Merry Christmas, Baby (album)

Last updated

Merry Christmas, Baby
Cover of Rod Stewart's 2012 album 'Merry Christmas, Baby'.jpg
Studio album by
Rod Stewart
Released30 October 2012
Genre Christmas, soul, jazz
Length46:04
Label Verve
Producer David Foster, Rod Stewart, Kevin Savigar
Rod Stewart chronology
Fly Me to the Moon... The Great American Songbook Volume V
(2010)		Merry Christmas, Baby
(2012)		 Time
(2013)

Merry Christmas, Baby, is the first Christmas album by Rod Stewart and his 27th studio album overall, released on 30 October 2012. [1] The album has proved to be a top 10 success in many countries including the UK, US, Canada and Australia. It was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in November 2012 with over 1,000,000 copies sold in the US. [2]

Contents

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 53/100 [3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]
BBC Music (positive) [5]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [7]
NME 3/10 [8]
Slant Magazine Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]

Merry Christmas, Baby received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 53, which indicates "mixed or average reviews", based on 6 reviews.

Commercial performance

Merry Christmas, Baby debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart, with first week sales of 117,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, [10] and spent a total of eight weeks in the top 10. [11] With total U.S. sales of 858,000 copies in 2012 according to SoundScan, Merry Christmas, Baby was the best-selling Christmas/holiday album of the year. [12] The album was also the year's fifteenth best-selling album in the U.S. according to Billboard and the ninth best-selling physical album in the U.S. according to the Nielsen Company's 2012 Music Industry Report. [13] [14]

In the UK, the album debuted at No. 2 on the Official Albums Chart and has so far spent six weeks in the top 10. [15] It sold 421,000 copies in the UK in 2012 [16] and its current UK sales stand at 636,000. [17]

In Canada, the album spent eight weeks in the top ten of the Canadian Albums Chart, with three consecutive weeks at the No. 1 spot. It was the ninth best-selling album in Canada in 2012 according to year-end sales data from Nielsen SoundScan Canada with sales of 135,000. [18]

Worldwide, the album achieved total 2012 sales of 2.6 million according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, making it the seventh best-selling album of the year. [19]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane 4:31
2."Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie 2:48
3."Winter Wonderland" (featuring Michael Bublé) Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith 2:26
4."White Christmas" Irving Berlin 3:49
5."Merry Christmas, Baby" (featuring CeeLo Green & Trombone Shorty) Johnny Moore, Lou Baxter3:53
6."Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (featuring Dave Koz) Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne 2:51
7."What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" (featuring Ella Fitzgerald & Chris Botti) Frank Loesser 3:43
8."Blue Christmas"Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson3:30
9."Red-Suited Super Man" (featuring Trombone Shorty)Rod Stewart, David Foster, Amy Foster3:11
10."When You Wish upon a Star" Leigh Harline, Ned Washington 3:47
11."We Three Kings" (featuring Mary J. Blige) John Henry Hopkins Jr. 3:27
12."Silent Night" Franz Xaver Gruber, Joseph Mohr 4:24
13."Auld Lang Syne"Traditional, Robert Burns 3:45
Total length:46:04
Deluxe edition bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
14."What Child Is This?"Traditional, William Chatterton Dix 4:17
15."The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" Mel Tormé, Robert Wells 3:39
16."Silver Bells" Jay Livingston, Ray Evans 3:25
Total length:57:25
Note

Personnel

Main

Guest Musicians

Additional Vocalists

Additional Instrumentalists

Production

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [51] 2× Platinum140,000^
Canada (Music Canada) [52] 3× Platinum240,000^
Ireland (IRMA) [53] Platinum15,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ) [54] 2× Platinum30,000^
Poland (ZPAV) [55] Gold10,000*
United Kingdom (BPI) [56] 2× Platinum636,000 [17]
United States (RIAA) [2] Platinum1,000,000^

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Awards and recognition

In February 2013, the album was nominated for a Canadian Juno Award in the International Album of the Year category. [57]

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