IT IS THE SATURDAY after Thanksgiving as I write this week's blog, which traditionally ushers in the holiday season. Of course, for many it starts right after Halloween, and that includes the annual invasion of Christmas songs on the Billboard Hot 100. That happened two weeks ago, and the first one enters that Top 10 this week....and I'll give you one guess as to who it is. But you'll have to scroll a bit.
This is my first Thanksgiving down here in South Carolina, and I am spending it with my wife and my sister-in-law who is visiting here from another part of the state. We've had some crazy weather down here the past few days. It went from the upper 70's earlier this week, to 26 the past two mornings with heavy frost. But at least it finally fits in with the spirit of the season!
 |
| Action at the annual Roselle Park - Roselle (NJ) Thanksgiving Day football game, a turkey-day rivalry that began in 1915 but came to an end this year. Roselle Park won, 41-19. |
But I remember Thanksgiving in New Jersey, in particular, the town I grew up in, Roselle Park. I've mentioned my hometown many times in regard to music (artists like Tom Corea, Charlotte Sessions and Ryan Chatelain, among others, hail from here), from my musician friends who grew up here, to the more recent Arts Festivals that the town has held. The night before Thanksgiving was always significant because it was the night before 'The Game'; the annual rivalry between Roselle Park High School and Roselle, the town it borders. That Wednesday night, the school would have a bonfire at the "Ath" (the school's athletic field where the game would take place the next morning). Alumni would also reunite at the town's Frenchy's Bar and Grill, a tavern where many bands would play, but would also offer sports on the TVs. The place, around for more than sixty years, was voted one of the best "dive bars" in the state. I went many times in the past fifteen years or so, and saw those haven't seen in a while. Sadly, since COVID, there hadn't been too many showing up (although the bar nonetheless gets packed).
Growing up, we always went to "The Game", held for the most part, Thanksgiving morning. As a member of the marching band in high school, I got to participate in it as well. Afterwards, my family would head to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner; her place was just a block away from the field. In recent decades, many of our class reunions were held that weekend, enabling us to catch the game once more.
I rarely got to the game in recent times since I had moved to northwest New Jersey, and now especially down in South Carolina, but apparently this year was the end of an era. Because of the way the state playoffs are structured, traditional Thanksgiving games are increasingly rare. And this year's edition, in which Roselle Park defeated Roselle, 41-19 was the final one played on Thanksgiving. You have to go back to 1915 for the first one. While the two rivals will most likely play again in the future, it will be during the regular season, probably in October, but for the Turkey Day experience, it just wouldn't be the same.
Of course, the day was loaded with football games....and music. There was the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, with its usual floats and musical performances, many I had never heard of, some stars of the past ("has-beens", as my wife would call them), but two that are pretty hot commodities these days. HUNTER/X, the K-Pop contingent who has been in the upper echelon the past several months, performed their big hit "Golden", while Lainey Wilson, fresh off her CMA triumphs performed her current hit "Somewhere Over Laredo". Many of the performances appeared to be lip-synced, and I was rather disappointed with the presentation of the proceedings. But it was good to see Darlene Love perform her classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", especially because of the controversy a few years ago that she wasn't invited to the Rockefeller Tree Lighting. Next week, of course the annual lighting takes place with more music.
Then we had the onslaught of football games. And while it wasn't Superbowl caliber, they all had half-time performances. The Detroit Lions had Jack White perform (with special guest Eminem), while the Cowboys enlisted Post Malone. Rapper Lil Jon appeared in the night game between the Bengals and home-team Baltimore Ravens, but NBC--which pretty much had a bad day, what with the parade feed and coverage--only showed a few highlights of that performance, and that was pretty much it.
HOT 100: It was pretty much a dull week on the big chart, as it has been the norm lately, the same songs are at the top of the Billboard chart. Yes, it's a seventh week for Taylor Swift as "The Fate of Ophelia" maintains its #1 position, with HUNTR/X's "Golden" and Alex Warren's "Ordinary" in their usual 2 and 3 positions.
