Infamous Christmas number one battles from ‘worst ever song’ that sparked brawl to beef between Little Mix & footie team
EACH year there is a fierce battle between musicians vying for the UK Christmas No1 – but the winner isn’t always someone you would expect.
For the last five years running YouTuber LadBaby – real name Mark Hoyle – and his wife Roxanne clinched the top spot with their novelty songs about sausage rolls.
In 2022, the comedy duo overtook The Beatles‘ Christmas No1 record after claiming their fifth win – the most achieved by any act in British music history.
This year, fans of The Pogues have campaigned for Fairytale of New York to take the Yuletide Prize in memory of frontman Shane McGowan, who died last month.
But they face tough competition from TikTok star supergroup Creator Universe, Eurovision star Sam Ryder, Wham’s timeless hit Last Christmas and a dance track called Check Meowt about a viral cat called Nala.
History shows us that the battle for the Christmas No1 slot is tense, tough and sometimes totally bizarre.
Here we reveal some of the weirdest – from one rivalry that ended in an on-stage custard pie fight to the novelty act who received ‘hate mail’ and was labelled ‘antichrist’ by angry fans.
Mr Blobby vs Take That
Mr Blobby claimed the Christmas No1 slot in 1993 with his bizarre, eponymously titled song.
It was originally performed on Noel’s House Party and featured odd lyrics and squelching sounds throughout.
They included: “Blobby, oh Mr Blobby, If only you could make us understand. Blobby, oh Mr Blobby, your influence will spread throughout the land.”
Bizarrely, it knocked both Meat Loaf’s I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) and Take That’s Babe off the No1 spot and spent three weeks in pole position.
Critics weren’t impressed, with MTV stating Mr Blobby had “tried to kill music… with what might be the worst song of all time”.
It was also named the worst-ever festive song in an HMV poll and placed sixth in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 worst pop songs in history.
In 2016, Take That’s Gary Barlow got his revenge when he attacked Mr Blobby by tackling the inflatable character to the ground on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man Christmas Special.
The singer then dragged Blobby offstage by his legs. Later, the audience was told the character was “getting CPR.”
Benny Hill vs Slade
Slade, T-Rex and Isaac Hayes were all favourites for Christmas No1 back in 1971.
But it was Benny Hill’s hit Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) that won over the public.
The comedic song told the story of a randy milkman who fell in love with a widow only to come under threat from a love rival who made pork pies.
Benny’s absurd hit – which won over songs like Slade’s Coz I Love You – was filled with innuendos and cheeky lines including “Ernie got his cocoa there three times a week”.
In 2006, ex-Prime Minister David Cameron featured the song on his Desert Island Discs tracks.
Eminem vs Bob The Builder
Seven years on from Take That’s humiliating defeat to Mr Blobby, bad-boy rapper Eminem and boyband Westlife suffered a similar fate.
The US rapper’s hit Stan and the Irish group’s song What Makes A Man proved no match for cartoon tradesman Bob the Builder.
The show’s theme tune Can We Fix It? clinched the No1 spot in 2000.
Voiced by Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey, it sold 240,000 within its first week alone before becoming the UK’s biggest-selling single of the year – much to the annoyance of Westlife and Eminem.
Paul Joyce, who wrote the song, admitted the moment was “ridiculous, but incredible” and he was especially surprised to beat Westlife due to them being “an unassailable pop phenomenon”.
He added: “I don’t think the band or their fans thought they could be challenged by a cartoon brickie.
“When we went to No1, Sky TV interrupted Christmas dinner for an interview, I thought ‘This will never happen again.’”
The X Factor vs Rage Against The Machine
Back in 2009, English DJ Jon Morter and his wife Tracy launched a social media campaign to end The X Factor’s ‘monopoly’ over Christmas No1s after winning four years in a row.
In protest, the couple urged the public to download copies of Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 song Killing In The Name.
Simon Cowell branded the campaign “stupid” and “cynical” but it only appeared to spur on fans.
Rage Against The Machine bandmember Tom Morello said winning the festive race would be “a wonderful dose of anarchy”.
Soon Foo Fighters’, Dave Grohl, Muse, The Prodigy and even Paul McCartney backed the campaign.
