It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
For just about any established music artist, making a Christmas album is perhaps one of the best ways to ensure you’ll enjoy years of continued album sales. Every holiday season, Christmas albums by popular artists become best sellers all over again, even though some of the music may be ten… twenty… thirty years old or more.
Here’s two great examples from the “or more” category.
First up is a collection of Christmas songs by Frank Sinatra. Obviously, all of the music on Ultimate Christmas has been released before, but what is unique about this set is it marks the first time his holiday recordings from both his Capital Records and Reprise years have been combined. Here’s the complete track list:
01. White Christmas
02. The Christmas Waltz
03. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
04. Jingle Bells
05. The First Noël
06. Mistletoe And Holly
07. The Christmas Song
08. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
09. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
10. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
11. An Old Fashioned Christmas
12. I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day
13. The Little Drummer Boy
14. Whatever Happened To Christmas
15. The Twelve Days Of Christmas – with Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina
16. The Bells Of Christmas (Greensleeves) – with Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina
17. I Wouldn’t Trade Christmas – with Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina
18. A Baby Just Like You
19. Christmas Memories
20. Silent Night
Ultimate Christmas by Frank Sinatra comes out October 6.
That same day we’ll also see a new holiday set from another legendary artist: Elvis Presley. Again, we’re not going to get any new Elvis performances for obvious reasons. However, Christmas With Elvis And The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra brings a new, um, orchestral sound to the King’s music. This marks at least the third album in 2017 where classic vocal performances have been paired with newly recorded music by the Royal Philharmonic. (Both Roy Orbison and Aretha Franklin got orchestral makeovers from the RPO.)
Here’s the track list for Christmas With Elvis And The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra:
01. Santa Claus Is Back In Town
02. White Christmas
03. Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)
04. Merry Christmas Baby
05. Blue Christmas
06. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
07. Winter Wonderland
08. Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)
09. Silver Bells
10. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
11. O Come, All Ye Faithful
12. The First Noel
13. Silent Night
There’s also a deluxe edition of the album that will be available on November 24 that adds four bonus tracks called the Peace In The Valley EP:
14. (There’ll Be) Peace In The Valley (For Me)
15. I Believe
16. Take My Hand, Precious Lord
17. It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)
