Christmas in the Heart is Bob Dylan's

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 34th studio album and first Christmas album

Christmas music

Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...

, released on October 13, 2009 on Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. The album comprises a collection of hymn

Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

s, carols

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

, and popular Christmas songs

Christmas music

Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...

. All Dylan's royalties from the sale of this album will benefit the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis

Crisis (charity)

Crisis is is the UK national charity for single homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services from centres in London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh and Merseyside, called Crisis Skylight Centres....

 in the UK, and the World Food Programme

World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the food aid branch of the United Nations, and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger worldwide. WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children...

.

Dylan said that although Jewish, he never felt left out of Christmas during his childhood in Minnesota. Regarding the popularity of Christmas music, he said, "... it's so worldwide and everybody can relate to it in their own way."

The album opened at #1 on Billboard's Holiday and Billboard's Folk Album Chart, #10 on Rock Album charts and #23 on overall album charts.

Recording

When news outlets reported about Dylan's plans to record a Christmas album, it was unexpected and unusual for Dylan.

In an interview published by Street News Service

Street News Service

Street News Service is a news agency for street newspapers run by the International Network of Street Papers . It carries articles, essays and news from newspapers sold and sometimes written by homeless and poor people. It helps street papers worldwide to share stories with each other with other...

, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and Dylan responded: "There wasn’t any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too." When Flanagan reported that some critics thought the album was an ironic

Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

 treatment of Christmas songs, Dylan responded: "Critics like that are on the outside looking in. They are definitely not fans or the audience that I play to. They would have no gut level understanding of me and my work, what I can and can’t do - the scope of it all. Even at this point in time they still don’t know what to make of me."

Tracks were recorded in a Santa Monica

Santa Mônica

Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...

 studio owned by Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....

.

Release and promotion

Dylan released a music video for the song "Must Be Santa" directed by Nash Edgerton

Nash Edgerton

Nash Edgerton is an Australian film director and stuntman.-Life and career:Edgerton was born in Blacktown, New South Wales and is the brother of actor Joel Edgerton....

. In the video, Dylan and some other people are having a Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 house party, until two of the guests start fighting and smashing things around and one of them running away. In the closing scene, we see Dylan and Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...

. A music video was also released for the song "Little Drummer Boy".

A music video ecard was also released for the song "Must Be Santa".

Reception

Its collective score at Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 stands at 62 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews. The unexpected move by Dylan to record a Christmas album was received with scepticism at first. The outcome of the project was lauded by critics for bringing a fresh breath of air into these classics. Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine

Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

s critic Jesse Cataldo said "This enjoyable sense of exploration, which prizes levity in a genre that usually amounts to an artistic wasteland, is invaluable. It also proves how much life is left in the songs, and how much other artists have succeeded at butchering them." Se7en magazine's critic agreed, writing "The arrangement of his band mixes up the style of the songs, resulting in a repertoire of Christmas songs that genuinely sound like modern material, while avoiding ever being cliché."

Charity project

Feeding America will receive Dylan's royalties from sales in the USA, while two further charities, the United Nations'

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 World Food Programme

World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the food aid branch of the United Nations, and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger worldwide. WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children...

 and Crisis

Crisis (charity)

Crisis is is the UK national charity for single homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services from centres in London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh and Merseyside, called Crisis Skylight Centres....

 in the UK, will receive royalties from overseas sales. Dylan said: "That the problem of hunger is ultimately solvable means we must each do what we can to help feed those who are suffering and support efforts to find long-term solutions. I'm honoured to partner with the World Food Programme and Crisis in their fight against hunger and homelessness."

Track listing

1. "Here Comes Santa Claus
   Here Comes Santa Claus
   "Here Comes Santa Claus " is a Christmas song written by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman.Autry got the idea for the song after riding his horse in the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade in Los Angeles, during which crowds of spectators chanted, "Here comes Santa Claus". This inspired him to write a song...
   
   " (Gene Autry
   Gene Autry
   Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
   
   , Oakley Haldeman
   Oakley Haldeman
   Oakley Haldeman was a songwriter , composer, author and the general manager for a music publisher...
   
   )  – 2:35
2. "Do You Hear What I Hear?
   Do You Hear What I Hear?
   "Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker. The pair were married at the time, and wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis...
   
