Hi guys, welcome back to The Social Tune! My name is Fionn, and welcome back to a brand new edition of Musical McCool!
So remember last week when I said that I was worried that no new songs would actually drop at this time of the year? Well, this week, that came true... Exactly 0 new songs, at all, neither on the top 50 nor the homegrown charts, there was absolutely nothing new to talk about. Which is honestly kind of a relief because I already had to deal with making sure my Almost Hit Songs of 2020 was out on time, and I've already got more than enough to do for the year-end lists.
Now, if you thought that meant that this week was completely uneventful, I wouldn't say that either. Because we are in the penultimate week of the charting year, which means that by next week, we will have our official 100 songs for 2021 locked and loaded! It's an exciting time and it's a race to see who can actually nab a spot before it's too late.
The Top 10
And funnily enough, this actually does impact the top 10 too.
Sure the very top is still dominated by Easy On Me by Adele, still holding on to number 1, but I could see Mariah Carey unseating it next week, and it's on its 9th week, ACR could kick in regardless!
Then at number 2, abcdefu by GAYLE s still holding strong. And if it does so for a third week, it might actually have a chance of making the year-end 100. Yeah, no joke, this song hasn't been around long, but it's risen so quickly that it might just barely rack up enough points!
What's more surprising to me is that number 3 is still held by Merry Christmas by Ed Sheeran & Elton John. Look, it's a seasonal song so we're safe from this making any sort of year-end list - this WILL get caught between years - but I'm just surprised that it held on for more than a week considering... it sucks.
What I expect will surpass all three of them next week is All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey at number 4 which, if she's lucky, will actually reach its peak on Christmas Eve!
Then Last Christmas by Wham! rose up to number 5, another song that I expect to get a bit more of a boost before the end of the year.
Next, surprisingly, it's All Too Well (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift still holding on number 6! I mean the fact that it's a 10-minute song on its fifth week in the top 10 is impressive enough, but the fact that it's competing with the Christmas music around it? That's even more impressive!
This meant that Fairytale of New York by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl actually stayed put at number 7, although this may change next week.
Then crashing back into the top 10, it's Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender. I know I said before that I kind of hoped this song wouldn't become a hit in 2021 so I could save it for 2022, but you know what, I'm not about to complain when the song is this excellent. I'm just happy that he's getting the recognition he deserves.
Then holding strong at number 9, you have Where Are You Now by Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott, still holding its spot at number 9 to the surprise of nobody.
And finally, our new top 10 arrival: Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee. Yeah, this and a couple of other Christmas songs are probably going to make a quick rush for the top 10 next week.
Top 50: The Punished and the New
Now in terms of our losers this week, it's - again - obviously a little hard to quantify. This week was mostly the top 50's chance to recover after the onslaught of Christmas music and big hits from the past year crashing back all at once last week. And so we've somewhat returned to the status quo because of it. No mover to ACR, but still definitely a lot of droppers.
So let's start with Olivia Rodrigo, as good 4 u dropped out at the top 10 to 11, and drivers license fell down to 23. Then we also have the looooonnnng overdue dropout of Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) by Elton John & Dua Lipa from the top 10 to number 14, thank God for that! Speaking of Him, Oh My God by Adele went down to 21 and I Drink Wine to 28. Again, apart from Easy On Me, 30 really isn't holding on as well as previous Adele albums. Though in fairness, that's to be expected at this time of year.
The rest are all less momentous: Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran went down to 26, Stay by The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber dropped to 41, I Hate U by SZA fell hard off its debut last week to 42, Flowers (Say My Name) by ArrDee continued to stumble at 43, Coming For You by SwitchOTR featuring A1 & J1 fell back to number 44, Little Bit Of Love by Tom Grennan plunged off of its return to 48, and Heat Waves by Glass Animals continued is natural exit to number 49. I mean come on, a song with that title was not gonna last considering how cold it's been in this country recently!
Of course, there were some gains this week, but shockingly, not all of them were Christmas songs! Sure, Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid went up to number 16, Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Holmes reached 17, and It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year by Andy Williams got to 18, but traitor by Olivia Rodrigo actually gained ground back up to 20! Then we dip back to Christmas for a sec - Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande rose to 22, and Underneath The Tree by Kelly Clarkson rose to number 25, both great - bu then we get another weird twist as Enemy by Imagine Dragons & JID shot up to 27, Jesus Christ!
From there, it's most;y boring: Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney going up to 30, Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes is at 31, Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano went up to 33, Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon & Yoko Ono rose to 34, who cares about 3 out of 4 of those?! Now, Step Into Christmas by Elton John rising to 37, that's more my speed, and I'm not even mad that Better Days by Dermot Kennedy rose to 38 or that Mistletoe by Justin Bieber rose to 40, I'll take those over the 3 mentioned before! Or, for that matter, over Holly Jolly Christmas by Michael Bublé rising to 46 *hisssssssssss*!!!
And much like in previous weeks, we also got a handful of returning Christmas entries, but only the ones we consistently forget about at this point: Snowman by Sia at 35, Let It Snow x3 by Dean Martin at 45, One More Sleep by Leona Lewis at 47, basically the afterthoughts of Christmas music. However, we also got some OTHER returning entries... like Outnumbered by Dermot Kennedy returning to 39- Jesus Christ, this song will never ever die!!! Oh, and Tell It To My Heart by MEDUZA & Hozier came back at number 50... kind of too little too late for that one now.
And that's it for our top 50.
National Treasures
So let's take a quick peek at the Homegrown charts, where we also have no new songs! Hell, our top 6 didn't budge at all, from Starlight by Westlife at number 1 to Lose My Mind by LYRA and number 6.
The only big drop of the week was Close To You by Chasing Abbey to number 15, which I'm not about to lose sleep over. And the only big gains were Tonight Belongs To You by Bissett back up to number 10 - the song may be mediocre but he's still a big name - and Chain Reaction by Mick Flannery & Susan O'Neill rose to number 11. Actually, good, it deserves it! And our one returning entry was Noel's Creamy Pints by The 2 Johnnies at number 20. Drink responsibly this season, everyone.
And that's it, hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you for joining me on this extremely short week of Musical McCool, and since there was so little to talk about, please check out my Top 10 Almost Hit Songs of 2020, it's the best list I've ever written, definitely, trust me. Also, year-end lists are coming SOON, so please make sure you and your friends subscribe to the blog and follow me on Twitter to keep up with these releases. Take care everyone, and until the next time, I'm Fionn and this is The Social Tune signing off!
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