It’s that time of year again when you can’t walk into your local corner shop without hearing ‘All I Want For Christmas’ for the fifth time that day.
It’s no mystery that Christmas songs make a hell of a lot of money. Remember Hugh Grant’s turn in About A Boy? The movie was based on a rich man who lived off the royalties of his fathers Christmas song.
If you’ve ever been in doubt about how much your favourite artist is making for writing their Christmas cracker, here’s the full list of UK royalties for each December (yes, just one month of the year):
1. ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ – Slade
Royalties: £500,000
2. ‘Fairytale of New York’ – The Pogues
Royalties – £400,000
3. ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ – Mariah Carey
Royalties – £376,000
4. ‘White Christmas’ – Bing Crosby
Royalties – £328,000
5. ‘Last Christmas’ – Wham
Royalties – £300,000
6. ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ – Paul McCartney
Royalties – £260,000
7. ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ – Cliff Richard
Royalties – £100,000
8. ‘Stop The Cavalry’ – Jona Lewie
Royalties – £120,000
9. ‘2000 Miles’ – The Pretenders
Royalties – £102,000
10. ‘Stay Another Day’ – East 17
Royalties – £97,000
Both ‘Fairytale Of New York’ and ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ have both come under scrutiny in recent weeks for their suggestive lyrics. Christmas FM will no longer play ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ and ‘Fairytale of New York’ looks set to be censored in the future.
Now, imagine if the list calculated their global takings? It would almost make you want to write a Christmas song yourself!
