圣诞节最火的几首歌，有你爱听的吗？
2018.12.23 周日
圣 诞
就像过年都要听《难忘今宵》一样……
宜
欢喜
悲伤
忌
每年圣诞、元旦，你总免不了被这几首歌洗脑。
不管是去逛商场，还是在家刷视频，都逃不开。听久了，嘴里也跟着哼，好像这些旋律天生就充满着欢乐的气氛。
比方说你现在听到的这首，玛利亚·凯莉的“All I want for Christmas is You”，被誉为她的“养老保险”，就因为每年圣诞期间的收听量陡增，玛利亚·凯莉光是英国的版税就能进账37.6万英镑。
难怪有人说：
“Write a good Christmas song and you'll never have to work another day in your life”.
写一首朗朗上口的圣诞歌，你这辈子就可以不用上班了。
Anyone who’s watched TV or gone shopping lately has heard a Christmas song or two... or three or four or five or...
最近看电视或者逛街的人肯定都听过一两首圣诞曲目……或者三四、五六首……
Listening to Christmas music is a hugely popular holiday tradition. And though recording artists release new Christmas songs every year, people tend to stick with the classics, according to Billboard.
听圣诞歌简直就是每年过节期间的保留传统。公告牌榜单显示，虽然每年都有录音室歌手发布新的圣诞单曲，但是大家还是只听那些最经典的。
Of the top 10 tracks on Billboard’s “Holiday 100” list, the youngest song is Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You,” which has taken the No. 1 spot for most weeks since Billboard started the list in 2011.
公告牌“假日100首”榜单中前10名里，离现在最近的一首歌是1994年玛利亚·凯莉的单曲“All I Want for Christmas is You”，自从公告牌2011年举行假日曲目排名开始，这首歌大部分时间都占据榜首。
The second-youngest song is 1984’s “Last Christmas” by Wham! The other tunes are classics from the '40s through the '60s.
第二新的歌是1984年威猛乐队的“Last Christmas”，其他歌曲都是上世纪40年代到60年代的作品。
You may know that if you – or even just a relative – writes a Christmas song that gets played over and over and over and over every festive season, you may never have to work a day in your life.
你知道，要是你——哪怕只是你的某个亲戚——写了首每年过节都让人们单曲循环的圣诞歌，你可能这辈子都用不着工作了。
The royalties that you can make from Christmas songs is absurd, even if said festive tune is the only hit you ever have.
这些圣诞歌的版税多到令人瞠目结舌，哪怕你只写过这么一首火爆的圣诞歌曲。
Unlike most popular music, a successful Christmas song gets wheeled out year after year once the festive season kicks in, earning the singers and composers of these tracks hundreds of thousands of euro in royalties.
一首大热的圣诞歌曲跟其他流行歌还不一样，每年过节，它都会被拿出来听，给歌手和作曲者们圈几十万的版税。
Royalties are the money paid to an artist or composer for the use of their patent each time their song is played in public.
某首歌在公众场合播放时所产生的版权费用会支付给艺术家和作曲家们，这笔钱就叫做版税。
So, which Christmas songs are making the most money?
那么，哪些圣诞曲赚的版税最多呢？
There are no official figures for how much revenue each song generates in royalties, meaning all we have to go on are estimates - mainly based on royalties earned in Ireland and the UK.
每首歌的版税多寡，目前还没有官方数据。我们只能依据爱尔兰和英国的版税数据估算一个数。
The Performing Right Society manages musical rights for hundreds of thousands of artists and collects their accumulating royalties each year, but the organisation does not release the amounts involved.
演艺权利协会管理着几十万名艺术家们的音乐著作权，也记录了他们每年的累计版税。但是，这家机构没有发布过相关数据。
Top of the list is "Fairytale of New York", which was released in November 1987 and reached the Top 20 of the charts on 16 separate occasions, selling over 1.2 million copies.
英国圣诞曲榜单首位的歌曲是“Fairytale of New York”, 发行于1987年11月份，16次进入过榜单前20名，专辑销量达120万。
The artists have never revealed how much they earn from the iconic song, but have hinted that they do quite well out of it.
这首歌的创作者并未透露过他们从这首歌里赚了多少版税，但暗示过这首歌的收益让他们过上了现在的舒坦生活。
Most estimates suggest the track earns up to €500,000 annually in UK royalties alone, but given its worldwide appeal, "Fairytale of New York"'s total royalties could reach €1 million each year.
大多数的估算数据都显示，这首歌每年在英国的版税就有50万欧元，考虑到这首歌闻名世界，“Fairytale of New York”每年的总版税收入能达到100万欧元。
Released in 1994, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is estimated to have generated well over €40 million in worldwide royalties over the years, with more recent estimates for the UK suggesting the song still earns royalties of around €400,000 a year.
玛利亚·凯莉1994年发行的单曲“All I Want For Christmas Is You”这些年来估计已经为她带来了超过4000万欧元的版税收入，新的数据显示这首歌每年在英国就有40万欧元的版税收入。
意料之外又情理之中的事是，每年圣诞期间收听率最高的歌大部分都是上世纪40-60年代发行的。
可以说是很“传统”了，可能有点像我们每年过年都要听《难忘今宵》一样吧。
编辑：左卓
stick with: 持续；坚持
festive: adj 节日的；喜庆的；圣诞节的
royalties: n 版税
tune: n 曲子
wheel out: 故伎重演；反复出现
composer: n 作曲家
patent: n 专利权
generate: v 产生
accumulate: v 集聚；累积
iconic: adj 标志性的；偶像的
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