A Christmas Album (Barbra Streisand album)

A Christmas Album (1967) is the first Christmas album and the tenth studio album released by Barbra Streisand.

A Christmas Album
Studio album by
Barbra Streisand
ReleasedOctober 16, 1967 (LP)
October 30, 1984 (CD)
RecordedJune 1966 at Olympia Sound Studios in London; 9–16 September 1967 in Los Angeles, California
GenrePop, Christmas
Length33:40
LabelColumbia
ProducerJack Gold
Barbra Streisand chronology
Simply Streisand
(1967)		 A Christmas Album
(1967)		 Funny Girl (soundtrack)
(1968)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Background

The album is one of Streisand's best-selling albums and is ranked as one of the best-selling Christmas albums of all time. The cover photograph of the album was taken on June 16, 1967, during the rehearsal for her concert, A Happening in Central Park. The album is also Streisand's last album to use Columbia's "Stereo 360 sound" banner, and the last to be issued originally in monaural and stereo. Most copies of the LP edition seen today are stereophonic.

Many of the tracks from this album were re-issued in 1970 as Side 1 of a compilation album titled Seasons Greetings from Barbra Streisand...and Friends, pieced together by Maxwell House Coffee and Columbia Special Products. (Side 2 of the compilation featured various tracks from Streisand's Columbia labelmates Doris Day, Jim Nabors, and Andre Kostelanetz.)

The album was released on CD in November 1989. It was remastered and reissued once again in October 2004 for the Columbia Records "Essential Holiday Classics" series. The album was yet again reissued in October 2007 to commemorate the album's 40th anniversary.

On May 5, 1999, A Christmas Album was certified Quintuple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of five million copies in the United States.[2]

Critical reception

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, William Ruhlman gave it a retrospective four and a half (out of five) stars and called it "a timeless classic", stating that "If Simply Streisand ... indicated that Streisand was overly reverent when it came to standards, reverence was no problem with seasonal fare."

Commercial performance

On Billboard magazine's special year-end weekly Christmas Albums chart, A Christmas Album spent all five weeks that the chart was published in late 1967 at No. 1, making it the best-selling holiday album of 1967 in the U.S.[3] The album charted for the first time on Billboard's weekly Billboard 200 album sales chart in December 1981, peaking at position No. 108 during a five-week chart run.

For the week ending November 24, 2012, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 195 and climbed to No. 183 the following week. It has also reached No. 38 on the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.[4]

For the week ending January 6, 2012 the album re-entered the Billboard Holiday Album Sales chart at No. 46 and climbed to No. 31 the following week.[5]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Jingle Bells?" (New adaptation by Jack Gold and Marty Paich)James Lord Pierpont1:58
2."Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin3:14
3."The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)"Mel Tormé, Bob Wells4:00
4."White Christmas"Irving Berlin3:08
5."My Favorite Things"Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers3:09
6."The Best Gift"Lan O'Kun3:11

Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Sleep in Heavenly Peace (Silent Night)"Franz Gruber, Josef Mohr3:07
2."Gounod's Ave Maria (Latin Version)"Charles Gounod3:26
3."O Little Town of Bethlehem"Phillips Brooks, Lewis Redner; New adaptation by Jack Gold2:58
4."I Wonder as I Wander"John Jacob Niles3:18
5."The Lord's Prayer"Albert Hay Malotte2:43

Outtake

Streisand also recorded an alternate, English-language version of "Gounod's Ave Maria" during sessions for the album in 1966. This track remained unreleased until 2005 when it was licensed to a Starbucks Christmas compilation CD titled Baby, It's Cold Outside.[6]

Singles
  • "Sleep in Heavenly Peace (Silent Night)" / "Gounod's Ave Maria" 1967
  • "Jingle Bells?" / "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" 1967
  • "My Favorite Things" / "The Christmas Song" 1967
  • "The Lord's Prayer" / "I Wonder As I Wander" 1967

Personnel
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References
  1. Allmusic review
  2. "RIAA Searchable Database - Gold & Platinum Certifications". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2010-12-16.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Christmas in the Charts (1920-2004). Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 195. ISBN 0-89820-161-6.
  4. https://www.billboard.com/music/barbra-streisand/chart-history/billboard-200
  5. "BARBRA STREISAND Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-01-10.
  6. "Barbra Streisand Archives - A Christmas Album (1967) - LP, CD".
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