Top 20 Countdown

I thought I'd give you a little list here of the twenty most popular downloads for the past couple of years.  These are based on the number of downloads showing over at MediaFire, which means it's only the stuff that's been shared out the past two years.  Before that I used RapidShare and that hasn't worked out so well lately.  So, let's take a look at what's most popular.

20. The Waikikis-Merry Christmas-It's interesting that things I shared out for the first time this year are already on the list.  I figured things that had been up for a year would have way more downloads, but I guess that's not always the case.  Part of that is due to the fact that I'm not throwing as much out there this year, and some people who come to the blog only download the most recent share, missing out completely on some of the other things.

19. George Greeley-The 22 Most Lost Christmas Piano Concertos-This one is odd because I didn't think it was that good, or that well known.  Maybe I sell it well, I don't know...

18. Marco Antonio Muniz-Navidad En Puerto Rico-Wow, another one I didn't think would ever last, much less show up this high on the list.  You never know what people are going to like.

17. Glenn Zottola-Christmas In Jazztime-Another brand new share this year, very nice if you like the jazzy side of Christmas.  I love the tracks from the guest singer Maxine Sullivan.

16. The Jimmy Joyce Singers-A Christmas To Remember-Now here's an excellent choice for the top 20.  Orchestra duties on this one are handled by Billy May, that alone is worth the price of admission.

15. The Lennon Sisters & Ruby Wright with a small handful of singles-I guess the demand for female singers at Christmas is large.  Good stuff!

14. Happy Holidays With The Best Of The Mummers-I told you this was the happiest Christmas music ever!

13. Sammy Kaye-I Want To Wish You A Merry Christmas-There's a good reason why Sammy was as popular as he was for as long as he was.

12. Paul Mauriat-The Christmas Album-One of my earliest and best shares, sounding even better thanks to a 2010 remaster job.  Listen to this one, it speaks for itself.

11. 2010 Christmas In July ClickRepaired Bundle #4-Why is this in here?  I think because it was the first share any visitors saw if they visited the blog between the end of Christmas in July and the beginning of Christmas this year.  The other three parts aren't even close...

10. Christmas Music From The Stars-Good collection of early fifties singles that you just can't find anywhere else.  And a couple of things I probably shouldn't be sharing out, but what are you gonna do?

9. Vaughn Monroe-A Marshmallow World 7"-A nice pair of songs from the singer of Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!.  It's good, but maybe not that good.  Maybe I should bundle this with a couple of his other holiday singles, see if we can go top 5 with it.

8. The Somerset Strings-Music For Christmas At Home-This is a 2011 remaster that fixed a couple f skips on my old share.  The old share went nowhere, this one is hugely popular.  Odd.

7. Burl Ives-Christmas At The White House-I think this one is name recognition.  People associate Burl with Christmas, so they download it.  And it's really good with some different Christmas songs and arrangements on it, that helps.

6. St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir Sings Christmas Carols-Good choral Christmas songs.  I wonder if all those downloaders realize there's a second volume available?  I see that I mentioned last year that this was my most popular share at the time.

5. The Ralph Hunter Choir-Christmas Surprises-For my money, this record should be number one.

4. 16 Traditional Christmas Carols-This one, I don't know.  I almost didn't record it in the first place, it was just kind of a space filler to make my Bob Kames collection look bigger.  I guess it has an audience.  Perhaps someone posted a link out there and it's gotten out there somehow.  No clue.

3. Ramsey Lewis-More Sounds Of Christmas-Why this isn't on the CD with his first Christmas collection is a mystery to me.  It's great, and should be better known.

2. Warner Bros Stars-We Wish You A Merry Christmas-Nothing sells better than celebrity, so this one is no surprise.  Containing a huge Christmas single doesn't hurt, either, but the less said about that, the better.

And number 1?  No surprise here.

1. Fred Waring-Twas The Night Before Christmas-This was number one back on RapidShare as well, before I remastered it in 2010.  Everybody loves it.  From the people who grew up with it to the people who heard their great take on Rudolph in the store yesterday, no one can turn it off once it starts playing.

There you have it.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the little list.  Is your favorite on the list?  What should be on the list?  What shouldn't be on the list?  Remember, these are actual downloads, not my opinion.