Elton John's discography is packed to the brim with hits. The piano player and singer is especially successful in the United Kingdom, his home country, where he remains one of the most popular artists of all time. He's scored dozens of top 10 smashes and twice as many top 40 wins.
The superstar brings one single back into each of those important tiers on the U.K. singles chart this week. John returns to the top 10 with one tune, as another finds its way back to the top 40, and both may continue to soar in the coming days.
John's "Merry Christmas" bolts from No. 31 to No. 9, earning another stay inside the loftiest tier on the tally. The track, which is a jolly collaboration with Ed Sheeran, once topped the tally, adding to the ever-expanding lists of champions from both stars.
At the same time that "Merry Christmas" becomes a top 10 smash once more, another one of John's most popular holiday tunes rises again. "Step Into Christmas" flies from No. 56 to No. 23, breaking into the top 40 for another season.
While it never took a turn running the show, "Step Into Christmas" has previously hit the top 10 as well. The solo cut, which was released decades before John's Sheeran duet, has thus far peaked at No. 8 on the tally.
Both songs appear on four charts apiece in the U.K., and they're on the rise on all of them. As Christmas approaches, the two holiday cuts surge forward on sales and streaming rankings, and all those purchases and plays on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music ensure that the singles continue to improve on the main, all-consumption tally as well.
Interestingly, even as two of his beloved singles step up and gain ground, John's sole charting album is on the way down, and on a pair of rankings as well. Diamonds, his biggest and most successful compilation, declines slightly on both lists it finds space on. On the main albums tally, which tracks the most-consumed full-lengths and EPs in the nation, Diamondsdips from No. 9 to No. 12, falling outside the top 10. It also descends two spaces to No. 8 on the Official Albums Streaming chart.