Burl Ives (1909–1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. He began as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually becoming a major star of CBS Radio. Ives was a film actor in the 1940s and 1950s, and in the 1960s had hits in country music. His voice-over work in Christmas specials contributed to his association with the Christmas season.
| Year | Single | Chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [2] |
US AC |
US Country | AU | UK | |||
| 1948 | "Blue Tail Fly" (With The Andrews Sisters And Vic Schoen's Orchestra) | 24 | — | — | — | — | |
| 1949 | "Lavender's Blue (Dilly Dilly)" (With Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers) | 16 | — | 13 | 1 | — | |
| "Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend)" | 21 | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1951 | "On Top Of Old Smoky" (With Percy Faith And His Orchestra) | 10 | — | — | — | — | |
| "The Little White Duck" | — | — | — | 15 | — | ||
| 1952 | "The Wild Side of Life" (With Grady Martin And The Slewfoot Five) | 30 | — | 6 | — | — | |
| 1954 | "The Parting Song" | — | — | — | 17 | — | |
| "True Love Goes On And On" (With Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra And Chorus) | 23 | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1957 | "Marianne" (With The Trinidaddies) | 84 | — | — | — | — | |
| 1961 | "A Little Bitty Tear" (With The Anita Kerr Singers And Owen Bradley's Orchestra) | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | |
| 1962 | "Funny Way of Laughin'" (With Owen Bradley's Orchestra) | 10 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 29 | |
| "Call Me Mr. In-Between" (With Owen Bradley's Orchestra) | 19 | 6 | 3 | 18 | — | ||
| "Mary Ann Regrets" (With Owen Bradley's Orchestra And Chorus) | 39 | 13 | 12 | 15 | — | ||
| 1963 | "The Same Old Hurt" (With Owen Bradley's Orchestra and Chorus) | 91 | — | — | — | — | |
| "Baby Come Home To Me" | 131 | — | — | — | — | ||
| "I'm The Boss" (With Owen Bradley's Orchestra And Chorus) | 111 | — | — | 86 | — | ||
| "This Is All I Ask" | 67 | — | — | — | — | ||
| "It Comes And Goes" | 124 | — | — | 94 | — | ||
| "True Love Goes On And On" (second entry) | 66 | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1964 | "A Holly Jolly Christmas" | 4 | 30 | — | — | 40 | |
| "Pearly Shells (Popo O Ewa)" (With Owen Bradley's Orchestra) | 60 | 12 | — | 22 | — | ||
| 1965 | "My Gal Sal" (with Owen Bradley's Orchestra) | 122 | — | — | — | — | |
| "Chim Chim Cher-ee" | 120 | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1966 | "Evil Off My Mind" | — | — | 47 | — | — | |
| 1967 | "Lonesome 7-7203" | — | — | 72 | — | — | |
| 1968 | "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" (with Robert Mersey's Orchestra) | 133 | 35 | — | 28 | — | |
Since many radio stations in the US adopt a format change to Christmas music each December, many holiday hits have an annual spike in popularity during the last few weeks of the year and are retired once the season is over.[3] In December 2011, Billboard began a Holiday Songs chart with 50 positions that monitors the last five weeks of each year to "rank the top holiday hits of all eras using the same methodology as the Hot 100, blending streaming, airplay, and sales data",[4] and in 2013 the number of positions on the chart was doubled, resulting in the Holiday 100.[5] Two Ives recordings have made appearances on the Holiday 100 and are noted below according to the holiday season in which they charted there.
| Title | Holiday season peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| "A Holly Jolly Christmas" | 6[6] | 5[7] | 5[8] | 8[9] | 4[10] | 7[11] | 4[12] | 4[13] | 3[14] | 4[15] | 3[16] | 4[17] | 5[18] |
| "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" | 38[19] | — | 67[20] | 31[9] | 41[21] | 29[22] | 50[23] | 48[13] | 46[24] | 57[25] | 49[26] | 40[17] | 42[18] |