''In the Swing of Christmas'' is the third Christmas-themed album by

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow ( ; born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer with a career that spans over sixty years. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", "Looks Like We Made It", "Brandy (Scott ...

. Released on November 1, 2007, it was available exclusively at Hallmark Gold Crown stores. The album was certified Gold in the United States by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

in 2008, and was nominated for a Grammy in the 'Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album' category at the

51st Annual Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the ...

. Produced and arranged by Manilow and co-produced by

Scott Erickson Scott Gavin Erickson (born February 2, 1968) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Yankees over 15 seasons. He ...

, the album features more of a

swing jazz Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement ...

style than his previous Christmas releases. The jazz ensemble MaD Fusion (Matt Herskowitz—piano, Mat Fieldes—bass, and David Rozenblatt—drums) accompanied Manilow on four tracks, and The Randy Kerber Trio (

Randy Kerber Randy Kerber (born September 25, 1958) is an American composer, orchestrator and keyboard player, who has had a prolific career in the world of cinema. Kerber was born in Encino, California. He began his first national tour with Bette Midler in ...

—piano, Mike Valerio—bass, and Joe LaBarbera—drums) was featured on five tracks, along with various other musicians. The first track, "Silver Bells", was performed

a capella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

, with Manilow overdubbing all of the vocals himself. The album included instructions for downloading a bonus track, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear". On October 13, 2009, the album was re-released on

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

with two bonus tracks: "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Christmas Is Just Around the Corner", an original song from the 2008 animated television special ''Cranberry Christmas''. The downloadable bonus track from the Hallmark release was not included. The re-release appeared on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

chart for four non-consecutive weeks in late 2009, peaking at #127 during the week ending December 19.

Track listing

2007 release

# "

Silver Bells "Silver Bells" is a Christmas song composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. It debuted in the motion picture '' The Lemon Drop Kid'' (1951), where it was started by William Frawley,"The Lemon Drop Kid" in The American Film Institute Catalog of ...

" – 2:37 # "

Carol of the Bells "Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, which is based on the Ukrainian New Year's song " Shchedryk". The music for the carol comes from the song written by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in or before 1916; the English-la ...

Jingle Bells "Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung Christmas songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont. It is an unsettled question where and when Pierpont originally composed the song that would become known as "Jingle Bells". It ...

" – 2:45 # "

Joy to the World "Joy to the World" is an English hymn and Christmas carol. It was written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnist Isaac Watts. It is usually sung to the American composer Lowell Mason's 1848 arrangement of a tune attributed to George Fride ...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams for his first Christmas album, '' The Andy Williams Christm ...

" – 3:07 # "

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical '' Meet Me in St. Louis''. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. ...

" – 4:06 # " Violets for Your Furs" – 3:22 # "

O Tannenbaum "" (; "O fir tree"), known in English as "O Christmas Tree", is a German Christmas song. Based on a traditional folk song that was unrelated to the holiday, it became associated with the traditional Christmas tree. History The modern lyrics were ...

" / "

Winter Wonderland "Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himb ...

" – 2:57 # "

Christmas Time Is Here "Christmas Time Is Here" is a popular Christmas standard written by Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson for the 1965 CBS television special ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'', one of the first animated Christmas specials produced for network television i ...

" – 4:35 # " The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire)" – 3:18 # "Toyland" (

Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and co ...

Glen MacDonough Glen MacDonough (1870 – March 30, 1924) was an American lyricist, librettist, and playwright. He is best-remembered today as the librettist of Victor Herbert's operetta, ''Babes in Toyland (operetta), Babes in Toyland'' (1903). Early life ...

) – 3:23 # " Count Your Blessings" – 3:48

downloadable bonus track

# "

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", sometimes rendered as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", is an 1849 poem and Christmas Carol (music), carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the American Unitarian Association, Unitarian Church in Wayland, M ...

2009 re-release

# "

" – 2:37 # "

" – 2:45 # "

" – 3:07 # "

" – 4:06 # " Violets for Your Furs" – 3:22 # "

" / "

" – 2:57 # "

" – 4:35 # " The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire)" – 3:18 # "Toyland" (

) – 3:23 # " Count Your Blessings" – 3:48 # "

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...

" – 2:26 # "Christmas Is Just Around the Corner" (Barry Manilow,

Bruce Sussman Bruce Howard Sussman (born July 12, 1949) is an American lyricist and librettist. Though he has collaborated with numerous composers, he is probably best known for his work with his long-time collaborator, Barry Manilow. Together, they have writ ...

