A Very Special Christmas (album)

A Very Special Christmas
Cover art by Keith Haring
Compilation album by Various artists
Released October 12, 1987[1]
Genre Christmas music, Children's music
Length 50:57 (Original version)
51:11 (Revised version)
Label A&M
Producer Jimmy Iovine
Various artists chronology
A Very Special Christmas
(1987)		 A Very Special Christmas 2
(1992)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]

A Very Special Christmas is the first in the A Very Special Christmas series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit Special Olympics. The album was released in mid-October 1987, and production was overseen by Jimmy Iovine for A&M Records. A Very Special Christmas has also raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics.[3] The cover artwork was designed by Keith Haring.

On January 16, 1998, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies in the United States.[4]

As of November 2014, A Very Special Christmas is the nineteenth best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era of music sales tracking (March 1991 – present), having sold 2,520,000 copies according to SoundScan.[5]

Track listing

TrackSong TitleWriter(s)ArtistTime
1."Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"John Frederick Coots and Haven GillespieThe Pointer Sisters3:22
2."Winter Wonderland"Felix Bernard and Richard B. SmithEurythmics3:36
3."Do You Hear What I Hear?"Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne BakerWhitney Houston3:33
4."Merry Christmas Baby"Lou Baxter and Johnny MooreBruce Springsteen and the E Street Band4:53
5."Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"Hugh Martin and Ralph BlanePretenders4:42
6."I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"Tommie ConnorJohn Cougar Mellencamp2:39
7."Gabriel's Message"Charles Bordes and Sabine Baring-GouldSting2:14
8."Christmas in Hollis"Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason MizellRun-D.M.C.3:00
9."Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Phil SpectorU22:21
10."Santa Baby"Joan Javits, Philip Springer and Tony SpringerMadonna2:35
11."The Little Drummer Boy"Katherine Kennicott Davis, Harry Simeone and Henry OnoratiBob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band3:32
12."Run Rudolph Run"Johnny Marks and Marvin BrodieBryan Adams2:43
13."Back Door Santa"Clarence Carter and Marcus DanielBon Jovi3:54
14."The Coventry Carol"TraditionalAlison Moyet3:25
15."Silent Night"Josef Mohr and Franz X. GruberStevie Nicks4:37
  • On later pressings of the album, "Back Door Santa" was replaced with "I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas", also by Bon Jovi.
  • Also, on later pressings of the album, a spoken introduction on The Pretenders' "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", presumably by a young child, was omitted.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.averyspecialchristmas.org/albums/a-very-special-christmas-vol-1
  2. ↑ A Very Special Christmas at AllMusic
  3. ↑ McGee, Matt (2008). U2:A Diary. Omnibus Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-84772-108-2.
  4. ↑ "RIAA Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on 2014-08-30. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
  5. ↑ Staff, Billboard (2014-12-01). "The Gifts That Keep on Giving: Biggest Radio and Album Hits of the Holidays". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2014-12-02.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.