The song beat The X Factor star Joe McElderry’s cover of The Climb and raised £70,000 for homelessness charity Shelter.
They sold 502,000 copies, 52,000 more than Joe – Sony Records were arguably the real winners as both acts were signed to them.
Joe later told The Guardian he “didn’t take it personally” as he knew the rebellion was “directed at Simon and the show” not him.
He added: “It was the least Christmassy record ever.”
Little Mix vs Rangers
In 2016, a feud developed between fans of Little Mix and Rangers FC supports over their Christmas No1 battles.
It followed football fans’ social media campaign to get the 1960s hit Glad All Over to the top of the charts in tribute to their player Joe Garner.
Little Mix fans were not impressed as it ‘threatened’ to derail the girl band’s chance of clinching a festive chart-topper.
On X, formerly Twitter, Rangers fans joked: “Any truth in the rumour that Rangers casuals and Little Mix casuals are organising a rumble??”
Another shared a photo of football supporters clashing with police and wrote: “Rangers at Little Mix away.”
One irate Little Mix fan tweeted: “I’m sorry but if that joke football song ruins Touch’s chance of being #1, I am deleting my account.”
Neither of the songs won – instead the victor was bookies’ favourite Clean Bandit with Rockabye.
Silence vs The X Factor
Rage Against The Machine’s No1 win in 2009 inspired another push to knock The X Factor off the top slot one year later.
Musicians including Pete Doherty, The Kooks, Billy Bragg and Imogen Heap united under the name Cage Against The Machine for an unusual entry.
They pushed for John Cage track 4’33” – a completely silent song that lasts 4 minutes 33 seconds – to reach the top of the charts.
Video footage showed the musicians gathered in a studio to ‘re-record’ the noteless song and “make December 25 ‘a silent night’”.
The release reached No21 in the UK charts. It was beaten by X Factor winner Matt Cardle with When We Collide.
George Michael vs George Michael
In an unlikely moment, George Michael appeared to be battling against himself for a Yuletide chart-topper in 1984.
Two songs he featured on – Wham’s Last Christmas and Do They Know It’s Christmas by supergroup Band Aid – both chased the No1 spot.
But in a sweet gesture, George urged fans to “go out and buy Band Aid instead” to help the charity single to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Band Aid producer Midge Ure revealed: “He was quite prepared to leave behind his own success for Band Aid to do its thing.”
The charity single sold one million copies in its first week. In an additional generous move, George donated money made from Last Christmas to the Band Aid fund.
Slade vs Wizzard
They are two of the most popular Christmas songs of all time – yet only one of them has claimed the No1 spot.
Both Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday were released in 1973.
It was Noddy Holder and the gang who would be the winners that year but Wizzard, who came fourth in the charts, got sweet revenge shortly after news of their loss was announced.
Slade’s Dave Hill told The Guardian: “The friendly rivalry erupted in a custard pie fight on Top of the Pops.
“We pied Roy [Wood] on camera – he carried on singing with custard in his beard. Then, when we were on, one of the Wizzard guys put one right in Noddy’s face.”
This week Roy, Wizzard’s frontman, told The Sun a track release “delay” gave Slade the upperhand.
He says: “Who knows what might have happened had we released the songs at the same time? We both had good followings and either of us could have made number one.”
Sadly for Wizzard, the song has never reached any higher than No 4 despite being rereleased multiple times.
Mikey Flowers Pops vs Michael Jackson
The lead singers of The Mike Flowers Pops band surprisingly ended up “getting hate mail” from Oasis and Michael Jackson fans after his Christmas No1 entry in 1995.
The singer released a cover of Oasis song Wonderwall, which DJ Chris Evans jokingly said was the “long-lost original” – much to the annoyance of fans of the Britpop band.
It was also up against Michael Jackson’s Earth Song that year, which Mikey said had “a lot of money behind it” unlike his hit.
He recalled: “As the battle for No1 hotted up, I started getting hate mail from Oasis fans and Jacko fans. Someone called me the antichrist.
“Keeping Jackson off the top would have been very funny. But in the end, I was almost relieved that we finished No2.”
Michael Jackson’s track won that year and amusingly Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher later said Mikey’s cover “bought me a new swimming pool”.