Olivia Dean's "Man I Need" is still #4 and Ms. Swift's "Opalite" is still #5. Apparently, the changes that Billboard recently made to taking long-runners off the chart still has its flaws. The rest of the Top Ten is basically the same, except sombr's "Back to Friends" (#12) is replaced by.......none other than Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (11-8). While I'm not really a fan of the same holiday songs invading the top part of the chart year after year, maybe it will scour out all these top songs that have been complacent week after week. HUNTR/X and Warren have been #1 already on that chart, isn't it time to move on? I do suspect "Golden" may still resurge because of the parade performance.
But it's probably only a matter of time before Mariah logs her 20th week with "All I Want". There are five possible weeks left in the holiday chart season, and while this week was a relatively small move, it should get in position next week. Because, like last year, it's a late Thanksgiving, there will probably be just four weeks that a holiday song can claim #1. Wham!'s "Last Christmas" moves 13-11, losing a place to Swift, but there's still a chance it could come out on top at least for a week. But Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" close the gap moving 19-13 and 20-14, respectively. There's a big gap until the next holiday group, including Ariana Grande's "Santa Tell Me", Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath the Tree", then we have "The Christmas Song" (Nat 'King' Cole), "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (Andy Williams) and "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (Michael Bublé). Reentering this week are Dean Martin's "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", The Ronettes "Sleighride", Burl Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas", Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano. All have been top ten except for Darlene Love whose best was #15, this might be her chance to hit top ten this year. Of course, there aren't any new songs on the chart (new entries can debut anywhere on the chart). But that story is old hat, but what can you do?
FIFTY-TWO YEARS AGO, I listened on my radio to CKLW, from Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, which played a lot of music that I would never hear in New York City. One of them was "Pretty Lady" by Canadian jazz-rock outfit Lighthouse, which had reminded me of a girl in high school that I had a crush on; and a song that I could totally relate to, that was on the charts this time of year, 1973. From then, we go to 2025, and the song is back in my conscience (and my chart), as the new version of "Pretty Lady" by the beach music outfit North Tower, logs a seventh week at the top of the SNS 100. That's the longest reign at the top of my chart for a beach music-oriented act. It's also only the fifth song to log that many weeks on the SNS 100 top spot since the chart began in August 2010. Three others also logged seven weeks: "Screws Get Loose" by Those Darlins, and "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" by P!nk logged as many, both in 2012, and "Die With a Smile" by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, did it at the end of 2024 into early this year. The record is 8, set by The Black Keys' "Fever", in 2014.
So, can North Tower tie the record next week? The song is still either #1 or #2 on seven beach music charts, thus is an area smash, and on my chart, it has a somewhat comfortable lead on the still-advancing "Getaway Car" by Deb Browning and Michael Fite. We will soon find out.
Beach music rules the top 4 this week as Jennifer James' "Carolina's Home" moves 6-3, and The Six Piece Suits "He Doesn't Have a Clue" goes 7-4. Canadian Ruth Morayniss hangs tough at #5 with "All I Need".
There are no new entries in the Top 20 this week, thus the Impact award goes to the biggest gainer within that region. That would be The Jay Vons' "Keep On Moving" (20-10), going for their third straight #1. Anna Lavigne's "Dark Angel" also enters the top 10 (14-7). Another big mover is Durand Jones and The Indications "Don't You Know" (17-11).
We go outside the Top 20, where the big three movers are all beach acts: Rick Strickland and Lesa Hudson's "Every Road", last week's Top Debut, moves 62-32, Rhonda McDaniel's "I Can't Wait For the Weekend" goes 60-36, while the lead Christmas song, Deb Browning's "Santa Can You Come To Atlanta?", grabs the Mover honors in a 88-38 move.
DEBUTS: Nine songs enter the big chart this week, including four of the holiday variety. That includes the Top Debut, "Our Christmas" by Sir Prize and the Twomorrow Knightz, the pseudonym of British artist Tim Izzard, one of his two releases for this holiday season. While the original project's mission was to emulate the bubblegum-oriented Saturday morning kiddie shows (think Banana Splits or Captain Kool and the Kongs), this one can't be any further from that premise. It's a very sentimental adult-oriented song, about a young woman meeting a young man musician, while busking, each other 43 years ago, falling in love and spending their life together, raising a family, including enjoying every holiday season. Unfortunately, it has a sad ending as the woman he spent all his life with, passed away this year, thus he is spending Christmas alone. I've been in tears over several songs in my lifetime, but this one hit hard. You can hear the sadness in Izzard's voice. Tim's other release under the Sir Prize moniker is "Benny's Dream" which I will add and discuss next week. The song debuts at #82.
