A Holly Jolly Christmas

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" (also called "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas") is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. The song has since become one of the Top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century.[1]

"A Holly Jolly Christmas"
Single by Burl Ives
from the album Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack
B-side"Snow for Johnny"
ReleasedNovember 1964
StudioColumbia Studios, Nashville, TN
GenreChristmas, traditional pop
Length2:15
LabelDecca
Songwriter(s)Johnny Marks
Burl Ives singles chronology
"Pearly Shells (Popo O Ewa)"
(1964)
"A Holly Jolly Christmas"
(1964)
"Jealous"
(1965)

Background

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" was written by Johnny Marks in 1962. It was the title song of The Quinto Sisters' first album Holly Jolly Christmas, recorded in June 1964 for Columbia Records, featuring guitarist Al Caiola with arrangements by Frank Hunter and Marty Manning.[2]

The song was featured in the 1964 Rankin-Bass Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which Burl Ives voiced the narrator, Sam the Snowman. Originally to be sung by Larry D. Mann as Yukon Cornelius, the song, as well as "Silver and Gold", was given to Ives due to his singing fame.[3] This version was also included on the soundtrack album for the special and later released as a single.

The song was re-recorded by Ives for his 1965 holiday album, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. This version of the song has a somewhat slower arrangement than the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer version and features an acoustic guitar solo introduction; it is this version that has since become the more commonly heard rendition on radio. The song's enduring popularity is evidenced by its reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1998, as well as No. 21 on the US Country Digital Songs chart and No. 5 on the Holiday 100 chart in 2011.[4][5] The song charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2017, after rules on chart eligibility for older songs had been relaxed several years before, and reached a peak of No. 38.[6]

On the week ending December 8, 2018, the song re-entered the Hot 100 chart. It reached No. 10 on the week ending January 5, 2019.[7][8] On the week ending January 4, 2020, it reached a new peak of No. 4.[9] With this feat, Ives now holds the record for the longest break between Hot 100 Top Tens as he returned to this minimum ranking after 56 years, seven months and two weeks since his previous Top 10 hit and, at 109 years after birth, surpassed Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (which reached the Top 40 when Armstrong would have been 86 years old) as the oldest artist, living or deceased, to have a Top 40 hit. As of December 2019, Burl Ives' recording has sold 664,000 copies in the United States since becoming available for download in the digital era.[10]

Chart performance

Burl Ives version

Chart (1998–2020) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[11] 42
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[12] 28
Czech Republic (Singles Digitál Top 100)[13] 39
Germany (Official German Charts)[14] 96
Greece International Digital Singles (IFPI)[15] 50
Hungary (Stream Top 40)[16] 18
Latvia (LAIPA)[17] 16
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[18] 75
Portugal (AFP)[19] 79
Slovakia (Singles Digitál Top 100)[20] 28
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[21] 98
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[22] 65
US Billboard Hot 100[7]
[9]
4
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[4] 30
US Country Digital Songs (Billboard)[23] 21
US Country Streaming Songs (Billboard)[24] 1
US Holiday 100 (Billboard)[5] 3
US Rolling Stone Top 100[25] 4

Alan Jackson version

Chart (1997–98) Peak
position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[26] 51

Michael Bublé version

Chart (2011–2019) Peak
position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[27] 50
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[28] 44
Czech Republic (Singles Digitál Top 100)[13] 52
France (SNEP)[29] 148
Germany (Official German Charts)[30] 69
Greece International Digital Singles (IFPI)[31] 74
Hungary (Single Top 40)[32] 13
Hungary (Stream Top 40)[33] 10
Ireland (IRMA)[34] 34
Italy (FIMI)[35] 50
Latvia (LAIPA)[36] 17
Lithuania (AGATA)[37] 81
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[38] 13
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[39] 36
Portugal (AFP)[40] 40
Slovakia (Singles Digitál Top 100)[41] 51
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[42] 64
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[43] 36
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[44] 22
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[45] 32
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[46] 3
US Holiday 100 (Billboard)[47] 22

Lady Antebellum version

Chart (2012–16) Peak
position
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[48] 2
US Country Airplay (Billboard)[49] 37
US Holiday 100 (Billboard)[50] 80
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[51] 35

Jerrod Niemann version

Chart (2014–15) Peak
position
US Country Airplay (Billboard)[52] 53
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References

  1. "ASCAP Announces Top 25 Holiday Songs – "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...)" Tops List". Ascap.com. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
  2. http://www.falalalala.com/the-quinto-sisters-first-to-sing-holly-jolly-christmas-even-before-burl-ives/
  3. "Holly Jolly Christmas". songfacts.com.
  4. "Burl Ives Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
  5. "Burl Ives Chart History (Holiday 100)". Billboard.
  6. "Hot 100 Chart Moves: Eminem & Ed Sheeran's 'River' Flows in at No. 11". Billboard. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  7. "Burl Ives Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  8. "Mariah Carey's 'Christmas' Climbs to No. 3 on Billboard Hot 100, Ariana Grande's 'Next' Leads for Seventh Week". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  9. Trust, Gary (December 30, 2019). "Mariah Carey Becomes First Artist at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 in Four Decades, Thanks to 'All I Want for Christmas'". Billboard. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  10. Bjorke, Matt (December 8, 2019). "Top 30 Digital Country Tracks - Pure Sales: December 9, 2019". Rough Stock. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
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  12. "Burl Ives Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  13. "ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 20185152 into search. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  14. "Offiziellecharts.de – Burl Ives – A Holly Jolly Christmas". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
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  27. "Austriancharts.at – Michael Bublé – Holly Jolly Christmas" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  28. "Michael Buble Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  29. "Top Singles (téléchargement + streaming)". Syndicat National de l'édition Phonographique. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  30. "Offiziellecharts.de – Michael Bublé – Holly Jolly Christmas". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
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  32. "Archívum – Slágerlisták – MAHASZ" (in Hungarian). Single (track) Top 40 lista. Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
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  34. "Official Irish Singles Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  35. "Top Singoli – Classifica settimanale WK 52" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  36. "Mūzikas patēriņa tops gadu mijā" (in Latvian). LAIPA. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  37. "2019 49-os savaitės klausomiausi (TOP 100)" (in Lithuanian). AGATA. December 6, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
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  39. "NZ Top 40 Singles Chart". Recorded Music NZ. December 31, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  40. "Portuguesecharts.com – Michael Bublé – Holly Jolly Christmas". AFP Top 100 Singles. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  41. "ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 20185152 into search. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  42. "Top 100 Canciones: Semana 52". Productores de Música de España. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
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  44. "Swisscharts.com – Michael Bublé – Holly Jolly Christmas". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
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  46. "Michael Buble Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  47. "Michael Buble Chart History (Holiday 100)". Billboard. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  48. "Lady Antebellum Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
  49. "Lady Antebellum Chart History (Country Airplay)". Billboard.
  50. "Lady Antebellum Chart history". Billboard Holiday 100 for Lady Antebellum. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  51. "Lady Antebellum Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  52. "Jerrod Niemann Chart History (Country Airplay)". Billboard.
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