Top 10 Christmas Number Ones   Title Artist Label Year Sales Wks at 1 1 Do They Know It's Christmas? Band Aid Mercury 1984 3.55M 5 2 Bohemian Rhapsody Queen EMI 1975/1991 2.1M 9/5 3 Mull Of Kintyre/Girls' School Wings Parlophone 1977 2.05M 9 4 Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord Boney M Atlantic/Hansa 1978 1.79M 4 5 I Want To Hold Your Hand Beatles Parlophone 1963 1.75M 5 6 Don't You Want Me Human League Virgin 1981 1.43M 5 7 I Feel Fine Beatles Parlophone 1964 1.41M 5 8 We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper Beatles Parlophone 1965 1.39M 5 9 I Will Always Love You Whitney Houston Arista 1992 1.36M 10 10 Green Green Grass of Home Tom Jones Decca 1966 1.2M 7	THE LOWDOWN'S GUIDE ON HOW TO HAVE A CHRISTMAS NO.1 The Official UK Charts Company can exclusively reveal who will be Christmas No 1 this year. For those in the race for the festive Holy Grail, we've also got some invaluable tips on how to get there. In this the 50th anniversary of the singles chart we commissioned someone who likes the Cheeky Girls to investigate the origins of the first 49 yuletide No 1's to enable us to accurately predict who will bag this year's top slot. Looking at the list of the 49 Xmas No1's so far, featuring the likes of Mr Blobby, St Winifred's School Choir, Scaffold and Bob the Builder, it seems it stands a cracking chance that this year's seasonal chart topper will be 'Somethin' Stupid' like last year. Bum Touchers, Pop Rivals and students of the 'Slade in Flame' Academy should bear in mind that the sales for the December 25th No 1 single for the last 5 years have averaged a bumper 263,000 copies over the festive week. DJ Otzi and Hermes House Band will no doubt be distressed to discover that it's a fact of 'Live is Life' that it helps to have UK roots. Over 70% of the Xmas No 1 artists were born or based in the UK. Alpenpoppers -Please don't move here. Who'd have thought that the perennial Wizzard classic ' I Wish It Could be Christmas Every Day' would only peak at number 4? Mentioning Christmas in the title isn't a guarantee of success. Only 6 out of 49 yuletide chart leaders had joy with this angle - the last being Band Aid 2 back in 1989. However, a Christmas title does help with inclusion on any 'Pure Gold New Annual Very Best (Chilled/Relaxing/Classical/Euphoric) *(delete as applicable) Winter Term Xmas Hits In The World Ever 50 - 2003' type compilation-particularly towards the end of CD 2 when licensing tracks to differentiate your record from other seasonal releases can get tricky. In terms of longevity, the target to beat is Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which amassed a total of 14 weeks at No 1 (against an average of 5 weeks) in its two reigns as Christmas no 1 in 1975 and 1991, but is only the second best seller with 2,130,000 copies. Anorak wearers might argue that Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' wins this title with 10 straight weeks at the top instead of a split score but we don't want to listen to that record. The honour of best ever Xmas sales is undisputed and goes to Band Aid's, 'Do They Know It's Christmas' - well ahead with 3,550,000 sales in a good cause. Maybe there's something in a festive title after all.
But how will the race for the top of the Christmas chart tree be decided this year? We decided to see how history could help us predict the winner. We first tried the method employed by Percy Dickens back in November 1952. He called 53 stores to compile the first singles chart, which featured Al Martino's 'Here In My Heart' at No 1. The former bricklayer held on to the pole position for 9 weeks to also become the first UK Xmas Number One. The same phone poll research carried out in 2002 gave the unsurprising result of a Christmas Number One entitled 'P*ss Off. We're too busy selling records to talk now' by 'The Christmas Temp'. Things have clearly moved on for 2002-so we followed the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) process of sending out diaries to 250 stores to record their sales and return to us. This was the chart compilation method between February 1969 and January 1983. What with the Christmas post though, we're not expecting all the diaries back until mid-January so the Christmas No 1 should be ready to announce by early February. The Kids can't wait that long these days.
	The last BMRB compiled chart topper was also the 31st Xmas No 1 and the first No 1 compiled by Gallup when they were given the job in January 1983. Gallup polled a minimum of 500 outlets to award 'Renee & Renato' their 4th and final week at No 1 with 'Save Your Love'. There must have been something positive in this extension of the sample as 'Renee & Renato' never again made the top 40. We intended to investigate this methodology, but got distracted by the fascinating fact that Renee and Renato owned La Gondola restaurant in Birmingham at which Friends star Helen Baxendale was a waitress. They'd sing their hit every Friday and amazingly the place was always busy. The Midlands link continues. In 1994, Warwick based Millward Brown took over chart compilation and extended the sample still further, so that now over 5,000 retailers contribute sales data to the chart. Covering an estimated 99% of singles sales in the UK this effectively makes the singles' chart the first weekly reality radio show. Alan 'Fluff' Freeman began counting down the top 10 on BBC Radio's Pick of The Pops in 1964! Take that Davina! Who will be Xmas number one pop pickers? You decide. Walk into virtually any UK record store or buy singles from leading internet retailers and your 'vote' in the form of a sale will be registered and count towards deciding this year's Seasonal success right up until midnight on the Saturday prior to the Christmas Chart on Sunday 22nd of December. We can therefore exclusively reveal that this year's Xmas No 1 will probably be,.. 70% British, sell 263,000 copies, top the chart for 5 weeks and not have the word 'Christmas' in the title. Can we fix it? No we can't!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All information contained in this newsletter is © The Official UK Charts Company 2002. It is compiled by Paul Clifford and James Gillespie using data obtained from the UK Charts Online system. This is a business to business internet site which contains a wealth of information regarding the status of the Audio and Video market as well as sales figures on thousands of products available in the UK Any subscription enquiries should be directed to paul@theofficialcharts.comor tel 0207 436 3000 We would like to thank Mirrorpix, Multiply, Jive and Polydor for the images used in this newsletter.