by Mick the Ram

On the 40th anniversary of its release, the classic festive song written by George Michael – “Last Christmas” has held off strong opposition to claim the number one position for the UK’s Christmas chart for the second year running.

The much coveted crown for the top spot was taken by Wham! for their hugely popular song, originally recorded in 1984, but thwarted from being a chart-topper back then by the charity song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” put together by Band Aid for famine relief in Ethiopia.

The masterpiece of Christmas tunes beat the likes of Mariah Carey, Gracie Abrams, Tom Grennan and Ariana Grande to clinch the sought after accolade, with the Official Charts Company declaring that the song had been streamed 12.6 million times in the week leading up to the 25th December.

The only other songs to have topped the Christmas chart more than once are Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (in 1975 and 1991) and the previously mentioned “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid (with different versions in 1984, 1989 and 2004). However, neither of these were able to achieve the position in consecutive years.

This epitome of a Christmas song remains massively popular not just in the UK, but worldwide, with it currently getting 7.7m plays a day globally on Spotify.

George’s “kicked” into action

Last Christmas was written by George Michael in his childhood bedroom in February 1984, and his partner Andrew Ridgeley said he recalls the moment vividly. He remembers how inspiration struck out of the blue, while the singer was at his parents’ house in Hertfordshire.

Looking back on the time with great fondness, Ridgeley recollected: “There was a footy match on the telly and he suddenly jumped up and disappeared upstairs where he had a little four-track studio. Then about an hour later, he came back and said, ‘Andy Andy, you’ve got to listen to this’.

I rarely saw him as excited or as animated as that, and as soon as I heard it, it was so apparent that it had all the hallmarks of a Christmas classic. It was a jaw-dropping moment.”

Thrilled for ex-partner

On the song reaching number one for Christmas again, Ridgeley said he was “especially pleased” for his late band-mate, who died in 2016 and had always wanted the song to reach number one.

“He would have been utterly delighted that his fabulous Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets,” he said; before adding: “It’s testament to a really wonderful Christmas song that in a lot of people’s minds it evokes and represents Christmas as we would all wish it to be.”

He joked that it took 37 years for the song to get to number one, and 39 years to get the Christmas top spot, and now “just like London buses, they all come at once”.

Streaming up the charts

Last Christmas has reappeared in the Top 40 every year since 2007, thanks to the advent of downloads, quickly followed by streaming – each of which allowed classic songs to contribute to chart data.

As soon as Christmas comes around, nostalgia kicks in with the buying public with perennial favourites such as: “Fairytale Of New York” and “Jingle Bell Rock” dominating tastes.

George Michael would be proud of song’s popularity

Still creating music himself, Ridgeley believes his great friend would have loved seeing the lasting impression his track has left.

As part of the famous 80’s pop duo, he gave all the credit to his partner, who tragically died on Christmas Day, 2016 and stated that he knew “George would have found the song’s popularity extremely satisfying; he would have been delighted.”  

Government dig fails to affect the chart positioning

The song held off a challenge for the number one spot from a parody of 1970’s glam-rock band, Mud’s, “Lonely This Christmas”, changed to “Freezing This Christmas”, which is a dig at the government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Although it was the most downloaded track of the week, protest songs of this type often tend to struggle on streaming platforms and as these account for 87.7% of all music consumption in the UK, it predictably fell short. Indeed the track only just crept into the Top 40, coming in at number 37.