Eric Clapton Announces Christmas Album, Featuring Tribute to Avicii
Eric Clapton announced today his first ever full-length studio holiday album, “Happy Xmas,” set for an release Oct. 12 on Clapton’s Bushbranch Records via Surfdog Records. “Happy Xmas” is Clapton’s 24th studio album and his first since 2016’s “I Still Do,” and mixes holiday classics with lesser-known unique titles, as well as an original new song “For Love on Christmas Day.”
Curiously, the album also features a version of “Jingle Bells” that is dedicated to the late artist and DJ Avicii, who died of an apparent suicide in Oman in April. There is no obvious connection between Clapton and Avicii except that both struggled with substance abuse: Clapton with both drugs and alcohol in the 1960s and 1970s — which led him to found the Crossroads addiction treatment center — and Avicii with alcohol, which many believe contributed to the ill health that led him to stop touring. A rep for Clapton did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
“I had in my head that these holiday songs could be done with a slight blues tinge, and I started to figure out how to play the blues lines in between the vocals,” said Clapton in the album announcement. “I got it down and one of the most identifiable songs on the album, the one that became the foundational style, is ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’.”
TRACKLISTING:
White Christmas
Away In A Manger (Once In Royal David’s City)
For Love On Christmas Day
Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday
Christmas Tears
Home For The Holidays
Jingle Bells (In Memory Of Avicii)
Christmas In My Hometown
It’s Christmas
Sentimental Moments
Lonesome Christmas
Silent Night
Merry Christmas Baby
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
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