20 Best Christmas Songs Of All Time
Download Top 20 Best Christmas Songs Of All Time 2020.
Merry Christmas From Soloplay.
Having difficulty selecting the right songs for this festive period? Hop in here as we highlight the best Christmas song of all time from all around the globe. The songs below is a combination of old and fresh tracks vying for a spot in the top Christmas song canon this festive season.
From “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” by Bruce Springsteen to “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries” by Carly Rae Jepsen.
Will they succeed? Well, we can’t predict the future, but in the meantime we’re pretty sure they’ll give you a hit of much-needed festive cheer after one hell of a year.
We’re going to brush aside the festive mistrust for 2020, however, because after the year we’ve had who are we to turn our noses up at some extra festive cheer?
There are some genuinely strong contenders for future classics entering the charts this year and below are some questions you should answer before reading this article.
Will Carly Rae Jepsen’s “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries” hit close enough to home to be replayed in 2021?
Will “Oh Santa!’ by Mariah Carey ft. Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson” make it to the top despite being in a list of record breaking songs.
And will Lil Nas X’s “Holiday” reinvent Christmas music in the same way that “Old Town Road” basically invented cowboy rap.
Only time will tell. In the meantime, here are the 2020 top 20 Christmas songs that are actually worth adding to your festive playlist.
1. “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” by Bruce Springsteen.
“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town is a Christmas song, written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934.
It was then sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in November 1934. This version became an instant hit with orders for 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records sold within 24 hours.
The version for Bluebird Records by George Hall and His Orchestra (vocal by Sonny Schuyler) was very popular in 1934 and reached the various charts of the day.
The song has been recorded by over 200 artists, including Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters.
This is is the first song on our top 20 best Christmas songs of all time.
2. “Oh Santa!” by Mariah Carey ft. Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson.
“Oh Santa!” is a song by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey from her second Christmas album/thirteenth studio album, Merry Christmas II You (2010).
Carey wrote and produced the song in collaboration with Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox. It was released as the lead single from the album.
It is an up-tempo R&B song about Carey making a plea for Santa Claus to bring back her partner in time for the Christmas holidays. It received a positive response from music critics, with many praising its composition and style.
You can listen to the the song, watch the video and read the lyrics here.
3. “Step Into Christmas” by Elton John
“Step into Christmas” is a Christmas song written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and performed by Elton John.
It was released as a stand-alone single in November 1973 with the song “Ho, Ho, Ho (Who’d Be a Turkey at Christmas)” as the B-side.
Upon its original 1973 release, the song peaked at No. 24 on the UK Singles Chart, and it reached a new peak of No. 8 on the same chart in 2019.
In the United States, the single reached No. 56 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Christmas Singles chart.
4. “What Christmas Means to Me” by Stevie Wonder
“What Christmas Means to Me” is the name of several different Christmas songs. The most-covered version was written by Allen Story, Anna Gordy Gaye, and George Gordy. It has been recorded by many artists.
The 1967 version of the song by Stevie Wonder (1967) is the most noticeable and the one we are recommending.
5. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958.
It has since been recorded by numerous other music artists. By the song’s 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee’s original version had sold over 25 million copies with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single.
6. “(There’s No Place Like) Home For the Holidays” by The Carpenters
“(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays” is a popular song, commonly associated with the Christmas and holiday season.
The music was composed by Robert Allen, while the lyrics were written by Al Stillman. The song was published during 1954.
7. “Christmas Without You” by Ava Max
“Christmas Without You” is a song by American singer Ava Max, released through Atlantic Records on October 15, 2020. It was written by Max, Jesse Aicher, Sam Martin, and producers Gian Stone and Cirkut.
8. “Happy Holiday” by Peggy Lee
“Happy Holiday” (sometimes performed as “Happy Holidays“) is a popular song composed by Irving Berlin during 1942 and published the following year.
9. “We Need a Little Christmas” by Angela Lansbury
“We Need a Little Christmas” is a popular Christmas song originating from Jerry Herman’s Broadway musical Mame, and first performed by Angela Lansbury in that 1966 production.
In the musical, the song is performed after Mame has lost her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and decides she, her young nephew Patrick, and her two household servants “need a little Christmas now” to cheer them up.
The original lyrics include the line, “But, Auntie Mame, it’s one week past Thanksgiving Day now!”.
Since the time the song was written the phenomenon of Christmas creep has resulted in the normal holiday season beginning much earlier than it once did.
10. “Carol of the Bells” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
“Carol of the Bells” is a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky.
