Christmas music: It’s unavoidable now, infiltrating our radio stations, dominating our streaming services, and pumped into department stores like a narcotic, gingerbread-tinged gas. It’s almost two weeks out from Christmas, so we’re quickly coming up on its annual apex. And although we know a bunch about the yearly demand for holiday tracks, it’s also worth looking into the supply. The modern Christmas canon is mainly from the middle of the 20th century, but every year artists drop new Christmas tracks, and some of these new stabs at holiday tunes do catch on, to a degree: 2011’s “Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber is still in substantial streaming demand, as is 2013’s “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande and 2014’s “I’ll Be Home” by Meghan Trainor.
Still, not all artists are so creative. If you’re going to cut a Christmas album, you’re gonna have to toss a few covers of the classics in there. I wanted to know what the most-covered holiday songs are, and Eliot Van Buskirk at Spotify — which has identified more than 1.3 million tracks of holiday music — was kind enough to send over the data they had. So, for instance, Spotify could tell us that the song “Deck the Halls” is associated with 9,146 individual tracks — appearances on different albums by different artists — in the Spotify database.1
Here are the 25 most-covered Christmas songs in Spotify’s corpus,2 plus the year of their release:
RANK | SONG | YEAR | SPOTIFY TRACK COUNT | IS IT PUBLIC DOMAIN? |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Silent Night | 1818 | 26,496 | 🎄 |
2 | White Christmas | 1940 | 20,721 | |
3 | Jingle Bells | 1857 | 19,080 | 🎄 |
4 | The Christmas Song | 1944 | 13,208 | |
5 | The First Noel | 1833 | 12,476 | 🎄 |
6 | Winter Wonderland | 1934 | 12,196 | |
7 | Santa Claus Is Coming To Town | 1934 | 12,085 | |
8 | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | 1943 | 11,714 | |
9 | Joy to the World | 1836 | 11,395 | 🎄 |
10 | Away In a Manger | 1887 | 10,074 | 🎄 |
11 | God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen | 1827 | 9,988 | 🎄 |
12 | Hark, the Herald Angels Sing | 1840 | 9,864 | 🎄 |
13 | O Holy Night | 1847 | 9,730 | 🎄 |
14 | I’ll Be Home for Christmas | 1943 | 9,318 | |
15 | Deck the Halls | 1800 | 9,146 | 🎄 |
16 | O Little Town of Bethlehem | 1868 | 9,001 | 🎄 |
17 | Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer | 1939 | 8,947 | |
18 | Silver Bells | 1950 | 8,451 | |
19 | It Came Upon the Midnight Clear | 1850 | 8,291 | 🎄 |
20 | Ave Maria | 1825 | 8,195 | 🎄 |
21 | O Come All Ye Faithful | 1751 | 8,159 | 🎄 |
22 | Sleigh Ride | 1948 | 7,684 | |
23 | We Wish You a Merry Christmas | 1500 | 7,491 | 🎄 |
24 | What Child Is This? | 1865 | 7,443 | 🎄 |
25 | Blue Christmas | 1964 | 6,964 |
“Silent Night,” “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” are the most-covered songs in the holiday canon. In the right-hand column, I’ve identified (with a Christmas tree!) those songs that have lapsed into the public domain. Unsurprisingly, the free use of some of these songs seems to be a motivation for people to cover them.
Is the ambient noise of Christmas defined entirely by boomer nostalgia and the vagaries of U.S. copyright law? I mean, the newest song on that list, “Blue Christmas,” came out during the LBJ administration, and 60 percent of them came out before 1923, so yes, yes it is.
This phenomenon — that many of the songs that artists cover the most are free and in the public domain — can also be seen in movies. In 2014, I pulled several IMDb data sets for an article about movies nominated for an Oscar. One of these sets was the soundtracks for movies listed on the site, and several of the most common songs that appeared on those soundtracks turned out to be holiday songs.
“Jingle Bells,” for instance, was the most common song in the entire batch of movie soundtracks. I imagine this is mostly because if you need to set the mood and tell the audience it’s the holiday season, playing “Jingle Bells” as diegetic sound is a pretty good way to get the point across.
