Who's making the most money from a Christmas hit?

Updated
08DEC99: Pop star MARIAH CAREY at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas where she won the Artist of the Decade Award.  Paul Sm
08DEC99: Pop star MARIAH CAREY at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas where she won the Artist of the Decade Award. Paul Sm



How many times do you think you'll hear 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' between now and December 25th? The chances are it'll be dozens - and feel like a whole lot more.

But for singer Mariah Carey, of course, it can't be often enough, as she's raking in the royalties every year.

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But who are the biggest earners from Christmas songs?

PrezzyBox has an up-to-date Christmas Royalty Calculator, which comes up with a figure based on mechanical royalties, performance rights, synchronisation and even print music sales - combined with radio, online and TV data.

According to this reckoning, last year Slade's Noddy Holder and Jim Lea cleared more than £500,000 in royalties from 'Merry Christmas Everybody' - although this year it's looking a lot lower at a little over £105,000.

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Meanwhile, the Pogues are reported to make more than £400,000 every year from their unconventional ballad 'The Fairytale of New York'.

And for some of these musicians, the money has been coming in a long time: while Brenda Lee's Mistletoe and Wine, for example, only makes around £5,000 a year, it's been bringing in the cash since 1962.

And at least one of the hits on the list was never intended as a Christmas song at all. Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie, was released in 1980 as a plain and simple anti-war song; but became a seasonal hit for the single line: 'Wish I was at home this Christmas'. He now says it amounts to half his income.

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The top Christmas royalty earners

1. Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl: £426,270
2. All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey: £391,410
3. Last Christmas by Wham!: £248,910
4. Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens: £125,248
5. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizzard: £113,790
6. 2000 Miles by The Pretenders: £106,440
7. Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade: £105,660
8. Stay Another Day by East 17: £96,920
9. Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie: £68,490
10. Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid: £50,720
11. Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard: £47,020
12. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee: £4,990



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