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The Christmas songs that get stuck in your head

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Deutsche Welle

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Singer Mariah Carey performs at Times Square during New Year" s="" Eve="" celebrations="" in="" New="" Dec.="" Alba="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/12/24/20231224-mariah.jpg"/><figcaption>Singer Mariah Carey performs at Times Square during New Year&#x27;s Eve celebrations in New York, USA, Dec. 31, 2017. <em>Alba Vigaray, EPA-EFE </em></figcaption></figure></div><p>All I want for Christmas is the secret alchemy for composing a Yuletide earworm and live off its royalties for life.</p><p>You know, like Will Freeman in Nick Hornby&#x27;s 1998 novel &quot;About a Boy&quot; that was adapted for the big screen in 2002? British actor Hugh Grant played the worry-free protagonist living off the royalties of a Christmas hit single written by his late father.</p><p>Though that was fiction, it wasn&#x27;t very far from fact.</p><p>Through widespread airplay annually at shopping malls, on the radio or on Spotify Christmas playlists, some Christmas earworms — despite being decades old — have repeatedly (re)entered charts and minted a pretty penny for their writers.</p><p>They often feature upbeat tinkly music, sleigh bells, lyrics sprinkled with &quot;snow,&quot; &quot;love,&quot; &quot;Christmas&quot; and &quot;you.&quot;</p><p>Here are some hits that have gotten this mix magically right.</p><div><strong>Mariah Carey: &#x27;All I Want for Christmas is You&#x27;</strong></div><p>Fact: Carey was initially reluctant to record a Christmas song.</p><p>Speaking on &quot;The Bobby Bones Show&quot; in 2021, she explained that it was at the start of her career and with only two albums behind her, she felt it was too soon. &quot;Because growing up, it was like, most people did [a Christmas album] later on.&quot;</p><p>However, she went on to co-write the rousing &quot;All I Want for Christmas is You,&quot; earning the title &quot;Queen of Christmas.&quot;</p><p>A 2016 study by The Economist said Carey makes about €2.3 million ($2.5 million) per year for the song. So, if her 1994 hit continues to weave its magic this year, Carey is looking at total earnings of €67.2 million for this song alone.To date, it has been streamed more than 1.6 billion times on Spotify.</p><div><strong>Wham!: &#x27;Last Christmas&#x27;</strong></div><p>Love it or hate it, Wham!&#x27;s 1984 hit &quot;Last Christmas&quot; has undeniably sealed its spot in the pantheon of Christmas earworms.</p><p>Yet the festive song by the late George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley only reached No. 1 on the UK Top 40 charts on January 1, 2021 — 36 years after it was first released. It then reached the top spot for a second time in 2022, and for a third at the very beginning of 2023. But it has yet to be No. 1 within Christmas week itself.</p><p>For the grinches who grumble at the song&#x27;s saccharine sweetness, Wham! donated all its royalties to the Ethiopian famine relief fund.The Independent reported last year that the track&#x27;s annual royalties are estimated at €350,000 per year.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0cuNTTzFNrc?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><strong>Irving Berlin: &#x27;White Christmas&#x27;</strong></div><p>An exception in this list is &quot;White Christmas,&quot; penned by legendary songwriter Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical film &quot;Holiday Inn.&quot; Unlike the usual Christmas songs, its melancholy and wistfulness struck a chord with listeners.</p><p>It got its world premiere on December 26, 1941, performed by legendary crooner Bing Crosby on his weekly NBC radio &quot;The Kraft Music Hall.&quot; The version he subsequently recorded in 1942 is, according to Guinness World Records, the bestselling Christmas single of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide.</p><div><strong>Paul McCartney: &#x27;Wonderful Christmastime&#x27;</strong></div><p>Released in 1979, &quot;Wonderful Christmastime&quot; was written, produced and performed solely by ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who also played all the instruments himself. Thus, he gets to keep all the song&#x27;s royalties.</p><p>A 2010 Forbes report estimates that McCartney makes between €370,650 to €555,810 annually from royalties on &quot;Wonderful Christmastime.&quot; Even when calculated at the lowest end of this range, McCartney would have made €15.9 million to date just from this Yuletide hit alone.</p><p>By the way, McCartney&#x27;s total net worth, according to 2021 estimates, is €1.1 billion.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QZvGPz9_ofQ?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><strong>Slade: &#x27;Merry Xmas Everybody&#x27; </strong></div><p>Noddy Holder, lead singer of English rock band Slade, once said in a 2005 interview, it&#x27;s &quot;like winning the lottery every December 25 for the rest of your life.&quot; He was referring to the estimated €1.1 million in annual earnings from &quot;Merry Xmas Everybody,&quot; which he co-wrote with band bassist Jim Lea in 1973.</p><p>Speaking to the BBC on December 9, 2023 to commemorate the song&#x27;s 50th anniversary, he said the band was inspired to release a Christmas song after John Lennon and Yoko Ono&#x27;s single &quot;Happy Xmas (War Is Over)&quot; was released in the UK in 1972.</p><p>&quot;I went to the local pub in Wolverhampton and went back to my mum and dad&#x27;s after and I sat up all night with a bottle of whisky and wrote the total lyrics that night,&quot; the 77-year-old recalled about the song that was No. 1 in the UK charts in both 1973 and 1989.</p><p>Perhaps this abridged list of money-spinning earworms might serve as inspiration for those toying with the idea of penning a Christmas hit. Maybe, in line with 21st century realities, one co-written with a bot?</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0TLQTYAeork?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8DGZDX53ei0?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><em>Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier </em></div>

The artists behind hits 'All I Want for Christmas is You' and 'Last Christmas' are laughing all the way to the bank.