''This Is Christmas'' is the first Christmas album by American singer

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross has sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive P ...

. It was released on October 18, 1995, by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

. Produced by Vandross along with

Nat Adderley Jr. Nathaniel Adderley Jr. (born May 23, 1955) is an American pop music, pop and rhythm and blues music arranger and pianist who spent much of his music career arranging as music director for Luther Vandross tours and contributed as co-songwriter on ...

and

Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...

, the album received mixed to negative reviews from music critics and peaked at number 28 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and number 4 at both ''Billboard''s Top Holiday Albums and

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

. A steady seller throughout the Christmas season, it was eventually certified platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA), exceeding physical sales of 1,000,000 copies in 2002. The same year,

Sony Music Special Products Sony Music Special Products is record label of Sony Music Custom Marketing Group. It is headed by Richard Chechilo. Its primary products are premium and special offer CDs, digital downloads and ringtones. See also * List of record labels File:Al ...

repackaged six of the album's tracks with two spiritual tracks from other albums, as ''Home for Christmas'', and reissued the entire album again in October 2012 as part of ''The Classic Christmas Album'' line with additional tracks. The two editions of the album had sold a combined total of 1,147,000 copies as of December 2012. ''This is Christmas'' lent its name to a syndicated television special Vandross hosted which aired in November and December 1995, and featured songs from this album, as well as performances by his special guests.

Track listing

Notes *"The Christmas Song" from the album ''

A Very Special Christmas 2 ''A Very Special Christmas 2'' is the second in the '' A Very Special Christmas'' series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit the Special Olympics. The album was released on October 20, 1992, and production was overseen by J ...

'' (1992) *"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Live) (duet with Chaka Khan) from the ''Soul Train Christmas Starfest'' (1998) *"May Christmas Bring You Happiness" and "At Christmas Time" from the album ''Funky Christmas'' (1976)

Personnel

* Luther Vandross – lead vocals, backing vocals, arrangements (2, 3, 4, 7, 9), vocal arrangements (2, 3, 7, 8, 9), spoken vocals (3) * John Anderson – acoustic piano (1, 8), synthesizers (1, 8), drums (1, 7-9), arrangements (1-4, 7-9), keyboards (2, 3, 7, 9),

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

(4) * Jason Miles – synthesizer sound programming (1-4, 7-9),
drum programming (1-4, 7-9) * Reed Vertelney – keyboards (2), drum programming (2), arrangements (2) *

Ivan Hampden Jr. Ivan Hampden Jr. (born April 1, 1958 in New York, New York) is an American jazz and R&B drummer, composer, and record producer. He was Luther Vandross’ tour and session drummer from 1987 to 2003. Biography Ivan Hampden grew up in the New ...

– keyboards (3), drums (3, 5, 6, 9, 10), arrangements (3, 9) *

– acoustic piano (4, 5, 6, 10), string arrangements (4), keyboards (5, 6), arrangements (5, 6) * Eric Caudieux – synthesizer sound programming (5, 6) *

Paul Jackson Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musi ...

– guitar (2-5, 7-10) * Phil Hamilton – guitar (5, 6) *

– bass (3, 4, 10), keyboards (10),

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

(10), arrangements (10), choir conductor (10) * Luico Hopper – bass (5, 6) * Eluriel "Tinker" Barfield – bass (7) * Erroll "Crusher" Bennett – percussion (5) * Steve Kroon – percussion (6) *

Dick Oatts Richard Dennis Oatts (born April 2, 1953) is an American jazz saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator. Biography While growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, Oatts gained an interest in music from his father, Jack Oatts, who was a sa ...

– tenor saxophone solo (5, 6) *

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for The E Street Band. Clemons released several s ...

– tenor saxophone solo (7) *

Richard Marx Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American adult contemporary music, adult contemporary and pop rock singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Marx's Richard Marx (album), self-titled debut album went tri ...

– arrangements (4) * Earl McIntyre – horn orchestration (5, 6) * Peter Dimitriades – string concertmaster (6) * Alfred Brown – string contractor (6) * John Clayton – string arrangements and conductor (10) * Emile Charlap – orchestra contractor (10) * Tawatha Agee – backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 8, 9) *

Robin Clark Robin Clark is an American vocalist known for her work as a vocalist on David Bowie's 1975 album ''Young Americans'' and Simple Minds' 1985 album ''Once Upon a Time''. Clark was born in New York. In 1966, when Clark was 16, she and future s ...

– backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 8, 9) * Milt Grayson – backing vocals (2) *

Cissy Houston Emily "Cissy" Houston ( ''née'' Drinkard; born September 30, 1933) is an American soul and gospel singer. After a successful career singing backup for such artists as Roy Hamilton, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, and Aretha Franklin, Houston embar ...

– backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 9) * Paulette McWilliams – backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 8, 9) * Cindy Mizelle – backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 8, 9) *

Fonzi Thornton Alfonso "Fonzi" Thornton is a U.S. songwriter/producer and vocal contractor. In a career spanning 40 years, Thornton has sung backing vocals for top artists across many genres of music. His vocal credits can be found on the recordings of Aret ...

– backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 8, 9), vocal contractor,
vocal arrangements (7) * Brenda White-King – backing vocals (2, 3, 7, 9) * Darlene Love – backing vocals (3), lead vocals (7) * Kevin Owens – backing vocals (7) Choir on "O' Come All Ye Faithful" * Tawatha Agee, Katreese Barns, Vivian Cherry, Robin Clark, Ada Dyer, Genobia Jeter, Yvonne Lewis, Paulette McWilliams, Kevin Owens
Tamira C. Sanders, Valerie Simpson, Fonzi Thornton (choir contractor) ;Production * Luther Vandross – producer (1-4, 7-9), executive producer * Nat Adderley Jr. – producer (5, 6) *

– producer (10) * Ray Bardani – audio recording (1-4, 7-9), lead vocal recording (5, 6, 9), mixing * Paul Brown – audio recording (5, 6) * Stan Wallace – audio recording (5, 6) * Dan Wojnar – audio recording (9) * Joe Ferla – orchestra recording (9) * David Ward – additional recording, sound designer (10) * Tony Duino-Black – assistant engineer * Paul Falcone – assistant engineer * Robert Friedrich – assistant engineer * Carl Glanville – assistant engineer * Geraldo Lopez – assistant engineer * Aya Takemura – assistant engineer * Max Risenhoover – digital editing (1-5, 7-10) * Eric Caudieux – digital editing (2, 5, 7) *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

– mastering * Marsha Burns – project coordinator * George Corsillo – design * Patti Manzone – design * Alberto Tolot – photography * Jeff Jones – hair, makeup

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:This Is Christmas (Album) 1995 Christmas albums Pop Christmas albums Albums produced by Luther Vandross Albums produced by Marcus Miller Christmas albums by American artists Contemporary R&B Christmas albums Epic Records albums Luther Vandross albums