'Tis the season for everything holly and jolly, especially when it comes to the radio airwaves and shopping mall stereos. PlayNetwork, the company that compiles in-store playlists for over 400 brands, has shared a list of the top 20 songs that will be on repeat in stores all holiday season long. After dominating the No. 1 spot on PlayNetwork's list every year since 1994, Mariah Carey's classic, "All I Want for Christmas Is You," has been ousted by The Shins' cover of Sir Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime," UpRoxx reports.
Yes, the Portland, Oregon-based indie crooners have the most played holiday song despite the world not seeing all that much action from them since Natalie Portman declared "New Slang" to be a life-changing song in the 2004 film, Garden State, and the band's subsequent album, 2007's Wincing the Night Away, hence becoming the band's biggest commercial success.
The band's cover first appeared on 2012's Holiday Rules compilation alongside a song by McCartnery himself as well as tracks by Rufus Wainwright, Sharon Van Etten, Andrew Bird, Calexico and the Fruit Bats among others. Listen to The Shins' version of "Wonderful Christmastime" below.
What's baffling is the fact that The Shins have become the most played band of the holiday shopping season with a cover of what many critics have decided is the least memorable Christmas song of all time. The track tops the A.V. Club's "Holiday Hatesongs" list whereas USA Today declared the McCartney original one of the two worst Christmas songs ever, the other being John Lennon's "Merry Christmas (War Is Over)."
While one can't help but wonder what McCartney was thinking in 1979 when he decided to drop a relatively minimalist, spacey Christmas song that juxtaposes synths with jingle bells, one can definitely argue there are way worse holiday songs out there. That's probably why the original version of the track also made the PlayNetwork list, coming in at No. 17. Listen to it and watch the equally strange video, below.
