Song of the day for December 1 2023
2 min read
Todays song is Last Christmas by Wham!
Wham’s Last Christmas was the most played festive track of the last five years as of this date in 2008. The Performing Right Society put the 1984 hit at the top of their chart of seasonal songs, just ahead of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? The Pogues came third with Fairytale of New York, recorded with the late Kirsty MacColl and first released in 1987. Other featured artists include Slade, Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen.
Upon its initial release in 1984, “Last Christmas” spent five consecutive weeks at number two in the UK Singles Chart—it was held off the top spot at Christmas by Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (on which Michael also performed). After many chart runs in subsequent years, which included three more weeks at number two, and which saw the recording become part of RCA Records’ catalogue, the song finally reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on New Year’s Day 2021 (chart week ending date 7 January 2021), more than 36 years after its initial release. In doing so, it became the fifth UK number one single for the duo. Prior to it reaching number one, “Last Christmas” had for many years held the record as the highest-selling single never to top the charts by the Official Charts Company (OCC) with 1.9 million copies sold (not including streams). This record is now held by “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera. The song reached number one in the UK after it was streamed 9.2 million times in the last week of 2020 and sold 1,555 downloads, resulting in a total of 40,149 combined sales.
Outside the United Kingdom, the song topped the charts in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, and Sweden and peaked within the top ten of the charts in several countries including Australia, Canada, and the United States. Wham! donated all their royalties to relief efforts for the Ethiopian famine. In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted eighth on the ITV television special The Nation’s Favourite Christmas Song and was voted most popular song of the 1980s in Channel 5’s Christmas 2020 countdown Britain’s Favourite 80’s Songs. It was the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK until it was overtaken by “Fairy-tale of New York” in 2011.
