''A Very Special Christmas'' is the first in the '' A Very Special Christmas'' series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

. The album was released on October 12, 1987, and production was overseen by

Jimmy Iovine James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...

for

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

. ''A Very Special Christmas'' has raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics. The cover artwork was designed by

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

. On January 16, 1998, the album was certified quadruple 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/ ...

for shipment of four million copies in the United States. As of November 2014, ''A Very Special Christmas'' is the 19th best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during 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 2,520,000 copies according to SoundScan.

Track listing

* First pressings of the album contain a spoken introduction on The Pretenders' "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", presumably by a child. This introduction was later omitted, shortening the track by about 13 seconds. * Starting in 1992, "Back Door Santa" was replaced by another Bon Jovi song, "I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas", which originally appeared as a B-side on their single " Keep the Faith".

References

External links

*
How a 1987 Christmas album changed the way the holiday sounds

A Very Special Christmas
archived from Special Olympics site 1987 Christmas albums Albums produced by Jimmy Iovine 1987 compilation albums A&M Records compilation albums A Very Special Christmas Various artists albums Albums with cover art by Keith Haring {{1980s-compilation-album-stub