A couple notches below is another holiday offering from Lady A, "Wouldn't Be Christmas". It's been quite a while since this trio, formerly known as Lady Antebellum, who last charted here in 2013, and hit top ten on my blog the year before with "Dancing Away With My Heart", was on SNS. This one is another sentimental, mid-to-uptempo, very heartfelt. Each member takes turns with the vocals and should be a winner. It was the most added at Adult Contemporary radio this past week.
Two other entries for the season include Pentatonix and Frank Sinatra's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm", which enters from the Tremors chart, and which I reviewed last week; and Rayvn Lenae, already moving up the chart with "Love Me Not", and her take on "O Holy Night". It's a nice, comfortable reading of the classic hymn, and Ms. Lenae's voice is very appealing, a perfect fit for the song. It enters at #99.
Among the other debuts, Coldplay, which had a lot of incidental promotion over the summer when the "kiss cam" at one of their shows caught a couple cheating, enter with "Sparks". The song is on the lower portions of the Hot 100, which is surprising since this track was released way back in 2000! (so, no comments about me adding songs from 2019 on my playlist!). The song charted back then in their native U.K. but not here in the US. It's from the band's debut, Parachutes. It's sort of a departure from what the band would sound like, but it's a calming, slowing, easy-going ballad. A nice mellow effort from one of the unfortunately much-maligned bands (only, I presume, because their relatively new and out of range for fellow Boomers and Gen X'ers). But that doesn't matter here. And I have to add that their lead, Chris Martin, is the only "superstar" to ever "tweet" my blog.
Also entering are The High Frequencies, in the alternative lane with "Tonite and Every Nite", with a steadhy-chugging beat, ripe for that genre: Royel Otis, following up their alternative hit "Moody", (which I really couldn't get into, peaking here at #38), with "Who's Your Boyfriend". This one for me is a bit more accessible. Understated vocals but moving along with a bit of emotion. Finally, we have Groove Harbor, a beach music band, with "Empty Beach Chair". The song is near the top of many Carolina charts. With a female lead singer and a song written by Charlie Sattenfield, this is a perfect beach party song, to just hang out and have some fun.
AND FINALLY: We are nearing the end of another year; there will be four more weeks of the SNS 100. That will lead to my annual top 100 of the year. The big question is whether Deb Browning can "Four-peat" as her duet with Michael Fite is a big contender for year-end honors. The Black Keys, who had the honors on my first blog tally in 2010, also have a shot for a second #1 for the year. Stay tuned.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100 Playlist
November 23, 2025
|
This Week |
Last Week |
ARTIST-Title |
Weeks on List |
|
1 |
1 |
NUMBER ONE:  (Single Release) (7 Weeks at #1) |
12 |
|
2 |
2 |
7 |
|
|
3 |
6 |
10 |
|
|
4 |
7 |
9 |
|
|
5 |
5 |
13 |
|
|
6 |
8 |
8 |
|
|
7 |
14 |
5 |
|
|
8 |
3 |
11 |
|
|
9 |
4 |
11 |
|
|
10 |
20 |
TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:  Album: The Word |
4 |
|
11 |
17 |
4 |
|
|
12 |
12 |
10 |
|
|
13 |
10 |
HUNTR/X
- Golden |
13 |
|
14 |
13 |
7 |
|
|
15 |
15 |
6 |
|
|
16 |
9 |
14 |
|
|
17 |
19 |
12 |
|
|
18 |
18 |
10 |
|
|
19 |
16 |
11 |
|
|
20 |
11 |
16 |
|
