'Sleigh Ride' Heads List Of Last Week's Top Holiday Songs At Over 17,000 Plays

NEW YORK, NY (MediaGuide) - Are Americans pining for the long-gone days of horse-drawn sleigh rides? Last week's holiday radio airplay indicates the answer is yes.

For the second week in a row, the many versions of classic holiday tune "Sleigh Ride" ruled U.S. radio airplay - clocking in at over 17,000 spins in the past seven days alone. This makes "Sleigh Ride" the most-played holiday song nationwide, according to radio airplay monitoring service Mediaguide, Inc.

Mediaguide was launched in 2002 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 over the past seven days (measured from Monday, December 12, 2005, through Sunday December 18, 2005):
"Sleigh Ride" - 17,361 times
"Winter Wonderland" - 15,229 times
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" - 14,900 times
"The Christmas Song" - 13,011 times
"Santa Clause Is Comin' to Town" - 12,789 times
"White Christmas" - 12,113 times
"Jingle Bell Rock" - 11,983 times
"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - 10,617 times
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - 10,297 times
"Do You Hear What I Hear?" - 10,188 times

* Note: The above list represents an aggregation of all different artist versions of each cited holiday song.
Reporters who would like a custom Mediaguide run of holiday song airplay for their region's radio stations can contact Jennifer Kronstain (CooperKatz for Mediaguide) at 212-455-8016 or [email protected].