A Very Special Christmas - Various Artists - Hip Christmas Music (www.hipchristmas.com)

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Producer Phil Spector's 1963 album A Christmas Gift For You marked the end of the golden age of holiday music. The following year, the arrival of the Beatles kickstarted the rise of the counterculture, and Christmas music entered a prolonged ice age. In their book Merry Christmas Baby: Christmas Music From Bing To Sting, Dave Marsh and Steve Propes peg A Very Special Christmas (1987) as the point where Christmas music came back into style. Moreover, they praise the album - the brainchild of producer Jimmy Iovine - as the virtual reincarnation of Spector's widely acknowledged classic.

That was, in fact, Iovine's stated intention, and the album was certainly a labor of love, with proceeds benefitting the Special Olympics. But, while I think A Very Special Christmas is just fine, I also think that Marsh and Propes overstated the case by a North Pole mile. The album contains some wonderful performances, but it is often slick and overproduced, and it suffers from the inclusion of several substandard tracks - foremost being Bon Jovi's unbelievably bombastic cover of Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa." Inarguably, however, A Very Special Christmas launched a holiday music frenzy that continues to this day - making my job all but impossible, by the way. So, is it a milestone? Absolutely. Is it a classic? Not even close.

All the same, at least one classic new track emerged from A Very Special Christmas: Run-D.M.C.'s "Christmas In Hollis," a sort of East Coast rap reinterpretation of the time-honored theme of "I'll Be Home For Christmas." After that, all the songs are updates of hoary holiday favorites - some modern, some traditional. I am especially fond of John Mellencamp's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," a high-spirited hoedown first recorded by kiddie singer Jimmy Boyd in 1952, and Bruce Springsteen's "Merry Christmas Baby," based on Otis Redding's 1967 arrangement of Charles Brown's 1947 classic. Springsteen's performance was recorded live in 1980 and previously released as the b-side of his 1986 single, "War."

Broadly speaking, A Very Special Christmas was the official declaration that Christmas music was cool again, and the album is star-studded, if nothing else. It includes the first-ever holiday recordings by many of the biggest acts of its day, including the Eurythmics, Whitney Houston, Sting, U2, the Pointer Sisters, Stevie Nicks, and Madonna - whose campy parody of "Santa Baby" brought Eartha's Kitt's forgotten classic back into the public ear. The Pretenders contributed a follow-up to their 1984 Christmas classic, "2000 Miles," and Bob Seger revisited the holidays for the first time since his 1966 garage rock rarity, "Sock It To Me Santa" - though neither performance was very remarkable.

These days, Christmas songs by major stars are once again commonplace, and A Very Special Christmas was where that started. Read about the making of this historic album in Frank Giacomo's 2014 article in Billboard, and read an historical perspective in Travis Andrews' 2022 article in the Washington Post.

Please, Jimmy, make it stop!

My judgment of A Very Special Christmas is undoubtedly colored by the fact that what was once a mere Christmas album became a veritable franchise, with the returns diminishing considerably with each installment. A Very Special Christmas 2 arrived five years later bearing one bona fide classic (Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again"), a fun follow-up from Run-D.M.C. ("Christmas Is"), and a host of respectable cuts from big-name stars - including Sinead O'Connor's iridescent cover of Bob Dylan's "I Believe In You," though it really isn't a Christmas song. But, it's mostly middlebrow filler, and we're subjected to several genuine stinkers. Michael Bolton? Debbie Gibson? More Bon Jovi? Please, Jimmy, make it stop!

Sadly, the Very Special Christmas series dragged on and on, with each volume struggling to differentiate itself by applying a new color scheme to Keith Haring's iconic, graffiti-inspired original artwork. Haring died in 1990, so he wasn't, um, available to create new covers. (See more about Haring on his website and at Artsy.)

A Very Special Christmas 3 (1997) was even spottier than the sophomore release, with Sheryl Crow's sultry "Blue Christmas" and No Doubt's slamming cover of the Vandals' "Oi To The World" standing out amidst the dross - though the project attracted several major rock acts including Smashing Pumpkins, Dave Matthews, and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, as well as punk priestess Patti Smith. The fourth volume, A Very Special Christmas Live (1999), and much of the subsequent A Very Special Christmas 5 (2001), consisted of mostly unremarkable performances from a series of concerts at the White House, with Eric Clapton sitting in a several tracks. The fifth volume, however, was partially redeemed by some bracing new indie rock from SR-71, Powder, and Eve 6 - though all three are now largely forgotten bands.

