Michael Bublé - Christmas [Red]

Few modern holiday records have taken over the season like Michael Bublé's Christmas. Released in 2011 and produced by David Foster with Bob Rock and Humberto Gatica, it turned a reliable crooner into the unofficial voice of December, and it has returned to the charts every winter since.

The formula is simple and executed perfectly: big-band swing, lush strings and a voice that sounds like it was built for this material. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" opens with a jolt of brass, "Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Santa Baby" bounce, and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Silent Night" slow things down to candlelight. Bublé also tucks in an original, the wistful "Cold December Night," and trades verses with Thalía on the bilingual "Mis Deseos / Feliz Navidad."

It is the rare contemporary holiday album that sits comfortably next to the Sinatra and Crosby records it so clearly loves, and for a whole generation of listeners it has become the one that gets played first.

This Reprise edition presents the sixteen-track album on red 180-gram vinyl.