   " (Noël Regney
   Noel Regney
   Noël Regney , World War II veteran and French songwriter, composed the Christmas standard "Do You Hear What I Hear?" with his then-wife Gloria Shayne Baker in 1962. Originally from Alsace, France, he moved to New York City and then eventually Connecticut, where he lived out the remainder of his life...
   
   , Gloria Shayne Baker
   Gloria Shayne Baker
   Gloria Shayne Baker was an American composer and songwriter best known for composing the "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Christmas carol in 1962 with her then husband, Noël Regney.-Early life:...
   
   ) – 3:02
3. "Winter Wonderland
   Winter Wonderland
   "Winter Wonderland" is a winter song, popularly treated as a Christmastime pop standard, written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith . Through the decades it has been recorded by over 150 different artists.-History:...
   
   " (Felix Bernard
   Felix Bernard
   Felix Bernard was an American conductor, pianist and a composer of popular music. His writing credits include the popular songs Winter Wonderland and Dardanella.-Biography:...
   
   , Richard B. Smith
   Richard B. Smith
   Richard B. Smith wrote the lyrics to the popular song Winter Wonderland, which was composed by Felix Bernard. Smith was born in Pennsylvania, and was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1931. He succumbed to the disease on September 28, 1935....
   
   ) – 1:52
4. "Hark the Herald Angels Sing
   Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
   “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems, having been written by Charles Wesley. This is not the version widely known today. A sombre man, Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the...
   
   " (Tune : Mendelssohn, Lyrics : Wesley, arr. Dylan) – 2:30
5. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (Buck Ram
   Buck Ram
   Buck Ram was an American songwriter, and popular music producer and arranger.-Biography:...
   
   , Kim Gannon
   Kim Gannon
   James Kimball "Kim" Gannon was an American songwriter, more commonly a lyricist than a composer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York but grew up in New Jersey where he attended Montclair High School and was a member of The Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. He graduated from St...
   
    and Walter Kent
   Walter Kent
   Walter Kent was a Jewish American composer who wrote the music for songs including the Christmas standard "I'll Be Home for Christmas", and the wartime hit " The White Cliffs of Dover", co-written with fellow American Nat Burton. He died at the age of 82-External links:...
   
   ) – 2:54
6. "Little Drummer Boy
   Little Drummer Boy
   "The Little Drummer Boy," originally known as "Carol of the Drum," is a popular Christmas song written by the American classical music composer/teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was recorded 1955 by the Trapp Family Singers and further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry...
   
   " (Katherine K. Davis
   Katherine K. Davis
   Katherine Kennicott Davis was a composer, pianist, and author of the famous Christmas tune "The Little Drummer Boy".-Biography:...
   
   , Henry Onorati and Harry Simeone
   Harry Simeone
   Harry Moses Simeone was a distinguished music arranger, conductor and composer, best known for arranging the famous Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy", for which he received co-writing credit.-Early years:Harry grew up listening to stars performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City,...
   
   ) – 2:52
7. "The Christmas Blues" (Sammy Cahn
   Sammy Cahn
   Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
   
   , David Jack Holt
   David Jack Holt
   David Jack Holt was an American actor initially groomed at the age of seven to be the male Shirley Temple...
   
   ) – 2:54
8. "O' Come All Ye Faithful" ("Adeste Fideles")
   Adeste Fideles
   "Adeste Fideles" is a hymn tune attributed to English hymnist John Francis Wade . The text itself has unclear beginnings, and may have been written in the 13th century by John of Reading, though it has been concluded that Wade was probably the author.The original four verses of the hymn were...
   
    (Traditional, arr. Dylan) – 2:48
9. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
   Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
   "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics, which has become more common than the original. The song was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane...
   
   " (Hugh Martin
   Hugh Martin
   Hugh Martin was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He is best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me In St...
   
   , Ralph Blane
   Ralph Blane
   Ralph Blane was an American composer, lyricist, and performer.-Life and career:Born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Blane was the son of grocery store owners. He attended Tulsa Central High School...
   
   ) – 4:06
10. "Must Be Santa
    Must Be Santa (song)
    "Must Be Santa" is a Christmas song that was originally recorded in 1961 by Mitch Miller. Hal Moore and Bill Fredericks wrote the song. Although the lyrics are different, it has exactly the same tune as "Oh, You Sweet One", written by Moe Jaffe and Richard Hardt, and recorded by Thurl Ravenscroft...
    
