Hey, it's Kate. It's that time of year again, so we're rerunning a holiday classic.

It's about one hit holiday tune, how it came to be, why it endures, and what its success

says about the larger forces shaping the music industry. The song in question, Mariah Carey's, All I Want for Christmas

is you. Enjoy. This winter, our colleague John Jurgensen has been living, breathing, and writing

about Christmas music.

One song in particular.

I've had, like, my ears tuned for those little bells that start the song.

You know, it might be in a car that's passing.

It might be on TV.

Certainly on the radio, because my wife has Christmas music on repeat, pretty much from Thanksgiving through January.

So I hear it a lot in my house also.

That song is Mariah Carey's smash hit. All I want for Christmas is You. I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need.

This song feels like it's everywhere this time of year.

And the numbers back that up. It is the star on top of the tree

under which all other Christmas song ornaments can't even get close. So last year, it got

about 309 million audio and video streams. And by comparison, the second most popular Christmas song last year,

which was Brenda Lee's rocking around the Christmas tree, that old chestnut,

that got about 193 million streams last year.

All I Want for Christmas is so popular,

it's easy to forget that it hasn't always been like this.

The song surged to the top of our collective playlist happened fast, and it actually happened

...