Braintree Top 40

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here on the Braintree Top 40 as Christmas songs populate half the spots this week, obviously a record, with Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” leading the pack with a #1 debut.  This dethrones the two-week reign of Sufjan Stevens’s “Mystery of Love,” which falls to #4 behind “Underneath the Tree” and “Last Christmas.”  Rounding out the top 5 is Mariah Carey’s holiday classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has been one of the only holiday tracks to stay on the Braintree Top 40 the entire holiday season.

It looks like watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas proved to be a big influence on the chart this week as “Where Are You, Christmas?” by Faith Hill debuts at #7.  This underrated holiday track doesn’t get as much love as it deserves with the general public, so it’s nice to see Braintree giving it a boost.  Justin Bieber gets a 2nd top ten hit with “Mistletoe,” off his 2011 Christmas album, Under the Mistletoe.  The top non-holiday debut is “Deeper” by Riton featuring MNEK & House Gospel Choir which lands on the chart at #12 thanks to Josh discovering the top 5 gayest songs of 2017 chart.

Former #1 “I Miss You” falls all the way down to #17 behind all of this holiday cheer.  Will it be able to recover or is this the beginning of the end for the record-breaking track?  Big declines also include “Strangers” by Sigrid, “End Game,” “Paris Latino,” and “Is Your Love Enough?” but it’ll be interesting to see what Daina, Celina, and Emily latch onto once their holiday fever breaks.

Speaking of the girls, while Daina led the charge on holiday cheer, both Celina and Emily were each able to get a non-holiday song to chart.  Celina got her favorite song of 2017, “Came Here For Love” by Sigala & Ella Eyre, to re-enter at #28 while Emily just won’t let Little Mix’s “Touch” die as it re-enters at #27.  Daina finally got her beloved Celine Dion to chart in Braintree as “Don’t Save It All for Christmas Day” debuts at #33.  Michael Bublé also finds himself on the chart for the first time with not one but five debuts, “Jingle Bells” featuring the Puppini Sisters being the highest at #6.

Emm!e’s sole contribution was to get Eminem to debut at #29 with “River” featuring Ed Sheeran, the only good song off his latest album, Revival.  While she listens to plenty of 00s emo this week, none of it was able to break through the holiday barrier.  Interesting fact:  Emm!e is the only one to not listen to a single holiday song this season.

Next, we’ll see if the holiday invasion can increase its 20 spots or if it’ll melt away like snow.  Will Year-End lists make more of an impact as New Year’s Day draws near?  New releases are sparse as the only major release looks to be a new Cardi B single called “Bartier Cardi” featuring 21 Savage, who recently peaked at #11 with Post Malone on “Rockstar” back in November.  Check us out next week for another volatile chart week!