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What’s the most popular Christmas song of the modern era? You’re not going to like this.

According to research by Viberate, there are more than one million Christmas songs in the wild. I believe it, too, given (a) the proliferation of radios stations that flip to an all-Christmas format starting in November (and earlier, in some cases), and (b) the rise in the adoption of streaming music services.

And that number is getting bigger every day. I started receiving pitches for brand new holiday-theme recordings around Halloween. Just today, in fact, I got emails about 14 brand new songs from across the genres.

With so much to choose from now, which song do you think dominates this season?

Yes, it’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey. What else could it be?

The only real competition is George Michael’s “Last Christmas.” Check out this graph comparing popularity fo the two songs over the years.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39156 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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