State Champ Radio christmas music
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Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Dec. 10): Tis the season for holiday albums to invade the top of the charts, but albums from Taylor Swift, Drake and 21 Savage, and Bad Bunny could push back the tree-lighting for a week.
Michael Bublé, Christmas (143/Reprise): It’s beginning to look a lot like Michael Bublé season on the Billboard 200 once again. The 21st century crooner peaks his head into the chart’s top tier this week with his 2011 Christmas set, which climbs 19-10 on the listing dated Dec. 3, and should continue its ascent in the weeks to come.
Christmas, featuring Bublé’s velvety versions of holiday standards like “Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” and “White Christmas” (the latter a duet with Shania Twain), is no stranger to the top of the Billboard 200: The album spent five weeks at No. 1 across 2011 and 2012, and finished No. 2 on the Year-End Billboard 200 for 2012, behind Adele’s 21. Last holiday season, Adele was once again the Grinch who stole the Christmas No. 1, as Bublé’s album rose to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 dated Jan. 1, 2022, after her 30.
This year Bublé will face a different challenger: Taylor Swift’s Midnights, which has reigned on the Billboard 200 for four of the past five weeks, posting equivalent album units in the six digits each frame. Time will tell if the Christmas spirit is strong enough to prevail. (Last holiday season, Christmas‘ biggest one-week unit sum was 77,000.)
Mariah Carey, Merry Christmas (Columbia): No artist of the last 30 years is as synonymous with the holiday season as Mariah Carey. However, while Carey’s Billboard Hot 100 dominance has become an annual event – her perennial “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has bested the chart each of the last three holiday seasons, ruling for a combined eight weeks – she has yet to top the Billboard 200 with that single’s parent album.
Merry Christmas climbed as high as No. 3 when it came out in 1994 – Kenny G’s less enduring seasonal set Miracles: The Holiday Album ruled the Dec. 17 chart – but has yet to return to a higher perch than No. 4, which it reached on the chart dated Jan. 4, 2020. (The album’s sequel, Merry Christmas II You, also reached No. 4 upon its Nov. 2010 release.) This week, Merry Christmas jumps 40-19 — still behind Bublé, but you can never count out the Queen of Christmas.
Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack (Fantasy): It’s not all seasonal pop standards on the Billboard 200: The sentimental pull of jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi’s 1965 soundtrack to the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas special spans generations, and makes the set an annual chart contender in the streaming era. The album hit the Billboard 200’s top 10 for the first time two holiday seasons ago, on the chart dated Jan. 2, 2021, then reached a new peak of No. 6 on the Jan. 1 chart this year. Now it’s once again on the rise, climbing from No. 43 to No. 17 on this week’s chart.
IN THE MIX
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Live at the Fillmore 1997 (Warner): This new 58-track live set from Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which spans the group’s 20-night residency at the storied San Francisco venue a quarter-century ago and is available in 2-CD and 3-LP regular editions, 4-CD and 6-LP deluxe editions, plus a limited edition 6xLP Uber Deluxe — should also make a sizeable debut.
Quando Rondo and YoungBoy Never Broke Again, 3860 (Quando Rondo, LLC/Never Broke Again/Atlantic): It’s been five whole weeks since we last covered YoungBoy Never Broke Again in The Contenders, but before the holidays get into full swing, he’s got one more set to sneak into his already project-strewn 2022. This time, it’s a collaborative mixtape with fellow southern rapper Quando Rondo, who is signed to YoungBoy’s label (called Never Broke Again), and takes center stage on the release, with solo showcases on five of its 16 tracks.
Brockhampton, TM (Question Everything/RCA): Brockhampton pulled double duty last week with a pair of farewell releases, The Family and TM. The former set debuted at No. 15 on the most recent Billboard 200 (dated Dec. 3), but the latter was nowhere to be found – a state of affairs that should change this week, as sales of signed CDs available on the band’s website will likely boost the set’s totals to charting levels.
Louis Armstrong’s new seasonal compilation album Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule debuts in in the top 10 across multiple Billboard charts (dated Nov. 26), including Top Holiday Albums.
Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule bows at No. 9 on Top Holiday Albums, and launches in the top 10 on Jazz Albums (No. 4), Traditional Jazz Albums (No. 4), Top Album Sales (No. 7), Top Current Album Sales (No. 6) and Vinyl Albums (No. 7). It also starts at No. 122 on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest charting album since Hello Dolly spent six weeks at No. 1 in 1964.
The new 11-track set is promoted as Armstrong’s “first-ever Christmas album,” though the late artist (who died in 1971) has previously released a number of holiday compilations alongside other acts that feature most of the album’s tracks (such as Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella & Louis Christmas). Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule was released through streaming services and digital retailers on Oct. 28, and bowed on CD and vinyl on Nov. 11.
Notably, Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule includes a previously unreleased recording from Armstrong, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (also known as “The Night Before Christmas”), recorded shortly before his death. It is his first newly released track in over 20 years.
Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule earned 9,500 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 17, according to Luminate. Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 7,500 — Armstrong’s largest sales week for any album in over 20 years. He last had a larger sales week in February 2001, when the best-of compilation Ken Burns Jazz – The Definitive Louis Armstrong sold 8,000 copies (No. 142 on the Feb. 17, 2001-dated Top Album Sales chart).
Elsewhere on the Top Holiday Albums chart, Michael Bublé’s Christmas holds atop the list for a 38th nonconsecutive week. Familiar seasonal albums like Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (rising 3-2), Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack (4-3), Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song (5-4) and Pentatonix’s The Best of Pentatonix Christmas (6-5) round out the top five on the list.
The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each units equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. The seasonal Top Holiday Albums returned for another festive season with the Oct. 22-dated list and will continue as part of Billboard’s weekly chart menu until it dashes away in January 2023.
Jazz Albums, Traditional Jazz Albums and the Billboard 200 rank the week’s most popular overall jazz, traditional jazz, and albums across all genres, respectively, by equivalent album units. Top Album Sales, Top Current Album Sales and Vinyl Albums list the week’s top selling overall albums, current albums (not catalog, or older titles) and vinyl albums, respectively.
Alicia Keys’ first seasonal effort, Santa Baby, jingles onto Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart (dated Nov. 19) as the list’s highest debut of the week, arriving at No. 19. The 11-track effort is Keys’ first independently released album after a career in the major-label system, first with J Records and then RCA. The download and streaming editions of the album are exclusive to the iTunes Store and Apple Music, respectively, while the physical album is widely available to all retailers.
The set bows with 3,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate, with traditional album sales powering 74% of that sum.
Meanwhile, Keys’ cover of “Please Come Home for Christmas,” from the Santa Baby project, enters at No. 27 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart – her seventh visit to the list.
A second debut joins Santa Baby on Top Holiday Albums as Switchfoot’s first Christmas release, This Is Our Christmas Album, enters at No. 400 (1,000 units). Coincidentally, both include covers of a pair of classics: “Christmas Time Is Here” and “The Christmas Song.”
Elsewhere on Top Holiday Albums, Michael Bublé’s Christmas crowns the chart for a 37th nonconsecutive week (rising 2-1 with 13,000 units; up 107%), while the various artists compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector jumps 10-2 (a new peak) as holiday streaming programming kicked into gear post-Halloween in the chart’s tracking week of Nov. 4-10.
The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each units equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. The seasonal Top Holiday Albums returned for another festive season with the Oct. 22-dated list and will continue as part of Billboard’s weekly chart menu until it dashes away in January 2023.
