Do you know which Christmas song is the most played holiday tune this year?

Nope. Wrong. And Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer didn’t even make the top ten either. But then neither did Stevie Nicks’s rendition of Silent Night, so I’m assuming the whole thing is rigged. No problemo. Let’s go ahead and play along with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and their ranking anyway. According to them Sleigh Ride tops the charts. And has for the last four years.

Since October 1st of this year, Sleigh Ride has aired more times than any other holiday favorite largely thanks to the Grammy-nominated indie rock trio fun who recently covered this holiday staple. But it is Johnny Mathis’ version that is the most popular. The ASCAP releases their holiday list annually, and while the top 25 songs of all time tend to remain the same with titles moving up and down the list in popularity, the annual list is greatly influenced by recent releases of holiday standards.

This year, for the first time in four, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town made the list. That bump is thanks to James Taylor’s recently released album James Taylor at Christmas. With a bit of the credit also going to Justin Bieber and his cover of the classic. It is Bruce Springsteen’s version of the song, however, that receives the most airplay, having become a staple of rock radio since it was first released in 1985.

JT is also responsible for Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas landing in the #4 spot this year and though his is a much more superior cover, the most popular version still goes to that anorexic of days gone by, Karen Carpenter. Whitney Houston is largely responsible for Do You Hear What I Hear? grabbing the 6th spot even though she is dead too, but then if Whitney was still alive she probably wouldn’t realize she died either. In any case, her death brought new life to her version of the Christmas standard; it’s been over six years since that song even managed to make it onto the top 25 list.

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas round out the list in the 9th and 10th spots; both song’s most popular versions are also by dead people, but then both of those crooners have been dead so long most of the people who sing along to their songs don’t even know who they were. And if you don’t believe me about the list being rigged, Silent Night isn’t on it, rock goddess version or not.

Christmas songs are not just part of the holiday celebrations, they herald the coming of the season. You know it’s getting serious when every store you walk into is playing Christmas music. Even if it is only September. Everyone has their favorites, and few can think of the holiday without its soundtrack coming to mind. And while Bill O’Reilly is busy bitching about the need to put Christ back in Christmas instead of doing something about it, it is the American song writers who are responsible for all the off-beat finger snapping, misplaced lyrics, and off-key warbling that tells you Christmas is coming. Or that the Mayan prediction of the end of the world really is headed our way. But then if you are gonna give a nod to those who have penned or sung our most popular Christmas songs, we really should be singing Have Yourself a Jewish Little Christmas: six of the most popular Christmas songs on this year’s top ten list owe their existence in popular culture thanks to an Israelite. (That’s down by 1 from last year.)

I don’t know why The Chosen People have devoted so much of their efforts to popularizing a Christian holiday through song when their own winter solstice holiday’s top hit The Dreidel Song sucks so badly, but there ya go. Sleigh Ride, The Christmas Song, Let It Snow, etc., Winter Wonderland, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and Do You Hear What I Hear, however, were all written or co-written by Jewish songwriters. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town was not, and Bruce Springsteen is not Jewish, though two of the E Street Band are – keyboardist Roy Bittan and drummer Max Weinberg – but Bruce does sometimes play Hava Nagila in concert.

Stevie Nicks, btw, is Jewish but Silent Night was written by a German priest and a German composer and translated into English by a Christian bishop in Florida. Sounds to me like a liberal plot to keep Stevie from the recognition she so rightly deserves. Now that’s something Bill O’Reilly should be looking into.

For the anal among you who need to see the actual list, these are the top ten holiday songs to have received the most airplay this year according to ASCAP :

1. “Sleigh Ride”
Written by Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish
Most popular version performed by Leroy Anderson

2. “Winter Wonderland”
Written by Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith
Most popular version performed by Eurythmics

3. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
Written by Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne
Most popular version performed by Harry Connick Jr.

4. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Written by Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin
Most popular version performed by The Carpenters

5. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
Written by Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie
Most popular version performed by Bruce Springsteen

6. “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
Written by Gloria Shayne Baker, Noël Regney
Most popular version performed by Whitney Houston

7. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)”
Written by Mel Tormé, Robert Wells
Most popular version performed by Nat King Cole

8. “Jingle Bell Rock”
Written by Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe
Most popular version performed by Bobby Helms

9. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
Written by Johnny Marks
Most popular version performed by Brenda Lee

10. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
Written by Meredith Willson
Most popular version performed by Bing Crosby

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