The Top Christmas Albums (renamed Top Holiday Albums in 2000) is published weekly by Billboard during the holiday season of each year tracking the best-selling Christmas albums in the United States.
The following are the albums that reached the Number one position on the Top Christmas Album Charts before it was renamed Top Holiday Albums on November 25, 2000.
Issue date | Title | Artist | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
December 22, 1990 | Because It's Christmas | Barry Manilow | [1] |
January 5, 1991 | [2] | ||
December 7, 1991 | A Fresh Aire Christmas | Mannheim Steamroller | [3] |
December 14, 1991 | Mannheim Steamroller Christmas | Mannheim Steamroller | [4] |
December 21, 1991 | A Fresh Aire Christmas | Mannheim Steamroller | [5] |
December 28, 1991 | [6] | ||
January 4, 1992 | [7] | ||
November 28, 1992 | Beyond The Season | Garth Brooks | [8] |
December 5, 1992 | [9] | ||
December 12, 1992 | Home For Christmas | Amy Grant | [10] |
December 19, 1992 | [11] | ||
December 26, 1992 | [12] | ||
January 2, 1993 | [13] | ||
January 9, 1993 | [14] | ||
December 4, 1993 | Let There Be Peace On Earth | Vince Gill | [15] |
December 11, 1993 | [16] | ||
December 18, 1993 | [17] | ||
December 25, 1993 | When My Heart Finds Christmas | Harry Connick, Jr. | [18] |
January 1, 1994 | [19] | ||
January 8, 1994 | [20] | ||
November 26, 1994 | Merry Christmas | Mariah Carey | [21] |
December 3, 1994 | Miracles: The Holiday Album | Kenny G | [22] |
December 10, 1994 | [23] | ||
December 17, 1994 | [24] | ||
December 24, 1994 | [25] | ||
December 31, 1994 | [26] | ||
January 7, 1995 | [27] | ||
November 25, 1995 | Christmas in the Aire | Mannheim Steamroller | [28] |
December 2, 1995 | [29] | ||
December 9, 1995 | [30] | ||
December 16, 1995 | [31] | ||
December 23, 1995 | Miracles: The Holiday Album | Kenny G | [32] |
December 30, 1995 | [33] | ||
January 6, 1996 | Christmas In The Aire | Mannheim Steamroller | [34] |
November 16, 1996 | Miracles: The Holiday Album | Kenny G | [35] |
November 23, 1996 | [36] | ||
November 30, 1996 | [37] | ||
December 7, 1996 | [38] | ||
December 14, 1996 | [39] | ||
December 21, 1996 | [40] | ||
December 28, 1996 | [41] | ||
January 4, 1997 | [42] | ||
January 11, 1997 | [43] | ||
November 22, 1997 | Christmas Live | Mannheim Steamroller | [44] |
November 29, 1997 | [45] | ||
December 6, 1997 | Snowed In | Hanson | [46] |
December 13, 1997 | [47] | ||
December 20, 1997 | [48] | ||
December 27, 1997 | [49] | ||
January 3, 1998 | [50] | ||
January 10, 1998 | [51] | ||
November 21, 1998 | These Are Special Times | Celine Dion | [52] |
November 28, 1998 | [53] | ||
December 5, 1998 | [54] | ||
December 12, 1998 | [55] | ||
December 19, 1998 | [56] | ||
December 26, 1998 | [57] | ||
January 2, 1999 | [58] | ||
January 9, 1999 | [59] | ||
January 16, 1999 | [60] | ||
January 23, 1999 | Home For Christmas | N Sync | [61] |
November 20, 1999 | A Rosie Christmas [62] | Rosie O'Donnell | [63] |
November 27, 1999 | [64] | ||
December 4, 1999 | Faith: A Holiday Album | Kenny G | [65] |
December 11, 1999 | Garth Brooks & the Magic of Christmas | Garth Brooks | [66] |
December 18, 1999 | [67] | ||
December 25, 1999 | Faith: A Holiday Album | Kenny G | [68] |
January 1, 2000 | [69] | ||
January 8, 2000 | [70] | ||
January 15, 2000 | [71] | ||
These are the top 50 albums that charted The Top Christmas Albums survey. The chart was renamed Top Holiday Albums at the beginning of the 2000 holiday season. [72] [73] The peak position reflects the highest position the album charted between December 22, 1990 until January 15, 2000, but the top 10 and total weeks include the total weeks charted since the first Christmas Records chart in 1958, [74] all the Christmas album surveys from November 30, 1963 until December 22, 1973 [75] [76] [77] [78] and the weeks charted on the Christmas Hits survey from December 17, 1983 until January 6, 1990. [79] [80] [81] [82] Many of the albums continued to chart on the Top Holiday Albums chart. [lower-alpha 1]
"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. It was the seventh single release by John Lennon outside his work with the Beatles. The song reached number four in the UK, where its release was delayed until November 1972, and has occasionally re-emerged on the UK Singles Chart, most notably after Lennon's murder in December 1980, when it peaked at number two.
