Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 debut single ‘Killing In The Name‘ is 65,000 copies ahead of X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s cover of Miley Cyrus’ ‘The Climb‘ in the race for this year’s UK Christmas Number 1.
The track has retained it’s opening day lead after an Internet campaign launched to challenge the X Factor’s dominance over the Christmas Number 1 race attracted over 750,000 followers on Facebook.
Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has added his support to the campaign, saying on Twitter: “Rage’s ‘Killing In The Name’ & The X Factor’s goofy Christmas single are neck and neck for number one spot on UK chart. England! Now is your time.”
The traditional Christmas Number 1 single, which is awarded to the track at the top of the charts on the last Sunday before Christmas Day, has retained a large degree of public interest in Britain despite the decline of the singles chart in recent years. Various winners of Simon Cowell’s The X Factor have dominated the race over recent years with Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke all hitting the top spot in successive years. The re-edited version of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ by Band Aid 20 was the last non-X Factor winner to reach the summit in 2004.
A similar campaign was launched last year when Leonard Cohen’s original version of ‘Halleujah‘ was eventually beaten to the number 1 spot by 2008 X Factor winner Alaexandra Burke’s cover version.