Christmas songs, from the solemn to the silly, have been a long tradition in the record business. Artists in virtually every music field – pop, rock, R & B, soul. jazz, gospel. country and folk – have scored seasonal successes, sometimes perennially like Bing Crosby, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Phil Spector, with his classic Christmas album.

This eclectic seasonal collection features a host of major soul, R & B and gospel stars including Chuck Berry, Jerry Butler, Dinah Washington and more, from the heyday era of the Fifties and Sixties.