American singer Mariah Carey has released 86 official singles, 22 promotional singles, and has made 30 guest appearances. Her self-titled debut album in 1990 yielded four number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, the first being "Vision of Love", a song credited with revolutionizing the usage of distinguished vocal stylings, predominantly the practice of melisma, and effectively influencing virtually every female R&B performer since the 1990s. Subsequent singles "Emotions" (1991) and Carey's cover of the Jackson 5 track, "I'll Be There" (1992) continued the singer's streak of US number-one singles, with the latter becoming her fourth chart-topper in Canada and first in the Netherlands. With the release of Carey's third studio album, Music Box (1993), the singer's international popularity surged upon release of "Hero" and the album's third single, her cover of Harry Nilsson's "Without You", which became the singer's first number-one single in several countries across Europe.
Merry Christmas is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, and her first Christmas album. Released by Columbia Records on October 28, 1994, at the peak of the initial stretch of Carey's career, between Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), the album features cover versions of popular Christmas songs in addition to original material. Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff, with whom she wrote all of the original tracks, as well as producing Carey's interpretations of the covered material. Three singles were released from the album, of which "All I Want for Christmas Is You" went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time and the best-selling Christmas ringtone in the United States.
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards. Bing Crosby's record topped the Billboard chart for 11 weeks in 1942 and returned to the number one position again in December 1943 and 1944. His version would return to the top 40 a dozen times in subsequent years.
American vocalist Frank Sinatra recorded 59 studio albums and 297 singles in his solo career, spanning 54 years. Sinatra signed with Columbia Records in 1943; his debut album The Voice of Frank Sinatra was released in 1946. Sinatra would achieve greater success with Capitol and Reprise Records, the former of which he released his final two albums on—Duets and Duets II. Eight compilation albums under Sinatra's name were released in his lifetime, with more albums released following his death in 1998.
"Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himber, it has been covered by over 200 different artists.
Earl Grant was an American pianist, organist, and vocalist popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Canadian singer Celine Dion has released 137 singles in both English and French discography as a lead artist. According to Billboard magazine, Dion is the world's best-selling contemporary female artist of all time. As of 2021, she has reportedly sold around 200 to 250 million records worldwide. Referred to as the "Queen of Power Ballads", Dion has released a string of worldwide hits, with "My Heart Will Go On" being her career's biggest hit, with estimated physical sales of over 18 million worldwide, making it the 2nd best-selling physical single by a woman in history. It reached over 117 million radio impressions during its peak, becoming the most-played radio hit in history and became the best-selling single of 1998 worldwide. "Because You Loved Me" is her biggest hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, spending six weeks atop the chart and selling six million copies in its first six months of availability worldwide. "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" was the 4th biggest hit of the 1990s in France and has sold over four million copies worldwide.
Alabama is an American country music band composed of Randy Owen, Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry, and Mark Herndon. Their discography comprises 26 studio albums, including 20 recorded for RCA Records. Alabama also charted 77 songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which 32 reached number one. The band's longest-lasting number one was "Jukebox in My Mind", which spent four weeks at that position in 1990. Several of the band's early-1980s releases also crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts, including "Feels So Right", "Love in the First Degree", "Take Me Down", and "The Closer You Get", all of which reached top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Please Come Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song, written in 1960 and released the same year by American blues singer and pianist Charles Brown. Hitting the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1961, the tune, which Brown co-wrote with Gene Redd, peaked at position number 76. It appeared on the Christmas Singles chart for nine seasons, hitting number 1 in 1972. It includes a number of characteristics of Christmas music, such as multiple references in the lyrics to the Christmas season and Christmas traditions, and the use of a church bell type sound, created using tubular bells, at the start of the song. The song has been covered by many artists, including by the Eagles and Cher.
