Now That's What I Call Christmas

Product Information

Originally released in 2017, Everyday Is Christmas yielded the song Santa’s Coming For Us, a Top 20 hit in 2019, while last year saw the song Snowman crack the Top 100. If it follows the form of previous solo albums, it could become his fourth Number 1 following last year’s Music Played By Humans. Seeing as the Official Singles Chart now becomes flooded with yule-themed bops of all vintages each Christmas, this year’s will be the most contemporary, most streamed and chart-busting album imaginable, as the combined figures of streams and sales for the likes of Wham!

A new version of the compilation, with a new track list and artwork inspired by the original, was released on 26 November 2016 on vinyl only. Maybe it’s because his name is a bit like bauble, that in recent years Michael Bublé has seen himself rule the festive 40 with his Christmas album, managing four non-consecutive weeks as the Official Album Chart Number 1, including one as recently as Christmas 2020. By comparison, UK acts had stuck primarily to Christmas singles, with only a few such as Cliff Richard or Elaine Paige going down the full-length route. An interesting curio as in the fact that Nat King Cole died in 1965, this new release sees him teaming up digitally with a handful of “collaborators” such as Gloria Estefan, John Legend, Kristin Chenoweth, Johnny Mathis and Calum Scott to duet on such classics as O Holy Night, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and Deck the Halls/Joy to the World.

No such messing around with Kelly Clarkson, as When Christmas Comes Around marks her second foray into the festive pop market following 2013’s Wrapped In Red. The album has since been superseded by subsequent two-disc and later three-disc releases in the 2000s. Fresh(ish) from playing Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, one-time Glee alumnus, and star in his own right, Darren Criss has come a long way since his time as Blaine Anderson, with a host of theatre credits and a recent role in the Muppets Haunted Mansion. Among these newies are previously released duets with Rod Stewart (Winter Wonderland) and The Puppini Sisters (Frosty The Snowman) plus two brand-new tunes: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow with BBC Big Band Orchestra and original composition The Christmas Sweater. Claims Gazza: “(last year) was a really hard Christmas for so many because of the scenario we all found ourselves in.

If you are wondering why Kate Bush’s ‘December Could Be Magic Again’ is missing (either in standard, or rare ‘bongo version’ form) it’s because, as SDE understands it, the licensing request was refused. It’s very jazzy and jolly and jingly compared to his recent releases, and features guests such as Adam Lambert, Lainey Wilson and Evan Rachel Wood, and features his takes on the novelty I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas, Joni Mitchell’s River and the perennial Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas among others.

Now, in the last decade, UK acts have been playing catch-up with Robbie Williams, Saint Etienne, Tracey Thorn, honorary Brit Kylie and more entering into the spirit of an album of yuletide bops, and now the schedules from September onwards are increasingly festive. It’s a bit of a surprise after 30 years into a pop career that Gary has only just got around to making a Christmas album. It’s also not the first time digital trickery has been utilised with the star, as his daughter Natalie Cole has “duetted” with him on two collections – 1991’s Unforgettable and 2009’s Still Unforgettable.