The Christmas song charts
1 – Silent night, holy night
This song is 205 years old. It was sung for the first time in 1818 in the St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. The text in German, “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” was written by the priest Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) and the melodic line by the organist Franz Xaver Gruber. Since March 2011, this song belongs to the recognized cultural and intangible heritage by Unesco.
2- The divine child was born
It was also in 1818 that this traditional and popular nursery rhyme appeared in collections of Catholic hymns. It would probably be taken from an old hunting tune of Lorraine origin adapted for Christmas. The first organ arrangement of this tune, which chants a promise more than 4,000 years old, dates back to 1865.
3 – Angels in our countryside
He came out of anonymity in 1842 in the collection Choix de cantiques sur des airs nouvelles pour tous les festivals de l’année published in Paris. Its text would have been developed by an unknown Languedoc author and its music by a composer who manifested himself through the mysterious initials “WM” never deciphered. This did not prevent this song from becoming a worldwide hit.
And also…
We have added to this selection the two essential titles of world showbiz…
Rockin’ Around the Christmas
With more than 35 million streams on the web in 2023, this hit whose title in French means “Dancing around the Christmas tree” is the Nativity song, the most popular on the Internet this year. It was composed 65 years ago by a teenager (she was 13 at the time) called Brenda Lee.
All I Want for Christmas is You
(translation: all I want for Christmas is you)
It’s the greatest Christmas hit of all time. Released in 1994, it tops the December charts every year in many countries. In 2021, it had already brought in $6.16 million to Mariah Carey, its co-author, in 2021, according to estimates from Billboard magazine. And the harvest continues. This year, on November 26 alone, it was downloaded 5.371 million times on Spotify. A new record!
