'The Christmas Song' Takes Top Spot as Last Week's Most-Played Holiday Song

NEW YORK (Mediaguide) - As they unwrapped presents and ate turkey, Americans were more likely to hear "The Christmas Song" than any other holiday tune on the radio last week, according to Mediaguide.

In the week ending December 25, "The Christmas Song" aired on U.S. radio stations 27,500 times making it the most-played holiday song nationwide, according to radio airplay monitoring service Mediaguide, Inc.

Mediaguide was launched in 2002 by ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) to monitor radio broadcast music in real-time and facilitate the accurate distribution of royalty payments to music composers and publishers. Its proprietary technology and network of 2,500 radio stations currently tracks more stations and total airplay than any other monitoring service in the U.S.

Below is Mediaguide's list of the most-played holiday song titles nationwide for the seven days leading up to Christmas, Dec. 25, 2005:

1. "The Christmas Song" - 27,500 times
2. "Sleigh Ride" - 25,364 times
3. "Winter Wonderland" - 25,537 times
4. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - 23,195 times
5. "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" - 19,330 times
6. "White Christmas" - 18,860 times
7. "Jingle Bells" - 16,748 times
8. "O Holy Night" - 15,719 times
9. "Do You Hear What I Hear?" - 15,466 times
10. "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" - 14,878 times
* Note: The above list represents an aggregation of all different artist versions of each cited holiday song.
Reporters who would like to request a custom Mediaguide run of holiday song airplay on their region's radio stations can contact Kathleen Deegan (CooperKatz for Mediaguide) at 212-455-8062 or [email protected].