The entertainment industry seems to believe that more of a good thing is always better. Like most endless series of sequels, though, A Very Special Christmas just got less special each time out of the box. And, speaking of boxes, the first five volumes of the series were packaged together in 2003 as A Very Special Christmas Collection (now deleted and very scarce), appearing to signal that Very Special Christmas was winding down - though such was not the case, we were soon to learn. And, it's worth noting that at least two other discs were compiled as adjuncts to this rock-oriented series - Jazz To The World (1995) and World Christmas (1996). Finally, let's not forget that all these discs serve a very good cause; despite my critical reservations, I purchased them all, and I encourage you to do the same.

A Pleasant Hour of Pickin'

Thankfully, the next installment of the Very Special Christmas series breathed a bit of life into the wheezing construct. Comprised entirely of folk, bluegrass, and country music (genres largely ignored in previous volumes), A Very Special Acoustic Christmas (2003) even featured new artwork - surely a sign that a new leaf was being overturned! Personally, I took little comfort from this new direction, being no fan of modern acoustic music. I find it, more often than not, to be polite, respectful, or introspective where it should be hungry, passionate, and rowdy. A Very Special Acoustic Christmas suffered from these maladies, though it admittedly compiled a pleasant hour of pickin'. What this new volume said about the future of the Very Special Christmas series is debatable, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest....

Throughout A Very Special Acoustic Christmas, young bucks (Pat Green) and contemporary heavyweights (Wynonna Judd) coexisted peacefully with old-timers like Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley. Alison Krauss gets point for trying something different (a soulful original song, "Only You Can Bring Me Cheer"), but she sounds uncomfortable outside her usual down-home setting. Norah Jones (who seems out of place, regardless), contributes a fine reading of Horace Silver's "Peace," a Christmas song that never names the holiday. And, Alan Jackson - never a favorite of mine - delivers an affecting, understated performance of "Just Put A Ribbon In Your Hair" (first recorded by Doug Stone in 1992).

The problem is, very few of the other performances are truly memorable. Reba McEntire, for instance, turns in a perfectly lovely - but boring - reading of "Silent Night," and the same can be said for tracks by Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless. Others, such as Rhonda Vincent's "Christmas Time At Home," fall victim to the theory that dressing up clichés in acoustic instrumentation and Appalachian harmonies somehow makes them meaningful.

In the end, I most appreciated the songs that stayed truest to their country roots - that is, tracks that worked up a healthy head of steam while holding fast to tradition. In this light, cuts like Marty Stuart's simmering original "Even Santa Claus Gets The Blues" shine brightest. But, A Very Special Acoustic Christmas will be enjoyed best by either fans of contemporary country music or listeners drawn to the nebulous "adult alternative" genre - and I am neither.

A Very Special Christmas: 25 Years Bringing Joy To The World

A Very Special Christmas: Today's Top Christian Artists Bringing Peace On Earth

Clearing the Shelves

In 2008, a curiously arbitrary compilation appeared. Playlist Plus packaged three previously released discs together: Very Special Christmas 2, Very Special Christmas 3, and Very Special Acoustic Christmas. A "best of" compilation would have been welcome - something to separate the notable wheat from the abundant chaff. Playlist Plus, however, feels like Universal is just clearing the shelves. Which they probably are. Whatever. Don't buy it.

Sadly, the same conclusion can drawn concerning the next formal installment in the series, A Very Special Christmas 7 (2009). Maybe it was my advancing age versus the tween-oriented roster (Miley Cyrus, Colbie Caillat), or maybe it was my perpetual overload of Christmas music - but this was a horrible, irredeemable record. Save yourself the frustration and donate your money directly to the Special Olympics.

In 2012, on the 25th anniversary of the original album (am I that old?), we got two more installments: the pop/rock package 25 Years Bringing Joy To The World and the religious collection Today's Top Christian Artists Bringing Peace On Earth. Both of them raised the bar from Very Special Christmas 7, but they still didn't inspire me to rush to the shops and plunk down my dollars. As for the former, it contains plenty of star power (Jason Mraz, Christina Aguilera, Rascal Flatts, Dave Matthews), but I was drawn mainly to the "new" Cheap Trick song "I Want You For Christmas," which the veteran power poppers fashioned from their greatest hit, "I Want You To Want Me." Concerning the latter, I will remain gracious by paraphrasing Jackson Browne: I am a heathen and a pagan, but I remain on the side of Jesus - philosophically, if not musically. [top of page]