The Christmas Album --- Jackson 5 --- 1970 (Motown)
Proving that even back in the seventies, pop artists were putting out Christmas albums, this was in fact --- perhaps surprisingly given their appeal and fame --- the only Christmas album put out by Micheal Jackson and family, though it was reissued twice, once in 2003 and again in 2009, with slight changes. NOT surprisingly, it features Michael's vocals heavily, as he was already being groomed for solo stardom and would in fact release his first solo album two years later, setting him on a path to superstar status and indeed controversy,
The album? Well it's fairly standard, by today's yardstick of course, but back then it was probably considered innovative and different. The album eventually went on to sell over three million copies, and yielded the Jackson 5 a hit single with their version of "Santa Claus is coming to town." It also features an original song, written by The Corporation, Motown's big-gun songwriters, among whom were Berry Gordy, founder and supremo of Motown Records, as well as a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas", and one of the oldest Christmas songs known to exist, the nineteenth-century "Up on the housetop", perhaps the first song to propose the idea of Santa landing his sleigh on the roof of a house.
TRACKLISTING
1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
2. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
3. The Christmas Song
4. Up on the Housetop
5. Frosty the Snowman
6. The Little Drummer Boy
7. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
8. Christmas Won't Be the Same This Year
9. Give Love on Christmas Day
10. Someday at Christmas
11. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus