Rage Against The Machine grab Christmas #1
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By Alistair Potter. |  |
Sunday, 20, Dec 2009 06:58
By Sarah Garrod.
Rage Against The Machine's single Killing In The Name has won the title of Christmas number one.
The single sold more than half a million copies this week, beating off tough competition from X Factor winner Joe McElderry, the Official Charts Company has announced.
Despite being released way back in 1992, the Rage Against The Machine single gained huge success when backed by an enthusiastic online campaign by fans to keep the X Factor winner from claiming the number one slot with his debut single The Climb.
However, McElderry also performed exceptionally well, achieving sales of 450,000; though the Official Chart Company said sales of his CD fell away over the past couple of days, possibly because of the snow and freezing conditions which gripped much of Britain on Friday and Saturday.
In taking the title for 2009, Killing In The Name also sets two new landmarks, becoming the UK's first download-only Christmas number one and notching up the biggest one-week download sales total in British chart history.
By Friday morning, Rage Against The Machine held the advantage over McElderry by just 9,000 copies. But Killing In The Name went on to sell 200,000 copies across Friday and Saturday to make sure it gained the number one spot.
Number one in the Official UK Albums Chart for the fourth consecutive week is Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream.
Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says: "Congratulations to Rage Against The Machine on their number one - as we have seen in recent years, overhauling any X Factor winner in the race for the Christmas number one is no mean achievement. The popular support we have seen for the record this week has been truly amazing - and handed them two all-time records.
"But congratulations too should also go to Joe McElderry. In taking the number two spot, he has still achieved one of the highest weekly sales of any single this year - in almost any other year, 450,000 copies would have given him the Christmas number one.
"Through this week, these two tracks have accounted for more than 950,000 single sales, a fact which is truly remarkable."
The last time a battle for number one was anywhere near as close, was in 1998 when the Spice Girls' Goodbye beat Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls, with sales of 380,000 sales to 375,000 respectively. In recent years, Alexandra Burke's Hallelujah last year was among the all-time biggest selling Christmas singles, moving 576,000 to beat Jeff Buckley's recording of the same song.