The discography of the American pop group the Carpenters consists of 14 studio albums, two Christmas albums, two live albums, 49 singles, and numerous compilation albums. The duo was made up of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.
"Coco Jamboo" is a song by German Eurodance group Mr. President. It was released on 29 March 1996 as the lead single from their second studio album, We See the Same Sun (1996). Music critics compared the song to Swedish band Ace of Base. A hit in Europe, it reached number one in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also experienced success in the United States, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1997. The accompanying music video was filmed in Venezuela. Mr. President was awarded the German 1997 Echo award in the category for Best Dance Single with "Coco Jamboo".
"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams for his first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album. However, the song was not released as a promotional single by Williams' record label that year, as they instead opted to promote his cover of "White Christmas" as the official promo single from the album. The song peaked at No. 21 on the UK Singles Chart in 2007 and reached into the Top 10 consistently in the 2000s, peaking at No. 5 in 2020 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US.
"Wonderful Christmastime" is a Christmas song by English musician Paul McCartney. Recorded during the sessions for his solo album McCartney II (1980), it was released in November 1979 following Wings' final album Back to the Egg earlier that year. It was McCartney's first solo single in over eight years since "Eat at Home" in 1971. "Wonderful Christmastime" has charted within the top 10 in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as well as the top 20 in Canada, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Despite being regarded as one of McCartney's weaker compositions by some music critics, it is a popular song during Christmas and has been covered throughout the years by numerous artists.
Andy Williams recorded 43 studio albums, 17 of which received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for selling 500,000 units. Andy Williams has sold over 11 million records in the US alone. Three of those recipients went on to reach one million in sales, for which they were awarded Platinum certification. Between studio, Christmas, and compilation albums he had 37 entries on the pop albums chart in Billboard magazine with 12 of those making the top 10. One of those 12, his 1963 album Days of Wine and Roses and Other TV Requests, spent 16 weeks at number one and comes in at number five on the list of the top albums released in the 1960s in terms of Billboard chart performance. During the 1960s and early 1970s two of his Platinum LPs, The Andy Williams Christmas Album and Merry Christmas, made annual appearances on the magazine's Christmas Albums chart, where they each reached the number one position in multiple holiday seasons. In a ranking of the top album artists of the 1960s in terms of Billboard chart performance, he comes in at number eight.
The Year-End charts for the Regional Mexican Albums chart in the 1990s are published in the last issue of Billboard magazine every year. The chart was based on information provided by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, which collected a survey from music retail shops and one-stop sales in the United States until May 1991 when the methodology was changed to include point-of-sale data compiled from Nielsen SoundScan. The Year-End charts represent aggregated numbers from the weekly charts that were compiled for each artist, album and record company.
American singer Whitney Houston, known as "The Voice", released 57 singles as a leading artist and 4 as a featured artist. One of the best-selling artists of all time, her record sales stood at 220 million. In the United States, Houston amassed 11 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, all of whom have been certified either gold, platinum, multi-platinum or diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and was one of a selected group of artists to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in four different decades. She is currently ranked in seventh place of the artists with the most number one singles in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Prior to the introduction of digital singles, Houston sold 16.5 million physical singles in the country, the most ever by a female recording artist. In October 2012, the Official Charts Company claimed Houston was the fourth biggest-selling female singles artist of all time with a sales total of 8.5 million singles in that country.
Billboard magazine only charted Christmas singles and albums along with the other popular non-holiday records until the 1958 holiday season when they published their first section that surveys only Christmas music.
The BillboardChristmas Hits survey ran each holiday season between 1983 until 1989 except for 1986. The singles chart only ran a total 6 of weeks between 1983 and 1985.