# Billboard's Hot 100 This Week **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423 "2019-12-26T23:53:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/1 "2019-12-26T23:53:53Z")
Normally I don’t know any of the songs in the Hot 100 any more. But this week, somehow, magically, I do: #50 It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como #47 Here Comes Santa Claus - Gene Autry #40 Happy Holiday - Andy Williams #37 Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes #36 Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry #30 The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole #28 Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Dean Martin #23 Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano #17 Last Christmas - WHAM! #15 The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Andy Williams #9 Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms #6 A Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives #2 Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee #1 All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey Link: [Billboard Hot 100 – Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100) I know there wasn’t this much Christmas music on the charts in December back in the 1960’s-through-1980’s. I doubt there was this much back in the 1950’s. What happened? Is there THAT much nostalgia? Has Billboard lost its touch? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/2 "2019-12-27T00:04:38Z")
They count streaming and widened the variety of songs which could hit the top 100. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/3 "2019-12-27T00:14:33Z")
Well I know that I personally listened to those specific versions of #1, #2, #6, #9, #23, #28 and #36 yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/4 "2019-12-27T01:56:45Z")
Streaming or creating playlists for their Christmas events. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/5 "2019-12-27T04:22:15Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I know there wasn’t this much Christmas music on the charts in December back in the 1960’s-through-1980’s. I doubt there was this much back in the 1950’s. Christmas music used to have its own chart separate from the Hot 100. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/6 "2019-12-27T06:23:46Z")
Streaming. ‘Alexa, play Christmas music’ ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/7 "2019-12-27T16:45:45Z")
[“Why Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Is Finally No. 1”](https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/mariah-carey-christmas-number-1-billboard-hot-100.html) by Chris Molanphy, posted on [slate.com](http://slate.com) on Dec 20, 2019, goes into detail about the Hot 100 changes that made this all possible. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/8 "2019-12-27T17:23:14Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > [“Why Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Is Finally No. 1”](https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/mariah-carey-christmas-number-1-billboard-hot-100.html) by Chris Molanphy, posted on [slate.com](http://slate.com) on Dec 20, 2019, goes into detail about the Hot 100 changes that made this all possible. I knew something had to be very different about the Hot 100 these days when I heard that Mariah Carey song went #1. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/9 "2019-12-27T17:29:14Z")
Thanks. I hadn’t heard about them counting streaming. That makes more sense. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/10 "2019-12-27T19:26:30Z")
That’s going to open up all kinds of avenues for old songs to chart high on the Hot 100 now. Not a bad thing … just very different. Almost seems like the Hot 100 now tracks something more akin to “in-the-moment popularity” versus their old (old!) “singles sales + airplay” metric. Going forward, maybe some 80s songs will get vaulted into the Top 10 for a week or two after getting exposure in show like _Stranger Things_, say. If the current Hot 100 metrics were in place in 2007 … I bet Journey’s 1981 song “Don’t Stop Believin’” would’ve hit #1 after [the general-popularity bump it got in _The Sopranos_ finale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Stop_Believin%27#In_popular_culture). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billboards-hot-100-this-week/845423/11 "2019-12-27T22:58:28Z")
I was just at the grocery store earlier, shoved off to the side with the other Xmas sell-off stuff was a display of CDs labeled “Recent Releases”. A lot of Sinatra, Elvis, Andy Williams, etc. Christmas music sells. And sells. And sells. Any artist who makes it reasonably big is soon pressured to put out a Christmas album. Free or cheap music rights, easy to record in a day or two, a lot of profit in those. And if that sells well (and it doesn’t take many sales), then you gotta do another one next year, right?