A Very Special Christmas (album)

A Very Special Christmas is the first in a series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit Special Olympics. The album was released in 1987, and production was overseen by Jimmy Iovine for A&M Records. A Very Special Christmas has also raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics.^[1] The cover artwork was designed by Keith Haring.

On January 16, 1998, the album was certified Quadruple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies in the United States.^[2]

Track listing

Track	Song Title	Writer(s)	Artist	Time
1.	Santa Claus is Coming to Town	John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie	The Pointer Sisters	3:22
2.	Winter Wonderland	Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith	Eurythmics	3:36
3.	Do You Hear What I Hear?	Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker	Whitney Houston	3:33
4.	Merry Christmas Baby	Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore	Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band	4:53
5.	Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas	Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane	Pretenders	4:42
6.	I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus	Tommie Connor	John Cougar Mellencamp	2:39
7.	Gabriel's Message	Charles Bordes and Sabine Baring-Gould	Sting	2:14
8.	Christmas in Hollis	Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell	Run-D.M.C.	3:00
9.	Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)	Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Phil Spector	U2	2:21
10.	Santa Baby	Joan Javits, Philip Springer and Tony Springer	Madonna	2:35
11.	The Little Drummer Boy	Katherine Kennicott Davis, Harry Simeone and Henry Onorati	Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band	3:32
12.	Run Rudolph Run	Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie	Bryan Adams	2:43
13.	Back Door Santa	Clarence Carter and Marcus Daniel	Bon Jovi	3:54
14.	The Coventry Carol	Traditional	Alison Moyet	3:25
15.	Silent Night	Josef Mohr and Franz X. Gruber	Stevie Nicks	4:37

On later pressings of the album, "Back Door Santa" was replaced with "I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas," also by Bon Jovi.
Also on later pressings of the album, a spoken introduction on The Pretenders' "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," presumably by a young child, was omitted.

References

^ McGee, Matt (2008). U2:A Diary. Omnibus Press. pp. 111. ISBN 978-1-84772-108-2.
^ "Chart Watch Extra: The Top 40 Christmas Albums". Billboard. http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/23093/chart-watch-extra-the-top-40-christmas-albums/. Retrieved 2008-12-05.

External links

The A Very Special Christmas series

A Very Special Christmas · A Very Special Christmas 2 · Jazz to the World · World Christmas · A Very Special Christmas 3 · A Very Special Christmas Live · A Very Special Christmas 5 · A Very Special Acoustic Christmas · A Very Special Christmas 7

Book:A Very Special Christmas · Category:A Very Special Christmas · Portal:Olympics