    " (William Fredericks, Hal Moore) – 2:48
11. "Silver Bells" (Jay Livingston
    Jay Livingston
    Jay Livingston was an American composer and singer best known as half of a songwriting duo with Ray Evans that specialized in songs composed for films. Livingston wrote the music and Evans the lyrics....
    
    , Ray Evans
    Ray Evans
    Raymond Bernard Evans was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films...
    
    ) – 2:35
12. "The First Noel" (Traditional, arr. Dylan) – 2:30
13. "Christmas Island" (Lyle Moraine
    Lyle Moraine
    Lyle Moraine is best known for writing "Christmas Island" , a song recorded by The Andrews Sisters, Leon Redbone, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Atcher, Bob Dylan, and Petty Booka among others. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and died in Glendale, California....
    
    ) – 2:27
14. "The Christmas Song
    The Christmas Song
    "The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1944 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer...
    
    " (Mel Tormé
    Mel Tormé
    Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
    
    , Bob Wells
    Robert Wells (songwriter)
    Robert Wells was an American songwriter, composer, script writer and television producer. During his early career, he collaborated with singer and songwriter Mel Tormé, writing several hit songs, most notably "The Christmas Song" in 1945...
    
    ) – 3:56
15. "O Little Town of Bethlehem
    O Little Town of Bethlehem
    "O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas carol. The text was written by Phillips Brooks , an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his...
    
    " (Traditional, arr. Dylan) – 2:17

Band

• Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
  
   – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  , keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , harmonica
  Harmonica
  The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
  
  
• Tony Garnier
  Tony Garnier (musician)
  Tony Garnier is an American bassist , best known as an accompanist to Bob Dylan, with whom he has played since 1989...
  
   – bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch is an American jazz and R&B guitarist and bassist.Upchurch started his career working with The Kool Gents, The Dells, and The Spaniels before going on to work with Curtis Mayfield, Otis Rush and Jimmy Reed. He then returned to Chicago to play and record with Woody Herman, Stan Getz,...
  
   – guitar, mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
  
• Patrick Warren - piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , organ
  Electronic organ
  An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
  
  , celeste
  Celesta
  The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
  
  
• David Hidalgo
  David Hidalgo
  David Hidalgo is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. He is also a member of the supergroup Los Super Seven and of the Latin Playboys, a side project band made up of some of the members of Los Lobos...
  
   – accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
  , guitar, mandolin, violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• Donnie Herron – steel guitar
  Steel guitar
  Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
  
  , mandolin, trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  , violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• George Recile – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , percussion

Mixed voice singers

• Amanda Barrett
• Bill Cantos
• Randy Crenshaw
• Abby DeWald
• Nicole Eva Emery
• Walt Harrah
• Robert Joyce

Recording personnel

• Jack Frost
  Bob Dylan
  Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
  
   (Bob Dylan) – producer
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  
• David Bianco – recording, mixing
• David Spreng – additional engineering
  Audio engineering
  An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
  
  
• Bill Lane – assistant engineer
• Glen Suravech – assistant engineer
• Rich Tosti – studio support
• Ed Wong – studio support

Artwork

• VisualLanguage.com – front cover
• Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos – inside photo
• Ewin Fotheringham – back cover illustration
• Coco Shinomiya – design
• Olivia De Berandis - Inside cover illustration

Charts

Chart (2009)	Peak position
Austria Albums Chart	63
Belgian (Flanders) Albums Chart	22
Belgian (Wallony) Albums Chart	89
Canada Albums Chart	33
Denmark Albums Chart	15
Dutch Albums Chart	34
French Albums Chart	119
Germany Albums Chart	37
Norway Albums Chart	5
Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...	34
Italy Albums Chart	27
Spain Albums Chart	54
Sweden Albums Chart	6
Switzerland Albums Chart	80
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	40
US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... Albums Chart	23
US Billboard Holiday Albums Chart	1
US Billboard Folk Albums Chart	1
US Billboard Rock Albums Chart	9

External links

• Bill Flanagan interview with Bob Dylan about Christmas In The Heart