1. Pick a familiar holiday tune, but not a Christmas carol
2. Steer away from novelty ditties
3. Convince a producer to use the song as part of a television or movie soundtrack
Oh, and one more item - don't expect to hear it on the radio in your lifetime.
As always, deceased performers rule Mediabase's annual list of radio's most-played Christmas songs. The late Burl Ives, Bobby Helms, Nat King Cole and John Lennon share the top spots with still-performing Brenda Lee, who we hope is rockin' around the doctor's office on a more regular basis these days.
There are few surprises on this year's survey (based on 2007 airplay), but the list is nonetheless fascinating, if only because it flies in the face of conventional radio programming. The vast majority of artists are radio relics - when was the last time you heard anything by Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Gene Autry or Ives on the air other than during the holidays? Even more contemporary artists such as Jose Feliciano, the Carpenters and Air Supply have all but vanished from radio except during November and December.
Theories abound about why old music rules at Christmas, and almost all of those theories are connected in some way to childhood memories. You'd think, of course, that those memories would vary by age group, but evidently not. Your grandmother listened to Der Bingle's "White Christmas" and so did your parents. If you're playing Crosby's "Merry Christmas" CD for your kids right now, you get the point.
Almost 200 radio stations across the country flip to all-Christmas-all-the-time formats in November, and almost all of them do music research. And those hundreds of surveys inevitably reap the same results - people only want Christmas classics. The deeper the research, the more ingrained the results. If you're going to play the occasional novelty song, make it "The Chipmunk Song" and "Snoopy's Christmas," not some new-fangled tune. If you're going to play "Holly Jolly Christmas," it better be the Burl Ives version because:
1. It's from the original TV show ("Rudolph") and ...
2. It "sounds" like a Christmas song. And if you simply must play a new version of a holiday tune, it must be one by a music icon - not a newcomer.
That research certainly translates well to national play lists. The few novelty songs on the list are indeed dated: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene Autry (No. 17) or Burl Ives (No. 94), "Frosty the Snowman" by the Ronettes (No. 46), Jimmy Durante (No. 57) or the Beach Boys (No. 87), "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen (No. 80) and "The Chipmunk Song" (No. 105). The release years for those songs are, respectively, 1949, 1950, 1963, 1952, 1964, 1967 and 1958. With last year's hit, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie, "The Chipmunk Song" is expected to bump up several notches this year, no doubt at the expense of some "hipper" '70s or '80s song.
The comment that the older songs "sound like Christmas" is a valid one, too. They're the songs you heard as a child. As the population ages, the traditional Crosby, Cole and Como are slowly - very slowly - being joined by '50s and '60s songs. Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" sold just 5,000 copies its first year out, but eventually became a standard. Likewise, Phil Spector's Christmas album was barely played when released, but several cuts are now entrenched in the holiday top 100.
With all-Christmas formats proliferating, new Christmas albums are being issued at a record pace. But radio stations generally ignore them. Last year's exception was James Taylor. Radio programmers correctly guessed that many people would think Taylor's Christmas album was as old as his pop hits. Thus, Taylor scored last year with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (No. 36) and "Deck the Halls" (No. 99). It remains to be seen how Taylor fares this year. If he's like most newcomers to the Christmas game, he'll lose out to the Crosby clan.
In this decade, there have been just a few new songs that have persevered, most notably Newsong's 2000 hit, "The Christmas Shoes" and Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 2001 song, "Christmas Canon." The latter appears to be a genuine classic-in-the-making, even though it's dangerously close to being labeled a "carol."
And that's one sore point with radio listeners. Though survey after survey indicates radio fans enjoy carols every bit as much as other Christmas songs, radio opts not to play them much until the week before the big day. Last year, Josh Groban's "O Holy Night" (No. 30) and Karla Bonoff's "First Noel" (No. 60) were the only exceptions.
It's unlikely, though, that either artist will live long enough to see their recordings vault into the Top 10. It's tradition.