|
21 |
23 |
Johnny O and the
Pocket Rockets - Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) |
8 |
|
22 |
25 |
6 |
|
|
23 |
26 |
6 |
|
|
24 |
24 |
12 |
|
|
25 |
22 |
The
Tams - My True Love● |
19 |
|
26 |
34 |
5 |
|
|
27 |
21 |
15 |
|
|
28 |
27 |
12 |
|
|
29 |
31 |
11 |
|
|
30 |
32 |
8 |
|
|
31 |
35 |
6 |
|
|
32 |
62 |
2 |
|
|
33 |
37 |
5 |
|
|
34 |
30 |
16 |
|
|
35 |
40 |
7 |
|
|
36 |
60 |
3 |
|
|
37 |
33 |
22 |
|
|
38 |
88 |
MOVER OF THE WEEK:  "Santa Are You Coming To Atlanta?" (Single Release) |
2 |
|
39 |
43 |
7 |
|
|
40 |
54 |
3 |
|
|
41 |
42 |
7 |
|
|
42 |
49 |
4 |
|
|
43 |
55 |
3 |
|
|
44 |
28 |
Barry Duke and
Sharon Woodruff - Sometimes Love Is Not Enough |
12 |
|
45 |
38 |
10 |
|
|
46 |
41 |
10 |
|
|
47 |
48 |
7 |
|
|
48 |
29 |
11 |
|
|
49 |
47 |
7 |
|
|
50 |
36 |
16 |
|
|
51 |
46 |
6 |
|
|
52 |
53 |
3 |
|
|
53 |
70 |
3 |
|
|
54 |
58 |
5 |
|
|
55 |
39 |
17 |
|
|
56 |
59 |
9 |
|
|
57 |
61 |
6 |
|
|
58 |
63 |
5 |
|
|
59 |
81 |
2 |
|
|
60 |
64 |
4 |
|
|
61 |
66 |
5 |
|
|
62 |
44 |
23 |
|
|
63 |
52 |
22 |
|
|
64 |
83 |
2 |
|
|
65 |
65 |
24 |
|
|
66 |
50 |
14 |
|
|
67 |
76 |
3 |
|
|
68 |
45 |
9 |
|
|
69 |
51 |
11 |
|
|
70 |
57 |
27 |
|
|
71 |
72 |
4 |
|
|
72 |
73 |
18 |
|
|
73 |
98 |
2 |
|
|
74 |
68 |
6 |
|
|
75 |
80 |
Scotty McCreery
ft.. Hootie and the Blowfish - Bottle Rockets |
9 |
|
76 |
56 |
14 |
|
|
77 |
82 |
3 |
|
|
78 |
85 |
3 |
|
|
79 |
95 |
2 |
|
|
80 |
67 |
16 |
|
|
81 |
100 |
2 |
|
|
82 |
--- |
TOP DEBUT:  SIR PRIZE AND THE TWOMORROW KNIGHTZ (Single Release) |
1 |
|
83 |
87 |
4 |
|
|
84 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
85 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
86 |
77 |
9 |
|
|
87 |
94 |
2 |
|
|
88 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
89 |
69 |
9 |
|
|
90 |
84 |
24 |
|
|
91 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
92 |
74 |
15 |
|
|
93 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
94 |
101 |
Pentatonix and
Frank Sinatra - I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm |
1 |
|
95 |
96 |
8 |
|
|
96 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
97 |
71 |
15 |
|
|
98 |
97 |
The
Swingin' Medallions - Hit Me With Those Horns |
2 |
|
99 |
--- |
1 |
|
|
100 |
75 |
7 |
Tremors:
101. Gary Lowder and Smokin' Hot ft. Harold Smith, Patience
102. James Hunter Six ft Van Morrison, Ain't That A Trip
103. Fall Out Boy, It Feels Like Christmas
Tremors: Songs which have steady
or increasing points but not enough to chart on the SNS 100.
Murmurs:
Jim Quick, R. Mark Black, Allie Privette - Wait For Me*
Murmurs: Songs which are in the
queue for future adds onto the Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100 Playlist.
|
|
Songs with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week
|
|
Holiday
Songs
●Songs garnering 25 plays
on Spotify (“Scrobbles”) according to Last.Fm (effective October 2024) ▲ Songs garnering 50 plays.
Songs
on the SNS 100 are included on the following public Spotify playlists
Scenes
‘n’ Soundwaves Top 40: Contains songs in positions 1-40 on the SNS
100
Scenes
41-100 and Newbies Songs in Positions 41-100 on the SNS 100 plus
new additions
Scenes
Recurrents: Songs which had been in
the top 20 and/or songs on the chart 25 weeks or more, that have dropped off
the SNS 100.
(Rob Sheldon
is a music fan who has followed music trends the past 60 years, and covers new
and classic music, specializing in pop, rock, alternative, beach, soul and
country genres). He can be contacted
at rsheldonx4804@gmail.com
