Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada. The data is collected weekly and is made available every Wednesday to subscribers, which include executives from all the different sections of the music, film and TV fields. SoundScan has been the sales source for the Billboard music charts since 1991.
On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, Billboard published their 100 Hot Lists. Because of the holiday season, many holiday albums are a part of their list. The following Holiday albums were all a part of the Top 50 albums by sales for the last week.
- Susan Boyle – The Gift
- Glee Cast – Christmas Album
- Jackie Evancho – O Holy Night
- Andrea Bocelli – My Christmas
- Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas II You
- Josh Groban – Noel
- Vince Guaraldi – Charlie Brown Christmas
- Now That’s What I Call Christmas V. 4 – Various Artists
- Annie Lennox – Christmas Cornucopia
- Chris Tomlin – Glory in the Highest: Christmas
- Lady Antebellum – Merry Little Christmas
- Michael Buble – Let It Snow
- Taylor Swift – Holiday Collection
When you look at the list, you can see that it is a combination of new albums and albums that have become classics. I am sure that each one of the albums is very nice, but it certainly isn’t MY list of favorite Holiday Albums. My list would be:
Merry Christmas With Love – Clay Aiken (Surprise!!)- All Is Well – Clay Aiken (I wish more people could hear these fabulous songs)
- It’s A Wonderful Christmas – Michael W. Smith (I can imagine Clay dueting on Christmas Day.)
- Let It Snow – Chanticleer – New Yorker Magazine calls Chanticleer “the world’s reigning male chorus.” The 12 male voices range from countertenors to bass. It’s different, but really amazing.
- Christmas Carol – James Galway – This 1986 album is more instrumental than vocal. Because Galway is a flautist, the arrangements are a bit different than you find in other albums.
What about you? Besides Clay’s fabulous Christmas music, do you have a favorite album or recording? If so, why not let us know. We don’t need Billboard – we can put together are own Top list!!
Did you see the great music player that Team Clay put on Twitter today? What a fun way to hear Clay sing O Holy Night!
Another Twitter entry today revealed this great page. Be sure to click on the chocolate to see the entire site!!
No doubt All Is Well and Merry Christmas With Love are the best holiday cds. Susan Boyle's is wonderful. I love the good old fashioned Boston Pops also.
I am so curious wnat the surprise is. Can''t wait to find out. 🙂
Musicfan I just have to tell you how much I enjoy CANN, and all that you write about. It's always interesting, and always fresh. How do you do that? Oh, that's right, you have a great subject to talk about!!! I have MCWL playing in my car. I blended it in with AIW and the AI 2 Christmas album. You just can't have enough Clay Aiken at Christmas, can you!
It's true…no one sings Christmas songs better than Clay….
I have trouble listening to anyone else sing them. They just don't measure up to me.
The 1 CD that I use to listen to all the time, and was my favourite of all time was The Carpenters, A Christmas Portrait….every song on that CD is great… They now come in 3rd place, behind Merry Christmas With Love, and All Is Well EP….
I'm sure excited about our holiday gift from Clay and will be sneaking peaks at work tomorrow. My favorite non Clay Christmas album would be "White Christmas" by Martina McBride. I made my own Christmas compilation CD this year with just Clay and Martina on it. I would love a duet from these two one day.
I always say no one sings Christmas songs like Clay does. My favorite is MCWL and AIW. No. 3 would probably be one of the favorites I do listen to every Christmas. That is WOW Christmas – 30 top christian artists and Holiday Songs…which, by the way includes Mary Did You Know-Clay Aiken. I believe that was recorded in 2005.
I appreciate your wonderful blog and the hard work you put into making it so interesting with beautiful graphics. I especially love the video of Todd skating while Clay sings, which is another wonderful memory for us, and I "borrowed" it to put on my FB page and got a strange comment about me using the same one you had here. LOL! It made me chuckle. All of your lovely Christmas blogs are so appreciated during this holiday season, as I miss Clay's Christmas concerts so much. Myself, I wouldnt listen to anyone anymore other than Clay if you paid me, even though for years and years before 2003 I listened too so many artists and so am familiar with them.