#20 - Top 25 Christmas Songs (According To Me!)

I hope you're ready to step back into the POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR!

If memory serves me, we're already at Day #6 - which means that I will be posting my twentieth favourite song of the holiday season!

Now, if you've been keeping track of my list so far, quite a few of the songs I've selected have been happy, carefree songs that you can dance to.  And that is purely intentional.  I believe that Christmas Day should be as much fun as possible.  While the more traditional tunes do appear on my list as well, I think Christmas should be more of a celebration, and having fun with your family members and friends.

Well, okay, maybe on the drama series EastEnders, it's anything but.  But one song that I am sure that you might hear playing in the background of some Christmas themed episodes of British soaps is this one at #20.

Ah, yes.  "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John.  I mean, as the years have passed by, we all knew Elton John could belt out a tune.  He's had the many #1 hits and top selling albums to prove it.

But what is interesting about "Step Into Christmas" was that it was released right around the time that Elton was beginning to make a name for himself as a musical artist.  Remember, by this time he had already scored hits with "Crocodile Rock", "Daniel", and "Rocket Man".  So, the fact that this song became a huge hit in the UK at that time really speaks volumes.

In fact, not only did the single reach the Top 30 in the UK, but it also became a #1 single on the Billboard Christmas charts just in time for Christmas 1973!  And did you know that it's the ninth most played Christmas tune in the United Kingdom forty-four years after it was originally released?  Talk about staying power!

Now, for years, the only way you could get a copy of this single was by actually buying the album single (of which the B-side was an amusing tune called "Ho, Ho, Ho (Who'd Be a Turkey on Christmas?)".  But in 1995, the track was finally released on CD format on a remastered version of his 1974 album "Caribou".  It also appears on Elton's Christmas album "Elton John's Christmas Party".  And I seriously recommend that you do pick up this single and give it a spin because it really does make you get in the mood of having a very merry Christmas!

Oh yeah, Bernie Taupin appears in the music video of "Step Into Christmas".  See if you can spot him!

And that wraps up the twenties of this list.  Stay tuned for song #19 tomorrow, where the tale is bittersweet, and the setting is...the frozen foods section?