imagistic lyrics about sex and spirituality, was once described by Jeff Buckley, perhaps the song’s most famous interpreter, as “the hallelujah of the orgasm.” So how did an a cappella version by Pentatonix get to No. 21 on the Billboard Holiday 100 in 2018 — after peaking on that chart at No. 2 in 2016...
These Two Former Billboard Staffers Produced One of Rap’s Biggest Christmas Hits
Since the business of Christmas music is growing so fast – it occupies five of the top 10 places on the Billboard Hot 100 this week – we are re-presenting some of our stories from Christmas past. This piece, about how two former Billboard staffers produced the holiday hit “Christmas Rappin’” for then-up-and-coming rapper Kurtis Blow, originally ran in 2019. Since then, in 2020, Robert Ford passed away. One groundbreaking Christmas hit didn’t just make the Billboard charts — it was produced by two former employees. In 1979, J.B. Moore and Robert Ford left the magazine to produce “Christmas Rappin’ ” for an up-and-coming rapper named Kurtis Blow. Released on Mercury Records, the single went gold, and Blow became the first rapper to sign a major-label deal. At Billboard, Moore ...
Louis Armstrong’s New ‘Cool Yule’ Holiday Album Debuts in the Top 10 Across Billboard Charts
Louis Armstrong’s new seasonal compilation album Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule debuts in in the top 10 across multiple Billboard charts (dated Nov. 26), including Top Holiday Albums. Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule bows at No. 9 on Top Holiday Albums, and launches in the top 10 on Jazz Albums (No. 4), Traditional Jazz Albums (No. 4), Top Album Sales (No. 7), Top Current Album Sales (No. 6) and Vinyl Albums (No. 7). It also starts at No. 122 on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest charting album since Hello Dolly spent six weeks at No. 1 in 1964. The new 11-track set is promoted as Armstrong’s “first-ever Christmas album,” though the late artist (who died in 1971) has previously released a number of holiday compilations alongside other acts that feature most of the album’s tracks (such as Ar...
Here’s Why Mariah Carey Is Facing a Legal Battle Over ‘Queen of Christmas’ Nickname
Mariah Carey is in a legal showdown over her efforts to secure a trademark registration for name “Queen of Christmas,” sparked by another singer who says she’s used the name for years. Likely playing on her perennial smash hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” Carey’s company (Lotion LLC) applied last year at the federal trademark office to register the “Queen” name as an exclusive brand name for a variety of different goods and services, ranging from music to alcohol to fragrances. But in a legal opposition filing last week, singer Elizabeth Chan and her attorneys at the law firm Wilmer Hale asked the office to reject Carey’s application. They say Chan (“pop music’s only full-time Christmas singer”) has been repeatedly dubbed the “Queen of Christmas,” and that it would be unfair to let C...
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