Background
Although the Christmas number one is a highly coveted prize in the United Kingdom, the second-place finisher on the Christmas singles chart has also earned a certain degree of popularity, especially since the 1980s. In fact, on PRS for Music's 2010 list of the most popular Christmas songs of the year, all three of the top three songs on the list were songs that had finished second on the chart: 1987's "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues (beaten by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind"), 1984's "Last Christmas" by Wham! (second to Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?"), and 1994's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", now considered a Christmas standard both in the UK and in performer Mariah Carey's native United States but one that lost the Christmas number-one to East 17's "Stay Another Day". ("Do They Know It's Christmas?" also appeared elsewhere on the PRS chart, as do several other Christmas number-ones; the order of the songs varies from year to year.) In some cases, the Christmas number-one is often a quirky novelty song that has little shelf life after the Christmas season, whereas the number-two can have a broader appeal that earns greater life in recurrent rotation (provided that the runner-up is also not a novelty song that was beat to the number one by a more popular tune). An example of this was 1980's "There's No One Quite Like Grandma", a song from the St Winifred's School Choir, a song that forced then-current number-one "(Just Like) Starting Over" by the recently deceased John Lennon out of the number-one spot (Lennon would return to number-one the week after Christmas).
The only group to have both Christmas numbers 1 and 2 in the same year is The Beatles, a feat they achieved twice, in 1963 and 1967. George Michael is the only artist to have been a Christmas number one and number two the same year in different groups (Band Aid at number 1 and Wham! at number 2 in 1984). Cliff Richard has finished second on the Christmas charts four times, the most of any act.
Another factor in the greater interest in the Christmas number two is the growing influence of reality television programmes on the chart. Popstars: The Rivals (2002) produced all of the top three singles on the Christmas UK Singles Chart. The Choir produced the number-one single in 2011. The most sustained reality-oriented run at the top of the Christmas charts has been The X Factor, whose winner has charted number-one or number-two on the chart every year since the second series in 2005. Bookmakers began to notice the X Factor trends in 2007, when, assuming the X Factor single would be a lock for the number-one (as it was), they started taking bets on who Christmas number two would be instead. The X Factor's dominance has also led to numerous novelty campaigns to attempt to prevent the show's winner from reaching the top of the chart; so far, only one (2009) has been successful, with the X Factor winner finishing in the Christmas number two. (The X Factor winner also finished second in 2011, but not at the hands of a novelty campaign; the winner's song was released one week earlier than usual, and the song also faced much stronger competition for the honour from the aforementioned The Choir).
Read more about this topic: List Of UK Singles Chart Christmas Number Twos
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