Hot 100 Chart Moves: Brenda Lee’s ‘Christmas Tree’ in Top 40 for First Time Since 1961
The holiday classic rises 44-38. Plus, flights for twenty one pilots, Demi Lovato, DNCE & Tori Kelly.
As previously reported, Adele‘s “Hello” notches an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Jan. 2), passing 2011’s seven-week leader “Rolling in the Deep” for her longest command. Plus, Mariah Carey‘s 1994 holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” hits a new peak, and the top 20 for the first time, jingling 22-18, while Jordan Smith, the newly anointed champion of NBC’s The Voice, debuts with multiple tracks, led by his version of yuletide ballad “Mary, Did You Know?” at No. 24.
Adele Scores Her Longest Hot 100 Reign With Eighth Week at No. 1 for ‘Hello’
Who else makes notable sleigh rides up the Hot 100?
twenty one pilots, “Stressed Out”
The song powers 28-19, marking the alt group’s first top 20 Hot 100 hit. It surges 28-15 on Digital Songs (46,000 downloads sold, up 53 percent, according to Nielsen Music); 31-16 on Radio Songs (50 million in all-format audience, up 32 percent); and 39-28 on Streaming Songs (4.6 million U.S. streams, up 50 percent). As it leads the Alternative Songs airplay chart for a seventh week, it’s also crossing over, rising 19-16 on Pop Songs and 27-23 on Adult Pop Songs.
Demi Lovato, “Confident”
The song rebounds 31-30 on the Hot 100, after hitting a high of No. 21 two weeks ago. It makes even bigger news on the Pop Songs radio airplay chart, where it rises 12-10 to become Lovato’s sixth top 10 and fourth in-a-row. Her active top 10 streak started with “Neon Lights” and “Really Don’t Care” (featuring Cher Lloyd), both of which reached No. 7 in 2014, while “Cool for the Summer” hit No. 3 in October. Her first two Pop Songs top 10s: 2012’s No. 1 “Give Your Heart a Break” and 2013’s “Heart Attack” (No. 4).
Brenda Lee, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
Dashing 44-38, the holiday standard ranks in the Hot 100’s top 40 for the first time since Jan. 7, 1961, when it placed at No. 18. A week earlier (Dec. 31, 1960), it peaked at No. 14. The carol bullets at No. 3 on the Holiday 100 chart; No. 2 on both Holiday Airplay (31 million, up 8 percent) and Holiday Streaming Songs (4.7 million, up 10 percent); and No. 7 on Holiday Digital Songs (13,000, up 10 percent).
As with Carey’s “Christmas,” older songs are allowed to chart on the Hot 100 if ranking in the top 50 and showing noteworthy continued gains. “Tree” is one of Lee’s 48 career entries on the chart, the eighth-best sum among women all-time.
DNCE, “Cake by the Ocean”
The Joe Jonas-led group reaches the Hot 100’s upper half (63-47), powered in part by its No. 29 debut on Digital Songs (34,000, up 87 percent); the song is currently sale-priced for 69 cents in the iTunes Store. It also bullets at No. 22 on Pop Songs (up by 12 percent in plays).
Tori Kelly, “Hollow”
Following her performance of the ballad (with contestant Jeffery Austin) on the season finale of The Voice Dec. 15, Kelly debuts at No. 98 on the Hot 100, as the song vaults by 241 percent to 16,000 sold. Also building its buzz: Kelly’s Grammy Award nomination for best new artist, as well as her performance of “Hollow” at Billboard‘s Women in Music celebration Dec. 11 (broadcast Dec. 18 on Lifetime). “This is a huge honor for me. I’m so inspired to be in a room with such powerful women,” Kelly said upon accepting her Women in Music Breakthrough artist award.
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