Highest-charting holiday (Christmas/New Year) song on the Billboard US Hot 100 by a solo artist

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey (USA) crowned the Billboard Hot 100 on 21 December 2019 – 25 years after it was first released. The festive favourite, Mariah’s 19th US No.1, became the first Christmas track by a solo artist – and only the second-ever Christmas-themed hit – to reach the top spot.

Originally released in 1994, “All I Want…” was ineligible to chart on the Hot 100 back then as no physical copies of the track were commercially available. The song first made the countdown on 8 January 2000, spending a week at No.83. In 2012, when streaming was factored into chart placings, “All I Want…” made the first of its annual pilgrimage to the Hot 100 during the festive season. It reached the Top 10 for the first time (No.9) on 30 December 2017 and rose to a new peak of No.3 on 5 January 2019, which was matched on 14 December 2019 before its climb to the top.

Remarkably, the track is the first Christmas-themed No.1 on the Hot 100 since “The Chipmunk Song” spent the first of four weeks at No.1 on 22 December 1958. Mariah, therefore, now shares the record for the highest-charting holiday (Christmas/New Year) song on the Hot 100 with The Chipmunks and David Seville.

“All I Want…” spent three weeks at No.1 between 21 December 2019 and 4 January 2020. Consequently, Mariah became the first act to have No.1 singles in four separate decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s). Starting with “Vision of Love” on 4 August 1990, she racked up 14 of her 19 chart-toppers in the ‘90s and four in the ‘00s before her decades-straddling success with “All I Want…” in 2019-20.

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (No.2 in 2020), “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms (No.3 in 2020), “A Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives (No.4 in 2020), “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams (No.7 in 2020), Justin Bieber’s “Mistletoe” (No.11 in 2011), “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” by Nat ‘King’ Cole (No.11 in 2019) and Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” (No.12 in 1962) are some of the Top 20 holiday hits by solo artists that have failed to peak as high as Carey’s “All I Want…”. Correct to 4 January 2020.

The Billboard Hot 100 was inaugurated on 4 August 1958.