We’ve noted before that the past route to releasing a future Christmas standard was to be a Top 40 artist at your hitmaking peak, such that your song had a chance of being relevant to the format for a few consecutive holidays, giving it time to build into a regular library fixture. Indeed, “Last Christmas” came just as Wham was going from strength to strength—from “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” into “Careless Whisper.” Paul McCartney was doing his best to squander his superstardom in 1979—the year of Wings’ “Goodnight Tonight,” “Getting Closer,” and “Arrow Through Me”—as “Wonderful Christmastime” was released. But “Coming Up” was, well, coming up a few months later and would buy him another few years as a core act. Even Dan Fogelberg released “Same Old Lang Syne” a year after his breakthrough with “Longer” and remained a steady chart presence for another few years.
But the chances of a new holiday song emerging this year are relatively good. Mariah Carey isn’t the automatic add that she was when she released “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” one of the most recent holiday standards, but she still gets CHR airplay for the right song. And the enduring success of “All I Want” will help legitimize this year’s “Oh Santa.” Likewise, Train still has to push for its place at Top 40 even after “Hey Soul Sister.” But having one of the biggest records of the year, or the last few years, still definitely puts their “Shake Up Christmas” on the docket, and hundreds of already-airing Coke spots are likely to further that.
Do you see a pending holiday smash of 2010?
