''The Christmas Album'' is the twentieth studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

by Neil Diamond and his first to feature Christmas music. It features orchestral and choir arrangements by David Campbell. The album reached No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album sales chart, No. 50 on the UK album sales chart, and No. 30 on Australian music chart. In his review music critic Johnny Loftus states, "While Neil Diamond's ''The Christmas Album'' is designed almost exclusively for his adult contemporary constituency, the vocalist still manages to light up most of the obviousness of these standards with his trademark gritty soul and flair for inflection." On August 7, 2001, ''The Christmas Album'' was certified

Double Platinum Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the RIAA for shipment of two million copies in the United States since its 1992 release. it was the twenty-fifth best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States of the

SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

era of music sales tracking (March 1991–present), having sold 1,910,000 copies according to SoundScan.

Track listing

Personnel

* Neil Diamond – lead vocals * David Campbell – arrangements (1-6, 11, 12, 13), conductor (1-6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14), choir arrangements (7), orchestra arrangements and conductor (7), BGV arrangements (8, 10) * Robbie Buchanan – acoustic piano (2, 14), keyboards (3-6, 8, 13) * Ladd Thomas – Hammond organ (6, 11) * Alan Lindgren – acoustic piano (7, 12), acoustic piano intro (8), BGV arrangements (8), orchestra arrangements (14) * Bob Mann – guitars (1, 5), acoustic guitar (3, 12), electric guitar (7) *

Dean Parks Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher ...

– electric guitar (3), guitars (6, 8, 13), mandolin (6) *

Andrew Gold Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. Gold played on scores of reco ...

– acoustic guitar (4, 10) *

Waddy Wachtel Robert "Waddy" Wachtel (born May 24, 1947) is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel has worked as session musician for other artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Kim Carnes, Randy ...

– electric guitar (4, 10), guitars (13) * Louis Gutierrez – guitar solo (7) *

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying Bur ...

– pedal steel guitar (12) * Jimmy Johnson – bass guitar (3, 6, 8) *

Bob Glaub Bob Glaub (born May 10, 1952)Hageman, William (April 29, 2005)."The aces of bass: Five giants of an overshadowed instrument", Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. is an American bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists an ...

– bass (4, 10, 13) *

Bob Magnusson Bob Magnusson (born February 24, 1947 in New York) is an American jazz bassist. Career Magnusson studied French horn for 12 years before switching to bass in 1967. He toured with Buddy Rich's Orchestra in 1968 and played with the San Diego Symph ...

– double bass (5) *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. Sklar rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coaleced into a group in its own right, The Section. This group of musicians so frequ ...

– bass guitar (7, 12) *

Peter Asher Peter Asher, (born 22 June 1944) is an English guitarist, singer, manager and record producer. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the pop music vocal duo Peter and Gordon before going on to a successful career as a manager and r ...

– drum programming (3),

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(7, 10), rhythm track arrangements (7, 10) *

Russ Kunkel Russell Kunkel (born September 27, 1948) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician with many popular artists, including Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffett, Harry Chapin, Rita Coolidge, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Dan F ...

– drums (4-8, 13) * Nathaniel Kunkel – drums (10) * Michael Fisher – percussion (3, 8) * Marvin B. Gordy – percussion (3) *

Warren Ham Warren Ham (born 1957) is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for playing with Kansas (band), Kansas (1982), Toto (band), Toto (1986-1988, and since 2017) and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Ringo Starr (since 2015). During the ...

– harmonica (4) *

Plas Johnson Plas John Johnson Jr. (born July 21, 1931) is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most widely known as the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme". He also performs on alto and baritone sa ...

– tenor saxophone solo (5) * Gavyn Wright – concertmaster (1, 2, 7, 10, 13, 14) *

The London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orche ...

– orchestra (1, 2, 7, 10, 13, 14) * The Angel Voices Choir – choir (1, 7) *

The Ambrosian Singers The Ambrosian Singers are an English choral group based in London. History They were founded after World War II in England. One of their co-founders was Denis Stevens (1922–2004), a British musicologist and viola player who joined the BBC Mu ...

– choir (2, 7, 14) * John McCarthy – choir director (2, 7, 14) * The Lower School Chorus of Viewpoint School – choir (7) * Robert Prizeman – boys’ choir conductor (7) * Marcie Parker – children’s choir conductor (7) * Donny Gerard, Raven Kane, Josef Powell, Julia Waters, Maxine Waters and

Oren Waters Oren Waters is an American vocalist best known for his work with the backup singing group The Waters, his siblings: Luther, Maxine and Julia. As an ensemble, Waters has been a part of 260 gold and over 100 platinum albums with artists ranging from ...

– doo-wop backing vocals (8) * 139th Street Quartet – vocals and arrangements (9) * Jim Hass, Jon Joyce, Gene Morford and Jerry Whitman – doo-wop backing vocals (10) * L.A. Mass Choir – choir (11) * Donald Taylor – choir director (11) * Frank Lindgren – choir arrangements (14)

Production

* Producer – Peter Asher * Production Coordinator – Ivy Skoff * Project Coordinator – Sam Cole * Recorded and Mixed by Frank Wolf * Assistant Recording and Mixing by Nathaniel Kunkel and Brett Swain. * Additional Recording and Mixing by Chad Blinman, Alec Marcou, Gil Morales, Marnie Riley and Eric Rudd. * Recorded at Arch Angel Studios, The Complex, Studio 55 and

Ocean Way Recording Ocean Way Recording was a series of recording studios established by recording engineer and producer Allen Sides with locations in Los Angeles, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and Saint Barthélemy. Ocean Way Recording no longer operates record ...

(Los Angeles, CA); Conway Studios (Hollywood, CA);

The Hit Factory The Hit Factory is a recording studio in New York City owned and operated by Troy Germano. History On March 6, 1975, Edward Germano, a singer, record producer, and one of the principal owners of the Record Plant Studios New York, purchased the ...

(New York, NY): Abbey Road Studios (London, England). * Mixed at Conway Studios * Mastered by

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...

at Sterling Sound (New York, NY). * Art Direction – David Kirschner * Design – Jan Weinberg * Cover Photography – Eugine Adibari * Liner Notes – Neil Diamond

Charts

Certifications

References