| Happy Xmas | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 12 October 2018 | |||
| Recorded | 2017–18 | |||
| Genre | Christmas music,blues,rock | |||
| Length | 60:45 | |||
| Label | Brushbranch/Surfdog, EPC Enterprises;Polydor Records (Europe) | |||
| Producer | Eric Clapton,Simon Climie | |||
| Eric Clapton chronology | ||||
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Happy Xmas is the firstChristmas album byEric Clapton as well as his twenty-first solo studio album which was released on 12 October 2018.[1] It includes 13covers of Christmas-themed songs (15 on the European re-release), both well-known and relatively obscure ones, arranged in a predominantlyblues style, and one new composition by Clapton and producerSimon Climie.
During the 23-minute television specialA Clapton Christmas, which includes excerpts from a longer interview with producer/musician Simon Climie, Clapton says that the original inspiration for the album came from his wife Melia about three years before the album was produced. She had been listening to the Christmas-themedplaylists which her husband created every year on his mobile phone for the end-of-year holiday season; one day, she left him a message on his phone: "Why don't you do a Christmas album?" Clapton was initially reluctant, as many of his favourite artists had done likewise before him, but he was convinced after he started working with pianist and keyboard player Walt Richmond (fromThe Tractors), who came up with unconventional harmonizations and arrangements for most of the tracks.[2]
"For Love on Christmas Day" was written in early 2018 as "Living in a Dream World", when Clapton completed a fragmentary tune by Simon Climie and wrote lyrics to it.[3] At the time, the album was supposed to be a regular studio album rather than a Christmas one. Upon deciding to make it such, Clapton changed two lines of lyrics in the last verse - the only ones which actually include the word "Christmas".
"Home for the Holidays" and "It's Christmas" are taken from Americansoul singerAnthony Hamilton's 2014 holiday-themed album, also calledHome for the Holidays. Clapton discovered his music onSpotify and called him "the best soul singer on the planet".[4]
The popular Christmas carol "Jingle Bells" is given here a partlyelectronic arrangement, similar in style to the work of Swedish musician, producer and DJ Tim Bergling, a.k.a.Avicii, who committed suicide shortly before Clapton started working on the album. His young daughters were fans of Avicii and convinced Clapton to turn "Jingle Bells" into a tribute to him, after he had opted for a more bluesy arrangement.
The song "Christmas in My Hometown", according to Clapton's comments on aflexi disc included with thedeluxe edition of the album, was discovered by him on a Christmascompilation album, which he found by scouring the Internet while looking for unusual Christmas songs to cover; in this case, it was acountry album, which includedGene Autry among its featured artists. The original version of this song, recorded by its writerSonny James in 1954, sounded to Clapton like a pub song and reminded him of a scene he saw on a TV documentary, depicting a group ofRomani people singing and having fun in a pub, so he arranged it in that style.[5]
The artwork for the album, consisting of cartoonish, childlike drawings, was created by Clapton himself, who drafted all of it very quickly on some sheets of paper he found in his hotel. The front cover features aSanta character who looks vaguely like Clapton, while the inner spread includes a Santa sleigh pulled byreindeer under a four-pointedChristmas star, as well as aChristmas tree. In his interview with Climie, Clapton jokes that the artwork took him "months and months" of failed attempts, before revealing the truth. He also states that he was inspired byBob Dylan, who, as an accomplished painter, came up with his own artwork for several of his albums.[6] The "Happy Xmas"/"E.C." lettering on the front cover, as well as the whole of the tracklist on the back, are also in Clapton’s own handwriting.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "White Christmas" | Irving Berlin(Arranged by Eric Clapton and Simon Climie)[7] | 2:58 |
| 2. | "Away in a Manger (Once in Royal David's City)" | Traditional,William J. Kirkpatrick | 4:44 |
| 3. | "For Love on Christmas Day" (new song) | Eric Clapton,Simon Climie,Dennis Morgan | 3:36 |
| 4. | "Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday" | William Bell,Booker T. Jones | 3:38 |
| 5. | "Christmas Tears" | Robert Wilson,Sonny Thompson | 4:22 |
| 6. | "Home for the Holidays" | Anthony Hamilton, Kelvin Wooten | 4:00 |
| 7. | "Jingle Bells (In Memory ofAvicii)" | James Lord Pierpont(arr. Clapton, Climie,Salif Keita, Manfila Kante) | 5:58 |
| 8. | "Christmas in My Hometown" | Sonny James | 2:51 |
| 9. | "It's Christmas" | Anthony Hamilton,Kelvin Wooten, Brandon Davis | 4:43 |
| 10. | "Sentimental Moments" | Friedrich Holländer,Ralph Freed | 4:06 |
| 11. | "Lonesome Christmas" | Lloyd Glenn,Lowell Fulson | 3:51 |
| 12. | "Silent Night" | Franz Xaver Gruber,Joseph Mohr,John Freeman Young(arr. Clapton, Climie, Walt Richmond) | 4:02 |
| 13. | "Merry Christmas Baby" | Lou Baxter,Johnny Moore | 4:11 |
| 14. | "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" | Ralph Blane,Hugh Martin | 3:31 |
| 15. | "A Little Bit of Christmas Love" (bonus track, adapted lyrics) | Rosco Gordon | 2:44 |
| 16. | "You Always Hurt the One You Love" (bonus track) | Allan Roberts, Doris Fisher | 3:58 |
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