Song: All I Want for Christmas is You
Artist: Olivia Olson
Original artist: Mariah Carey
I should say right from the start that I chose this song to allow me to include a clip from
one of my favourite Christmas movies “Love Actually”.
In the movie the song was belted out by a 10-year-old – Olivia Olson – and a rather
good job she made of it, too. Olson continues to have a showbiz career and does a lot
of cartoon voiceover work including a role in Disney’s Phineas and Ferb in which she
worked again with Thomas Sangster who played her love interest, Sam, in “Love
Actually”.
The song was co-written by singer Maria Carey. After its 1994 release it went to No 2 in
the UK charts. However, the advent of streaming has led to even greater success. It
now re-enters the charts just about every December and has, at different times, risen to
No 1 in more than 30 countries. Weird fact – the single holds the record for taking the
longest time to reach No 1 in both the US and the UK. In the US 25 years passed
between its release and it hitting No 1 and in the UK it took a year longer.
It is now regarded as the best-selling Christmas song in the US according to Wikipedia.
I find that a little hard to believe. A bigger seller than “White Christmas”! Really?
However, the song’s royality earnings are estimated at $100 million so maybe there is
something in the claim.
