SONG OF THE DAY
“The Christmas Waltz” by Harry Connick, Jr. (Harry For The Holidays, Sony/ Columbia, 2003). Written by Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne.
INTERESTING FACTS
– Harry for the Holidays is American artist Harry Connick, Jr.’s second Christmas album.
– The album features Connick and his 16 piece Big Band and a full string section.
– Harry for the Holidays was the best-selling holiday album in the United States of 2003 according to sales figures from Nielsen/SoundScan, with 687,000 copies sold in the U.S. that year.
– A “Harry For The Holidays” television special, aired on NBC December 23, 2003. The TV special was released on DVD October 19, 2004. The special features Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Marc Anthony and Kim Burrell.
– On November 4, 2004, the album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million copies in the U.S.
– The album was also released as a DualDisc, with the DVD side containing both Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mixes and high quality LPCM (better than CD) versions of the album’s 16 tracks. Also included are excerpts from the above-mentioned network special; with performances of 6 songs, including his own “It Must Have Been Ol’ Santa Claus” as well as a version of “Blue Christmas” (made famous, as Connick notes before the performance, by Elvis Presley during his 1970 comeback special).