Who is the Queen of Christmas pop? Is it Mariah Carey?
Not exactly. On iTunes today, Mariah’s “All I Want for Christmas” is four notches higher than Brenda Lee’s classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” Mariah’s at number 2, Brenda’s at number 6.
But in streaming, Brenda is number 1 on the charts leading Mariah significantly according to hitsdailydouble.com. Indeed, Brenda jumped 55% this week as opposed to Mariah’s increase of just 41%.
Brenda had 25.3 million streams versus Mariah’s 24.5 million. Bobby Helms’s “Jingle Bell Rock” is in third place.
Brenda’s turning 78 on Sunday and I’m sure she’s happy about the success of the record. She’s getting some money from sales and streaming, but not much. She didn’t write “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Johnny Marks did. His estate gets all the money from radio play, Brenda gets nothing. That’s why MusicFirst’s performance royalty bill, heading to Congress, is so important. Imagine if Brenda had been paid for all that radio play. She’d really be rocking around that Christmas tree!
