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It's high time to get into the Christmas spirit.
This works best with the right soundtrack - and we need it more urgently than ever in the 2020 corona year.
At least that's what the current Spotify streaming trends suggest.
Instead of the Christmas market, there is mulled wine on the couch with the appropriate soundtrack in the background.
On the first weekend in Advent, the top 18 most played songs in Germany consisted of only Christmas hits: “Last Christmas” by Wham !, followed by “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, each with around 770,000 streams.
A year ago it looked completely different: At that time, the rapper Capital Bra was in first place with “The Bratan stays the same”.
You have to admit: Christmas carols simply put you in a good mood and get us in the right Advent mood.
For artists like Mariah Carey they were even the climax of a world career.
We all know the lyrics of the Christmas classics inside out, but haven't you ever wondered how these pieces of pop history came about?
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey
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It is Mariah Carey's most successful song: To date, the single from 1994 has sold around 16 million times, making it one of the most successful songs worldwide.
In the beginning Mariah was not at all taken with the idea of a Christmas album.
Usually artists release such an album towards the end of their careers rather than at their peak.
Accordingly, the singer went into the studio in the summer of 1994 without high expectations.
To get at least a little in the mood, Carey decorated the studio for Christmas.
Like most really good pop songs, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was more of a coincidence.
It supposedly came about in just 15 minutes because Mariah tried out a few melodies and lines of text with her then songwriter Walter Afanasieff, who incidentally also wrote Celine Dion's megahit "My Heart Will Go On".
Et voilà, one of the greatest Christmas hits of all time, was born in New York's midsummer.
"Last Christmas" by Wham!
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You hate or you love him.
Ten years before Mariah's hit, singers George Michael and Andre Ridgeley recorded the song that divides music lovers.
When “Last Christmas” is on the radio for the first time, everyone knows: Christmas is coming soon.
The story behind the iconic song is, however, quite unspectacular: The then record company of the band MCA Records decided spontaneously to release a Christmas single.
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George Michael made use of a piece that had already been composed.
Its title: "Last Easter", so "
past Easter
".
He adapted the text to the cold season and the hit was ready.
That's what I call the irony of pop fate.
However, neither the band nor the record company have ever confirmed this version of the story.
The official version goes like this: Michael and Andrew spent the Christmas days with Michael's parents in London.
In Michael's nursery, both would have had the idea for a chorus.
I still believe in the "Last Easter" version, if I'm honest.
"Driving Home for Christmas" by Chris Rea
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This Christmas hit is a pretty German phenomenon.
Not that it wasn't quite successful internationally, but in no other country is Chris Rea's song from 1988 streamed and played on the radio as often as in this country.
We just love “Driving Home For Christmas”.
Probably because almost all of us know this situation.
However, Rea kept the idea for this song to himself for a proud ten years.
He had already written it in the Advent season of 1978 when he just came out of the studio and was out with his wife:
There was terrible traffic in the city.
We got into a traffic jam.
All around me I saw all these bad-tempered guys in their cars.
And that's when I just started singing.
Chris Rea, interviewed by BBC Radio 4, 2009
It was only when the Irish singer Van Morrison asked him if he could record the song that Rea decided to sing it himself.
Fun fact: until 2014 he had never performed it live.
"Santa Tell Me" by Ariana Grande
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Although singer Ariana Grande only released this Christmas song in 2014, it has become a real hit for the Advent season in recent years, especially on the streaming services.
Similar to Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande did not find the idea of singing a Christmas song quite as sparkling.
Nevertheless, she released the EP "Christmas Kisses" in 2013, which contains two covers and two songs of her own.
She - or her record company - did not completely let go of the Christmas theme.
A year later, she announced on Twitter that she had changed her mind about Christmas carols and had now really enjoyed them.
This is how “Santa Tell Me” is said to have come about, her favorite Christmas song to this day.
Whether this was just a promo or the truth, I'll leave it to your judgment.
"Merry Christmas Everyone" by Shakin 'Stevens
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Actually, this song was supposed to be just like “Last Christmas” by Wham!
appearing in 1984.
And would have shared the same fate: It would not have become number one in the British charts.
Because the Band Aid charity single "Do They Know it's Christmas Time?" Was released at the same time.
So it was decided to postpone the song for a year.
With success.
As wintery as the video with the Welsh singer appears, the track was created in the middle of a heat wave.
Songwriter Bob Heatlie had such a strong desire to write a Christmas hit that he wanted to capture the exact opposite of hot summer in a song.
"Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)" by Melanie Thornton
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A Christmas song with a tragic story: Originally the song was only part of the annual Coca-Cola advertising campaign for Christmas.
Since 1996 the jingle "Holidays are Coming" has been used for this, the hook of which also uses Thornton's song.
When the singer had a fatal accident in a plane crash on November 24, 2001, it was released as a single and climbed to number three in the German charts.
Until 2005 and between 2007 and 2010, the hit was used in advertising for the soft drink.
"Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney
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A Beatles member's first Christmas solo number in this listicle.
McCartney wrote it spontaneously during a studio session for his third solo album in the summer of 1979. Once again the proof that the best Christmas songs are made in the warm months.
The Beatles frontman not only sang the song, he also played the percussion, bass, guitar and keyboard.
The iconic choir in the background is also exclusively the work of the singer.
He'd just tried different voices to make it sound kind of funny.
And all of this should have happened in just ten minutes.
"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
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And here comes number two, this time by John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono from 1971. It was created as a protest song under the impressions of the Vietnam War.
The choir text is based on the slogan of an anti-war campaign by Lennon and Ono.
In December 1969, they rented advertising space in several large cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo, Rome and Berlin.
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The inscription read: “
WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT.
Happy Christmas from John & Yoko
”(in German:“ The war is over! If you want it. Merry Christmas from John and Yoko ”).
In an interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine in 1980, John Lennon said he co-wrote the play with Yoko.
That was still the same message - the thought that we are as responsible as the man who pushes the buttons.
John Lennon, singer
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas" by Michael Bublé
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Many only know the song in the version by Canadian Michael Bublé.
However, it's a 1951 cover by musician Meredith Willson that was recorded by singer Bing Crosby.
In the Canadian city of Yarmouth in Nova Scotia, it is believed that Willson describes the local Grand Hotel in the lyrics.
A good 60 years later, the singer Bublé put the song on his Christmas album and achieved a great chart success.
"Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber
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Believe it or not, Justin Bieber's contribution is one of the most streamed Christmas songs in Germany with 333.7 million views on Spotify.
The pop star released the number in 2011 when he was just 17 years old.
The hit gave its name to his second studio album "Under the Mistletoe", which - you guessed it - was a Christmas album.
It couldn't have been that bad: Mariah Carey, Queen of Christmas Songs, recorded a duet version of her hit with Bieber.
Which closes the circle.
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