What makes a holiday song a lasting hit?
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
But the holiday song canon is big, and a number of other pop artists have made their own Yuletide jingles since 1994 including John Legend, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.
But not even the woman who shattered records with her Eras tour has given us a holiday song that has had staying power worthy of The Canon.
For 30 years Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" has dominated the holiday music charts. NPR's Stephen Thompson explains what makes it a lasting hit?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Juana Summers. The end of the year is here, and our team at Consider This is reflecting on the stories we've brought you in 2024. We've unpacked the biggest national and international headlines like the presidential election and the Israel-Hamas war. And we've brought you with us to places all across the world to capture the news in a way you just can't understand unless you're there. |
| 0:22.5 | All of that is here for you, completely free. |
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| 0:33.3 | If you're already a plus supporter, thank you so much. |
| 0:36.7 | If not, sign up and unlock perks from more than 25 NPR podcasts today, including sponsor-free listening to consider this. |
| 0:45.6 | Join now at plus.npr.org. |
| 0:49.0 | That's plus.npr.org. |
| 0:51.6 | All right. Now, on to the show. |
| 0:55.7 | Music All right, now, on to the show. Holiday season means holiday music playing from your car radios, in shopping malls, in your headphones, |
| 1:06.5 | and unless you're doing your best to avoid Christmas music around this time, you've probably heard one of these classics at least once already. |
| 1:18.3 | And here were some of our own team members' favorite holiday songs. |
| 1:25.2 | Hi, I'm Elena Burnett. I'm a producer on All Things Considered, |
| 1:28.9 | and my favorite Christmas song is O'Tanenbaum, |
| 1:32.1 | specifically the version by Vince Guraldi off of a Charlie Brown Christmas. |
| 1:36.8 | It's the first song I play when I decide it's the holiday season. |
| 1:41.1 | It never fails to perk me up. |
| 1:43.4 | It just feels like Christmas. It just feels like I'm |
| 1:48.6 | walking through that tree lot in the movie. My name is Jeanette Woods. I'm an editor at |
| 1:57.4 | All Things Considered. And my favorite Christmas song is an oldie, little goodie. |
| 2:04.1 | This Christmas. |
| 2:05.8 | Hang all the mistletoe. I'm going to get to know you better. |
| 2:14.1 | This Christmas. It is quintessential old school soul |
... |
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