A Christmas Album (James Taylor album)

A Christmas Album is the first Christmas album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor released on a limited-edition basis in 2004, with distribution through Hallmark stores. The albums were also not carried by all Hallmark Cards stockists.[1]

A Christmas Album
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 2004 (2004-11)
RecordedMarch – April 2004
StudioCapitol (Hollywood)
GenreChristmas, jazz
LabelHallmark
ProducerDave Grusin
James Taylor chronology
The Best of James Taylor
(2003)
A Christmas Album
(2004)
James Taylor at Christmas
(2006)

Track listing

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  1. "Winter Wonderland" with Chris Botti (Dick Smith, Felix Bernard) – 3:36
  2. "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (Traditional) – 3:48
  3. "In the Bleak Midwinter" (Traditional) – 4:18
  4. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Natalie Cole (Frank Loesser) – 4:19
  5. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (Haven Gillespie, John Frederick Coots) – 2:58
  6. "Jingle Bells" (Traditional) – 3:55
  7. "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" with Toots Thielemans (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells) – 3:54
  8. "Deck the Halls" (Traditional) – 2:51
  9. "Some Children See Him" (Alfred Burt, Wihla Hutson) – 4:41
  10. "Who Comes This Night" (Dave Grusin, Sally Stevens) – 4:17
  11. "Auld Lang Syne" (Traditional) – 3:41

The album originally came with an online code that could be used to download an outtake from the sessions, a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River". In 2006, Taylor's regular label, Columbia Records, reissued the album under a new title (James Taylor at Christmas) and cover. This new version also altered the track listing, with "Deck the Halls" removed and two other songs ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the aforementioned cover of "River") added.

Personnel

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Strings (1–5, 7, 9, 10)

  • Ralph Morrison – concertmaster
  • Steve Erdody, Paula Hochhalter and Cecilia Tsan – cello
  • Edward Mears – contrabass
  • Karen Elaine Bakunin, Brian Dembow, Marlow Fisher, Roland Kato and Vicki Miskolczy – viola
  • Jackie Brand, Bruce Dukov, Julie Gigante, Alan Grunfield, Clayton Haslop, Tamara Hatwan, Natalie Leggett, Ralph Morrison, Claudia Parducci, Sara Parkins, Katia Popov, Josefina Vergara, Margaret Wooten and Kenneth Yerke – violin

Production

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  • Dave Grusin – producer, liner notes
  • Don Murray – recording, mixing
  • Charlie Paakkari – assistant engineer
  • Robert Vosgien – mastering at Capitol Mastering (Hollywood, California).
  • Gary Borman – management
  • Barbara Rose Granatt – management
  • James Taylor – liner notes

References

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  1. ^ Charles B. Anderson, G. Roysce Smith A Manual on Bookselling: How to Open and Run Your Own Bookstore =0517516470 1974 "Our store management prefers not to have Hallmark cards because they are to be found in cigar stores and ... Very few of the cigar stores and newsstands that carry Hallmark everyday cards even have the Christmas albums, because this type .."