Here are the top holiday songs that appear on IMDb soundtracks:3
RANK | SONG | YEAR | IMDB APPEARANCES | IS IT PUBLIC DOMAIN? |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jingle Bells | 1857 | 373 | 🎄 |
2 | Auld Lang Syne | 1711 | 295 | 🎄 |
3 | Silent Night | 1818 | 254 | 🎄 |
4 | Ave Maria | 1825 | 154 | 🎄 |
5 | Deck the Halls | 1800 | 131 | 🎄 |
6 | Joy to the World | 1836 | 99 | 🎄 |
7 | We Wish You a Merry Christmas | 1500 | 84 | 🎄 |
8 | Hark, the Herald Angels Sing | 1840 | 68 | 🎄 |
9 | Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy/”The Nutcracker Suite” | 1892 | 57 | 🎄 |
10 | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | 1943 | 56 | |
11 | God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen | 1827 | 49 | 🎄 |
12 | Good King Wenceslas | 1853 | 49 | 🎄 |
13 | Santa Claus Is Coming to Town | 1934 | 48 | |
14 | The First Noel | 1833 | 47 | 🎄 |
15 | White Christmas | 1940 | 46 | |
16 | Winter Wonderland | 1934 | 43 | |
17 | The Christmas Song | 1944 | 39 | |
18 | Greensleeves | 1580 | 38 | 🎄 |
19 | Adeste Fideles | 1751 | 34 | 🎄 |
19 | Sleigh Ride | 1948 | 34 | |
21 | O Tannenbaum | 1800 | 33 | 🎄 |
22 | I’ll Be Home for Christmas | 1943 | 32 | |
23 | Jingle Bell Rock | 1957 | 30 | |
24 | Carol of the Bells | 1904 | 29 | 🎄 |
25 | O Christmas Tree | 1800 | 24 | 🎄 |
25 | O Come All Ye Faithful | 1751 | 24 | 🎄 |
The preference for the public domain is even more striking here: Nine of the top 10 songs are copyright-free. I’ll guess the reason for this is that unless it’s essential to the plot, picking a free holiday song to set the mood over one where you’d owe royalties makes financial sense and doesn’t throw the movie off.
Going back to the Spotify data, though, given what we know about what people actually listen to, it’s pretty clear that the supply for many of these songs wildly outpaces the demand. Only 13 of the top 50 covered songs appeared in the top 50 most-streamed holiday songs during the first week of December. The most recent song to both inspire many copies and see substantial streaming volume is 1985’s “Last Christmas” by Wham!.
The moral of the story? If you’re going to lay down the hottest holiday album of 2016, society probably doesn’t need another recording of “Silent Night.” We do, on the other hand, need thousands more recordings of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” because that song is great4 despite being the only song ever recorded with a worse understanding of the continent of Africa than the Toto song “Africa.”
Finally, here are the most-streamed Christmas songs on Spotify in the week ending Dec. 10. Topping the list are the queen and king of Christmas music, Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé.
RANK | SONG | ARTIST |
---|---|---|
1 | All I Want for Christmas Is You | Mariah Carey |
2 | It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas | Michael Bublé |
3 | Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree | Brenda Lee |
4 | Mistletoe | Justin Bieber |
5 | Fairytale Of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl) | The Pogues |
6 | White Christmas | Bing Crosby |
7 | Last Christmas – Single Version | Wham! |
8 | Santa Tell Me | Ariana Grande |
9 | It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year | Andy Williams |
10 | Mary, Did You Know? | Pentatonix |
11 | Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! | Frank Sinatra |
12 | The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) | Nat King Cole |
13 | Blue Christmas | Elvis Presley |
14 | Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas | Sam Smith |
15 | A Holly Jolly Christmas – Single Version | Burl Ives |
16 | Jingle Bell Rock | Bobby Helms |
17 | Merry Christmas Everyone | Shakin’ Stevens |
18 | Mer jul | Adolphson & Falk |
19 | This Christmas | Chris Brown |
20 | Do They Know It’s Christmas? | Band Aid |
21 | Tänd ett ljus | Triad |
22 | Baby, It’s Cold Outside | Seth MacFarlane |
23 | Feliz Navidad | José Feliciano |