Source: observer-reporter.com
2. Steer away from novelty ditties
3. Convince a producer to use the song as part of a television or movie soundtrack
Oh, and one more item - don't expect to hear it on the radio in your lifetime.
As always, deceased performers rule Mediabase's annual list of radio's most-played Christmas songs. The late Burl Ives, Bobby Helms, Nat King Cole and John Lennon share the top spots with still-performing Brenda Lee, who we hope is rockin' around the doctor's office on a more regular basis these days.
There are few surprises on this year's survey (based on 2007 airplay), but the list is nonetheless fascinating, if only because it flies in the face of conventional radio programming. The vast majority of artists are radio relics - when was the last time you heard anything by Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Gene Autry or Ives on the air other than during the holidays? Even more contemporary artists such as Jose Feliciano, the Carpenters and Air Supply have all but vanished from radio except during November and December.
Theories abound about why old music rules at Christmas, and almost all of those theories are connected in some way to childhood memories. You'd think, of course, that those memories would vary by age group, but evidently not. Your grandmother listened to Der Bingle's "White Christmas" and so did your parents. If you're playing Crosby's "Merry Christmas" CD for your kids right now, you get the point.
Almost 200 radio stations across the country flip to all-Christmas-all-the-time formats in November, and almost all of them do music research. And those hundreds of surveys inevitably reap the same results - people only want Christmas classics. The deeper the research, the more ingrained the results. If you're going to play the occasional novelty song, make it "The Chipmunk Song" and "Snoopy's Christmas," not some new-fangled tune. If you're going to play "Holly Jolly Christmas," it better be the Burl Ives version because:
1. It's from the original TV show ("Rudolph") and ...
2. It "sounds" like a Christmas song. And if you simply must play a new version of a holiday tune, it must be one by a music icon - not a newcomer.
That research certainly translates well to national play lists. The few novelty songs on the list are indeed dated: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene Autry (No. 17) or Burl Ives (No. 94), "Frosty the Snowman" by the Ronettes (No. 46), Jimmy Durante (No. 57) or the Beach Boys (No. 87), "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen (No. 80) and "The Chipmunk Song" (No. 105). The release years for those songs are, respectively, 1949, 1950, 1963, 1952, 1964, 1967 and 1958. With last year's hit, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie, "The Chipmunk Song" is expected to bump up several notches this year, no doubt at the expense of some "hipper" '70s or '80s song.
The comment that the older songs "sound like Christmas" is a valid one, too. They're the songs you heard as a child. As the population ages, the traditional Crosby, Cole and Como are slowly - very slowly - being joined by '50s and '60s songs. Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" sold just 5,000 copies its first year out, but eventually became a standard. Likewise, Phil Spector's Christmas album was barely played when released, but several cuts are now entrenched in the holiday top 100.
With all-Christmas formats proliferating, new Christmas albums are being issued at a record pace. But radio stations generally ignore them. Last year's exception was James Taylor. Radio programmers correctly guessed that many people would think Taylor's Christmas album was as old as his pop hits. Thus, Taylor scored last year with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (No. 36) and "Deck the Halls" (No. 99). It remains to be seen how Taylor fares this year. If he's like most newcomers to the Christmas game, he'll lose out to the Crosby clan.
In this decade, there have been just a few new songs that have persevered, most notably Newsong's 2000 hit, "The Christmas Shoes" and Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 2001 song, "Christmas Canon." The latter appears to be a genuine classic-in-the-making, even though it's dangerously close to being labeled a "carol."
And that's one sore point with radio listeners. Though survey after survey indicates radio fans enjoy carols every bit as much as other Christmas songs, radio opts not to play them much until the week before the big day. Last year, Josh Groban's "O Holy Night" (No. 30) and Karla Bonoff's "First Noel" (No. 60) were the only exceptions.
It's unlikely, though, that either artist will live long enough to see their recordings vault into the Top 10. It's tradition.
Source: observer-reporter.com
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