The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant “Shchedryk”. Wilhousky’s lyrics are under copyright protection (owned by Carl Fischer Music); the music is in the public domain.
This is the tenth song in our top 20 best Christmas songs of all time.
11. “The Christmas Song” by Robert Wells
“The Christmas Song” (commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” or, as it was originally subtitled, “Merry Christmas to You“) is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé.
12. “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard
“I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” is a Christmas song recorded by British glam rock band Wizzard.
It was first released in December 1973 and, as with most Wizzard songs, was written and produced by the band’s frontman Roy Wood—formerly of The Move and a founding member of ELO.
Despite the song’s strong, long-lasting popularity, it has reached no higher than number four on the UK Singles Chart, a position it occupied for four consecutive weeks from December 1973 to January 1974.
The song was beaten to the 1973 Christmas Number 1 spot by Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody”, which remained at the top of the charts for five weeks, from December 1973 to January 1974.
13. “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” by The Ramones
Merry Christmas by The Ramones is a song taken off Brain Drain Album.
Brain Drain is the eleventh studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, released on March 23, 1989.
It is the last Ramones release to feature bassist/lyricist/vocalist Dee Dee Ramone, the first to feature Marky Ramone since his initial firing from the band after 1983’s Subterranean Jungle and the band’s last studio album on Sire Records.
14. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid
“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in reaction to television reports of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia.
It was first recorded in a single day on 25 November 1984 by Band Aid, a supergroup put together by Geldof and Ure and consisting mainly of the biggest British and Irish musical acts at the time.
The single was released in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1984 and aided by considerable publicity it entered the UK Singles Chart at number one and stayed there for five weeks, becoming the Christmas number one of 1984.
The record became the fastest selling single in UK chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone and passing three million sales on the last day of 1984, on the way to displacing Wings’s “Mull of Kintyre” as the biggest-selling single of all time in the UK.
It held this title until 1997 when it was overtaken by Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997”, released in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales following her death.
The original version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” has sold 3.8 million copies in the UK to date.
In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted sixth on the ITV television special The Nation’s Favourite Christmas Song.
15. “Christmas Blues” by Sabrina Claudio ft. The Weeknd
The song Christmas Blues by Sabrina Claudio and The Weeknd was taken off the studio album collection titled Christmas Blues.
Christmas Blues is the third studio album and first Christmas-themed album by American singer Sabrina Claudio.
It was released on November 27, 2020, through SC Entertainment and Atlantic and includes various original songs, as well as three cover songs.
The album features guest appearances by The Weeknd and Alicia Keys.
16. “Holiday” by Lil Nas X
“Holiday” (stylized in all caps) is a song by American rapper and singer Lil Nas X. It was released on November 13, 2020 through Columbia Records.
Apreview of the song, titled “The Origins of Holiday”, was released on November 8.
Listen to the lyrics of Lil Nas X’s “Holiday” and you’ll find that it isn’t that Christmassy at all.
In fact, this track could have been released in summer and it would still make the same amount of sense. So, how has he made our top 20 best Christmas songs of all time?
By releasing what is probably the best Christmas music video of all time, that’s how.
You can listen to the the song, watch the video and read the lyrics here.
17. “The Most Wonderful Day of the Year” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Most Wonderful Day of the Year” is a song written for the Rankin/Bass Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
It is sung by the Misfit Toys as they welcome Rudolph, Hermie, and Yukon Cornelius to their island of unwanted toys.
18. “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms
“Jingle Bell Rock” is an American popular Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957.
It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas season since then. “Jingle Bell Rock” was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal (1900–1967) and James Ross Boothe (1917–1976), although both Helms and session guitarist on the song Hank Garland disputed this.
Beal was a Massachusetts-born public relations professional and longtime resident of South Ocean Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Boothe was an American writer in the advertising business.
19. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by Michael Bublé
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent.
The song was recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song.
Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.
20. “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries” by Carly Rae Jepsen
This song is the last on our 20 best Christmas songs of all time but not the least.
“It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries” is a Christmas song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, released on October 30, 2020.
The song is about “expectation versus reality” when it comes to holiday celebrations and “the antics of a dyfunctional family holiday gathering”.
There’s a classic Christmas song to suit everyone’s tastes and above is the 20 best Christmas songs of all time. And when all else fails, you can always rely on Mariah Carey and Wham! to bring some festive cheer.
If you miss the good old days when Christmas songs actually mentioned God, his glory and all that jazz, then look no further than the godmother-goddaughter link-up of the season, “Christmas Is”, by Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus.
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