24 | I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday | Roy Wood |
25 | Run Rudolph Run | Chuck Berry |
26 | Christmas Lights | Coldplay |
27 | Driving Home for Christmas | Chris Rea |
28 | Santa Baby | Eartha Kitt |
29 | I’ll Be Home | Meghan Trainor |
30 | Santa Claus Is Coming to Town | The Jackson 5 |
31 | My Only Wish (This Year) | Britney Spears |
32 | Home for Christmas | Maria Mena |
33 | Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town – Single Version | Bruce Springsteen |
34 | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas | Christina Aguilera |
35 | Himmel På Jord | Kurt Nilsen |
36 | Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays | *NSYNC |
37 | Sleigh Ride | The Ronettes |
38 | Last Christmas | Carly Rae Jepsen |
39 | Baby, It’s Cold Outside | Glee Cast |
40 | Christmas Time Is Here – Vocal / Album Version | Vince Guaraldi Trio |
41 | Little Saint Nick | The Beach Boys |
42 | Baby It’s Cold Outside (duet with Michael Bublé) | Idina Menzel |
43 | Jingle Bells | Diana Krall |
44 | Happy Xmas (War Is Over) | John Lennon |
45 | Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! | Dean Martin |
46 | Step Into Christmas | Elton John |
47 | Wonderful Christmastime | Paul McCartney |
48 | It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas | Perry Como |
49 | One More Sleep | Leona Lewis |
50 | Merry Xmas Everybody | Slade |
51 | Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord | Boney M. |
52 | Man With The Bag | Jessie J |
53 | Text Me Merry Christmas (feat. Kristen Bell) | Straight No Chaser |
54 | Christmas Eve / Sarajevo | Trans-Siberian Orchestra |
55 | The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) | Alvin & The Chipmunks |
56 | Merry Christmas Darling – Album Version/Remix | The Carpenters |
57 | White Christmas (feat. Clyde McPhatter & Bill Pinckney) | The Drifters |
58 | Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) | Darlene Love |
59 | Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer | Gene Autry |
60 | Happy Christmas (War Is Over) | Maroon 5 |
61 | My Favorite Things | Kelly Clarkson |
62 | Jingle Bell Rock from Daryl | Daryl Hall & John Oates |
63 | Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas | Judy Garland |
64 | Stop the Cavalry | Jona Lewie |
65 | Frosty The Snowman | Ella Fitzgerald |
66 | Angels We Have Heard On High – Duet with Brian McKnight | Josh Groban |
67 | Merry Christmas Darling | Christina Perri |
68 | Carol of the Bells – Voice | Peter J. Wilhousky |
69 | Winter Wonderland | Tony Bennett |
70 | I Believe In Father Christmas | Emerson, Lake & Palmer |
71 | Santa Baby | Kylie Minogue |
72 | Lonely This Christmas | Mud |
73 | White Christmas | Nashville Cast |
74 | Do You Hear What I Hear? | Mary J. Blige |
75 | Cuddle Up | Catey Shaw |
76 | White Christmas | Katy Perry |
77 | 2000 Miles – 2007 Remastered Version | Pretenders |
78 | Christmas In Harlem | Kanye West |
79 | What Christmas Means To Me | Stevie Wonder |
80 | All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) | Nat King Cole Trio |
81 | Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) – Radio Version | Melanie Thornton |
82 | I En Stjerneregn Af Sne | Mads Langer |
83 | Juligen | Just D |
84 | Jesus & Josefine | Julie & Martin Brygmann |
85 | God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen | BYU Vocal Point |
86 | Jag kommer hem igen till jul | Peter Jöback |
87 | When a Child Is Born | Johnny Mathis |
88 | The Christmas Waltz | She & Him |
89 | Last Christmas – Studio Version | Jimmy Eat World |
90 | All My Christmases | Jillian Edwards |
91 | Dear Santa | Mr Little Jeans |
92 | It’s Christmas Time Again | Backstreet Boys |
93 | Jul Det’ Cool | MC Einar |
94 | Mistletoe | Colbie Caillat |
95 | Jul i Angora | Drengene fra Angora |
96 | Stay Another Day | East 17 |
97 | Another Christmas | Amanda Jenssen |
98 | Where Are You, Christmas? | Faith Hill |
99 | Baby, It’s Cold Outside | Jessica Simpson |
100 | Hoping for Snow | The Vamps |