A grassroots campaign led by UK-based Facebook users has done the remarkable, helping Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 single “Killing In The Name” take the top spot in the Christmas week singles chart in the UK. (The Christmas Number 1 single has been a big deal in the UK for years.) Over the past few years, the Christmas week top single has been taken by the winner of the UK TV talent show The X Factor. (The X Factor features and is produced by Simon Cowell of American Idol fame.) This year’s winner of The X Factor, Joe McElderry, has released a cover of Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” as a single, and it was favored early on to be the Christmas week number one single in the UK. In the end, Rage Against The Machine sold 500,000 copies of Killing In The Name” to McElderry’s 450,000 copies of “The Climb” single. Rage Against The Machine is donating a large amount of the proceeds from this week’s sales of their single to the UK charity Shelter, which aids the homeless.
A statement from Rage Against The Machine read in part:
“We’ve shown that we can make a difference and that you don’t have a right to Number One just because Simon Cowell says so, especially with a bad cover!”
The top ten singles in the UK for Christmas week are:
1. Rage Against The Machine – ‘Killing In The Name’
2. Joe McElderry – ‘The Climb’
3. Lady Gaga – ‘Bad Romance’
4. Peter Kay’s Animated All Star Band – ‘The Official BBC Children In Need Medley’
5. 3OH!3 – ‘Starstrukk (feat Katy Perry)’
6. Robbie Williams – ‘You Know Me’
7. Cheryl Cole – ‘ 3 Words’
8. Rihanna – ‘Russian Roulette’
9. Journey – ‘Don’t Stop Believin”
10. Black Eyed Peas – ‘Meet Me Halfway’
For more on this incredible story, see the article from NME.com.
Powerline A.D. extends congratulations to the organizers of the Rage Against The X Factor campaign for showing that enough people still care about good music and are tired of having musical pablum shoved down their throats. Well done to everyone who was involved!
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