The Beatles Never Had No. 1s with Christmas Songs, But That Didn’t Stop All Four From Topping The Charts During The Holidays
(November 29, 2025) — Here’s one that even the most obsessive Beatles scholars don’t mention — and one that only chart nerds like ourselves would even bother conjuring up: each former member of the Fab Four scored exactly one No. 1 hit that happened to reign on either Thanksgiving or Christmas Day in America.
Not one of them doubled up.
Not one of them missed the holiday window.
Four men, four solo careers, four seasonal No. 1s.
And, per the usual script, one outlier that likely won’t surprise you.
No mythology. No numerology. Just a curious little pop-chart calendar coincidence happening once each for John, Paul, George and Ringo — and appropriate to recap during the holidays.
And like all other Beatles post breakup No. 1 stories, this one begins with George Harrison.
A Christmas Day Blessing for George (1970)
When “My Sweet Lord” reached No. 1 during Christmas week 1970 (chart date: December 26), it became the Beatles’ first post-breakup chart-topper and the first sign that George could make it without the other three. Harrison’s deeply personal ode to faith, rendered in Phil Spector’s cathedral-of-sound production, felt almost purpose-built for the season — after all we were celebrating the birth of the “sweet” Baby Jesus — though no one at the time recognized that the song’s ascent would kick off this unlikely four-beat holiday chain reaction with the other three Beatles.
It was Christmas magic in more ways than one.
The first Beatle to top the Hot 100 as a solo act.
The first (and still only) person to top the chart during Christmas with a song about the Lord.
The first link in this strange holiday pattern.
Ringo: The Lone Thanksgiving King (1973)
Three years later — and to perhaps everyone’s surprise at the time — Ringo Starr, the one often cast as the Beatles’ “underdog,” delivered his own seasonal triumph. “Photograph,” the bittersweet ballad about lost love that he co-wrote with George, climbed to No. 1 during Thanksgiving 1973 (chart date Nov. 24). With its lone week at the top, Ringo managed to do something that even John hadn’t yet done — top the charts — and with a song that fans might be inclined to stretch into a holiday theme given the abundance of “photographs” often snapped with our loved ones at this time of year.
And in perfect Ringo fashion, he’s the outlier in this story.
While John, Paul and George all got Christmas chart-toppers, Ringo is the only Beatle who reigned during Thanksgiving week. It’s oddly poetic: the drummer who kept time for the most famous band on earth became the only one whose No. 1 aligned with America’s “thankful” holiday — perhaps aligned with the false notion that Starr was “thankful” to even be in the group, but also one that fits Ringo’s humble, good-natured vibe almost too well.
John: A Christmas No. 1 Marked by Tragedy (1980)
Fast-forward seven years — to December 1980 — and we land at one of the most heartbreaking chart moments of the 20th century. John Lennon’s “(Just Like) Starting Over” rose to No. 1 during Christmas week 1980, three weeks after his murder shocked the world.
The song had already been climbing in the top ten, but grief accelerated everything. Christmas week 1980 became less a holiday chart celebration and more a cultural vigil for the fallen Beatle. Lennon at No. 1 during Christmas — a moment equal parts triumph and tragedy — fits this pattern but reshapes it, too. George and Ringo’s holiday reigns were warm and human. John’s was somber, symbolic, and — given the circumstances — emotionally seismic.
Still, the pattern held.
Another Beatle.
Another holiday No. 1.
Exactly ten years after George’s.
(Quick note: Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” was No. 1 for the week ending Nov. 16, 1974 — just missing Thanksgiving by 12 days that year.)
Paul: “Ho, Ho, Ho” with “Say, Say, Say” (1983)
Three years after Lennon’s 1980 crowning — similar to the three-year gap that had separated George and Ringo a decade earlier — Paul McCartney completed the quartet’s holiday sweep. His duet with Michael Jackson, “Say, Say, Say,” was in the fourth of its six weeks at No. 1 during Christmas week 1983 (and just missed Thanksgiving by two weeks). Paul’s eight prior post-Beatles No. 1 singles had all reached the top during the spring or summer. So landing a No. 1 in December wasn’t a foregone conclusion with “Say, Say, Say,” — a song recorded (and shelved) two years earlier and which was only green lit as a single after Jackson’s immense popularity that year.
Of all the Beatles holiday No. 1s, Paul’s is the least spiritually loaded, the least bittersweet, the least symbolic. It’s simply one of those silly love songs by a superstar collaboration at the peak of their commercial power, dominating radio, MTV, and the singles chart through the holiday season.
And yet it matters because it closes the loop.
One Beatle per holiday.
Two three-year gaps spaced a decade apart by pure happenstance.
And Ringo once again the outlier with his Turkey Day topper.
So… what does it all mean?
Honestly? Nothing. There’s no sacred numerology at work here, despite the neat three-year and ten-year gaps between the entries. No grand cosmic message. No intentional holiday takeover by the Fab Four.
But patterns tell stories, whether they’re meaningful or simply poetic. This one tells us that the Beatles continued shaping American culture long after their breakup — even with solo careers that shot off in different directions. It tells us that holiday seasons, with all their joy and melancholy, found a way to intersect with George’s spirituality, Ringo’s charm, John’s tragedy, and Paul’s pop brilliance.
And it tells us something else:
Even apart, the Beatles were still connected — not by choice, not by planning, but by the strange pull of pop culture trivia itself.
A tiny footnote in chart history…
and a wonderfully Beatlesesque one at that.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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