The final chart of the year is traditionally a dead week, with the race for the Christmas Number One over, and the shops closed for at least a day.  This year, it’s slightly different, because Rage Against The Machine reached number one on the strength of a targetted one-week buying campaign which was never meant to be sustained.  X Factor coronation singles, on the other hand, tend to stick at the top for a while.

And so it is that, with the inevitability of death and taxes, “The Climb” by Joe McElderry ascends to the number one position. 

That’s his performance from the X Factor live final; the hastily-made official video isn’t embeddable, but frankly, you’ve seen these things before and you know the drill.  Here’s the link, if you really want to see the usual clipshow for the fifth year running.  To be honest, he sings it better on the live version anyway.

McElderry has a decent voice, although I have a sneaking suspicion that he really belongs in musical theatre.  According to the voting figures, he broke from the pack in the last four weeks of the competition.  His main limitation may prove to be that he’s rather bland as a personality, and doesn’t really have a distinctive persona.  His interviews since winning suggest he’s determined to be as inoffensive as possible.  Obviously there’s a place for nice young boys, especially in MOR balladry, but it’s not really a common formula in pop stars these days.  They might want to work on that.

Still, his coronation single has sold perfectly well in the end.  Contrary to popular belief, although X Factor singles always steamroller the competition at Christmas, the sales do vary significantly from year to year, with Leon Jackson selling about half as much as Leona Lewis.  Joe’s sales were nearer to Leona’s, so he has nothing to worry about just yet.

“The Climb” is a cover version of a Miley Cyrus song taken from the soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie.

The Miley Cyrus version is miles better, but then it wasn’t knocked up in a studio as a generic backing track for whoever turned out to win the show.  It peaked at number 11 earlier in the year, making it an odd choice to cover.  Then again, it didn’t make much impact at the time.  Miley Cyrus is clearly keen to make the transition from children’s entertainer to mainstream pop star, but so far she hasn’t quite managed it in Britain; she’s yet to make the top ten, in fact.

Frankly, “The Climb” isn’t even the best song from the Hannah Montana soundtrack album.  “Hoedown Throwdown” is plainly miles better.

I like to imagine that somewhere in a parallel universe, Joe ended up doing that song, possibly due to an administrative error.

As for Rage Against The Machine, “Killing in the Name” held up better than expected in its second week, hanging on at number 2. Since the campaign is over, presumably a lot of people just bought it this week because they actually liked it. It’s also possible that quite a few people raced to buy it last Sunday, not realising that the chart cut-off point is midnight. It certainly started dropping steeply down the iTunes chart over the course of the week. Still, those who were predicting a precipitous dive down the chart will be disappointed.

And so, the X Factor domination recedes for another nine months.  Otherwise, as you’d expect, there’s not much in the way of activity on this week’s chart.  The handful of new arrivals are all re-entries:

• Jay-Z featuring Mr Hudson, “Young Forever” at number 30.  This already reached number 32 as an album track earlier in the year, but it’s being promoted for a single release in January. 
• Wham, “Last Christmas” at number 34, after dropping out of the chart last week.
• Slade, “Merry Xmas Everybody” at number 35, making its annual return to the chart (though the classic Christmas singles are having less impact each year, presumably because everyone has a copy by now)
• Miley Cyrus, “Party in the USA” at number 36 – her last official single, which dropped out of the top 40 a month ago but has been hovering just outside for a while.
• Chris Rea, “Driving Home for Christmas” at number 40, another seasonal perennial.

Tragically, Bob Dylan’s interesting rendition of “Must Be Santa” could only make number 41.