As nine festive favorites rank in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Dec. 30) – tying for the most in a single week – three new holiday recordings debut on the chart.
Meghan Trainor’s version of “Jingle Bells” dashes in at No. 81, marking just the second version of the standard ever on the Hot 100 – with the other, by Frank Sinatra, hitting a new high at No. 16.
Plus, Cher returns to the Hot 100 after 21 years, with “DJ Play a Christmas Song” at No. 94, and Chlöe’s interpretation of “Winter Wonderland” makes the song a Hot 100 hit for the first time, gliding in at No. 96.
Meanwhile, as previously reported, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” crowns the Hot 100 for a second consecutive week as it logs a 14th total week at No. 1, dating to its first coronation in December 2019. Notably, the modern Yuletide standard is Carey’s third Hot 100 leader of at least 14 weeks – as she becomes the first artist in the chart’s history with three such No. 1s.
Let’s unwrap the three new carols on the latest Hot 100 below.
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Dec. 30, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 27, a day later than usual due to the Christmas holiday). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
-
A Sleighing Song
Image Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images Meghan Trainor’s take on “Jingle Bells” enters the Hot 100 with 7.4 million official U.S. streams (up 26%) from Dec. 15-21, according to Luminate. The song was released this holiday season among new Amazon Music Original exclusives.
Perhaps surprisingly, Trainor charts only the second version of “Jingle Bells” in the Hot 100’s 65-year history (although for many years Yuletide tracks were not eligible for the survey and appeared only on separate holiday charts). The other charted version on the Hot 100 hits a new best rank: Sinatra’s bounds 20-16, with 20.9 million streams (up 24%) and 15.8 million in all-format radio audience (up 3%). The late legend lands his highest Hot 100 placement since “Somethin’ Stupid,” with daughter Nancy Sinatra, spent four weeks at No. 1 in 1967.
Sinatra’s version of “Jingle Bells” is from 1957. The carol was written by James Lord Pierpont and published exactly 100 years earlier in 1857.
Concurrently, Trainor rises to No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart with another new holiday hit: “Wrap Me Up,” with Jimmy Fallon.
-
Cher’s ‘Christmas Song’
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Records Cher returns to the Hot 100 for the first time since 2002, as “DJ Play a Christmas Song” debuts at No. 94. The song drew 5.5 million in airplay audience and 5 million streams (up 33%) and sold 4,000 downloads (up 49%) from Dec. 15-21. Helping the track’s profile, Kelly Clarkson sang the song in the Dec. 19 Kellyoke segment on her namesake talk show. “I am out of my mind over your version,” Cher praised Clarkson in response.
Cher adds her 34th solo Hot 100 hit and first since “Song for the Lonely” in May 2002. Two entries before that, her smash “Believe” spent four weeks at No. 1 in 1999, the most among her four leaders. She first reached the chart in July 1965 with the Bob Dylan-penned “All I Really Want To Do,” which went on to hit No. 15. A week after that single debuted, Sonny & Cher arrived with their first entry, “I Got You Babe,” a three-week No. 1 classic that August. The duo charted 18 hits through 1973.
“Christmas Song” spends a fourth week at No. 1 on Adult Contemporary. It has also topped the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales and Holiday Digital Song Sales charts, as Cher has now claimed visits to No. 1 on Billboard song surveys in every decade since the 1960s, including her run in Sonny & Cher.
The song is from Cher’s first holiday LP, Christmas, which debuted in at No. 1 on the Top Holiday Albums chart in November.
-
The Hot 100 a ‘Winter Wonderland’ at Last
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Rounding out the trio of debuting holiday hits on the Dec. 30-dated Hot 100, Chlöe’s version of “Winter Wonderland” enters at No. 96 with 6.1 million streams (up 18%) from Dec. 15-21. Like Meghan Trainor’s “Jingle Bells,” Chlöe’s cover is new this year among Amazon Music Original exclusives.
“Winter Wonderland,” written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard Bernhard Smith, strolls onto the Hot 100 for the first time. Along with Chloe’s version, nine others have hit the Holiday 100 chart: by Darlene Love (No. 31 peak), Pentatonix featuring Tori Kelly (in a medley incorporating Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy”; No. 31), Johnny Mathis (No. 38) and Amy Grant (No. 39), as well as versions from Air Supply, Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Bing Crosby and Eurythmics.
Plus, nine recordings of “Winter Wonderland” have charted on Hot Country Songs, and seven have hit Adult Contemporary, including two top 10 takes, by James Taylor (No. 8 over the 2004 holidays) and Wynonna (No. 8, 2007).