) – 2:54

Personnel

* Barry Manilow – vocals, arrangements * Matt Herskowitz – acoustic piano (2, 3, 6, 7) *

– acoustic piano (4, 5, 8-10), horn arrangements (9) * Ron Pedley – additional keyboards (2-10) * Michael Lang – acoustic piano (11) *

– programming (11) * Jim Cox – keyboards (12) * George Doering – guitars (2-11) *

Tim Pierce Tim Pierce (born 1958 in Albuquerque) is an American session guitarist. He has worked for artists such as Joe Cocker, Crowded House, Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Jackson, Beth Hart, Roger Waters, Alice Cooper, Johnny Hallyday, Phil Collins, and th ...

– guitars (12) * Mat Fieldes – bass (2, 3, 6, 7) * Mike Valerio – bass (4, 5, 8-10) *

Chuck Berghofer Charles Curtis Berghofer (born June 14, 1937) is an American double bassist and electric bassist, who has worked in jazz and as a session musician in the film industry for more than 60 years, including working on more than 400 movie soundtracks. ...

– bass (11) *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section, which supported so many of Asylu ...

– bass guitar (12) * David Rozenblatt – drums (2, 3, 6, 7), percussion (11) * Joe LaBarbera – drums (4, 5, 8-10) * Gregg Fields – drums (11) * John Ferraro – drums (12) * Tom Scott – saxophones (9),

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(9) * Sal Lozano – woodwinds (11) *

Eric Marienthal Eric Marienthal (born December 19, 1957) is a Grammy Award-nominated Los Angeles-based contemporary saxophonist best known for his work in the jazz, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, and pop genres. Early life Eric Marienthal was born on December 19, 1 ...

– woodwinds (11) * Jay Mason – woodwinds (11) * Andy Martin – trombone (11) * Charlie Morillas – trombone (11) * Warren Luening – trumpet (9, 11) * Jeff Bunnell – trumpet (11) * Dan Fornero – trumpet (11) * Brian O'Connor –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

(11) * Roger Treece – additional arrangements (1), vocal orchestration (1) * Ray Ellis – arrangements (11) * Randy Crenshaw – backing vocals (2, 11), BGV arrangements (2, 11) * Susan Stevens – backing vocals (2, 11) * Jeff Gunn – backing vocals (11) * Scottie Haskell – backing vocals (11) *

Jeffrey Foskett Jeffrey Foskett (February 17, 1956 – December 11, 2023) was an American guitarist and singer, best known as a touring and studio musician for Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys since the 1980s. Foskett was described as the Beach Boys' "vice pr ...

– backing vocals (12) * Michael Lloyd – backing vocals (12), arrangements (12) * Patti Lloyd – backing vocals (12) * Debbie Lytton – backing vocals (12) * Greg O'Connor – backing vocals (12), arrangements (12) * Jenni Snyder – backing vocals (12) * Susanna Wolk – backing vocals (12)

Production

* Garry C. Kief – executive producer, management * Barry Manilow – producer (1-10) * Scott Erickson – co-producer (1-10), mixing (1-10), producer (11) * Michael Lloyd – producer (12), engineer (12), mixing (12) * Greg O'Connor – producer (12) * Marc Hulett – associate producer (1-10) * Don Murray – recording (1-10), additional mixing (1) *

Bill Schnee William S. Schnee (born July 4, 1947) is an American musician, music producer, and audio engineer. Schnee has been nominated 11 times for the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Grammy Award and worked on a multitude of other Grammy nominated ...

– recording (11), mixing (11) * Bob Kearney – engineer (12) * Greg Bartheld – additional engineer (1-10), technical assistance (1-10) * Koji Egawa – additional engineer (1-11), technical assistance (1-10) * Mark Gray – assistant engineer (1-10) * Dan Monti – assistant engineer (1-10) *

Charlie Paakkari Christina Paakkari, also known as Charlie Paakkari, is an American audio engineer for Capitol Records and the recipient of a 2005 Grammy Award for her work on the Dianne Reeves album ''Good Night, and Good Luck ''Good Night, and Good Luck'' (s ...

– assistant engineer (1-10) * Justin Pintar – assistant engineer (1-10) * Charlie Bybee – assistant engineer (11) * Nigel Lundemo – assistant engineer (12) *

Doug Sax Doug Sax (April 26, 1936 – April 2, 2015) was an American mastering engineer from Los Angeles, California. He mastered three The Doors' albums, including their 1967 debut; six Pink Floyd's albums, including '' The Wall''; Ray Charles' multiple ...

– mastering * Sangwook Nam – mastering * The Mastering Lab (Hollywood, California) – mastering location * Cristina Abaroa – additional production assistant * Hallmark Marketing Studio – design, liner notes *

Jeff Katz Jeff Katz is an American film producer and comic book author, best known for genre movies such as ''The Pope's Exorcist'', '' Snakes On A Plane'' and ''Freddy vs. Jason''. Early life Katz is from Franklin, Michigan. He started a pen-pal relat ...

– photography * Stiletto Entertainment – management

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2007 Christmas albums Christmas albums by American artists Barry Manilow albums Arista Records Christmas albums Swing Christmas albums