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It's that time when yesterday's Christmas classics finally reach the top spot in the charts, as “Last Christmas” by Wham! was awarded the UK Christmas Number One award this week, 39 years after the song's release.
Each year, the hotly contested Christmas Number One measures the popularity of a single in the UK in the week before Christmas, featuring classic rock singers, pop singers and festive tracks such as Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' Victories in the past decades. In recent years, the number one Christmas single has been dominated by reality competition singers, YouTubers, charity singles and Ed Sheeran (although Rage Against the Machine's “Killing in the Name” won the race in 2009).
But just as Brenda Lee was at the top of the Hot 100 with “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” 65 years after that single's release, Wham!'s “Last Christmas” finally reached the top spot, nearly 40 years after “Do They Know.” “. It's Christmas?” (which also starred George Michael) failed to stay at number one at Christmas 1984. “Last Christmas” also fought for the top spot in 2022, but again ended up at number two for the Christmas season.
Michael's Wham! Bandmate Andrew Ridgeley said in a statement after the feat (via The Guardian): “George would be beside himself [that] after all this years, [we’ve] finally received Christmas #1. Yoga [George] said that he wrote “Last Christmas” with the intention of writing a No. 1 Christmas song. His mission is accomplished!”
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Ridgeley continued: “It was a huge disappointment for both of us when it didn’t reach number one [in 1984] for in our opinion it was nailed down… For many years afterwards it was thwarted – the perpetual bridesmaid – in recent years it seems to have become an integral part of Christmas for many people.”
The '80s duo beat out Sam Ryder's “You're Christmas To Me” (the Christmas number two), Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Noah Kahan's “Stick Season.” Although much effort was made to get the Pogues' “Fairytale in New York” to the top of the charts following the death of singer Shane MacGowan, that single – the number two Christmas single of 1987 – only reached number six this week.