Worthy of audiophile treatment. Not every Christmas tune meets that high standard. But each song on this SACD, with each song chosen by Acoustic Sounds owner and CEO Chad Kassem, sound better than it ever has before. These are some of the most familiar - and well-recorded - Christmas tracks ever. We feel we're bringing you a record that you and your family will enjoy every year forevermore. These truly are The Wonderful Sounds Of Christmas. From the peaceful solemnity of Harry Simeone Chorale's "The Little Drummer Boy" to the festive spirit of Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad," The Wonderful Sounds Of Christmas brings you the very best examples of holiday songs ever recorded. With wonderful music in abundance, this Christmas compilation offers a celebration of the season's most joyous and cherished songs. Truly, Christmas has never sounded better!

With "My Christmas", world-renowned opera star Plácido Domingo releases a personal Christmas album with songs dear to his heart to celebrate the warmth and magic of the season. The album will include a number of well-loved Christmas numbers, and will feature a host of top artists singing and playing with Domingo. Plácido Domingo is a world-renowned, multifaceted artist. Recognized as one of the finest and most influential singing actors in the history of opera, his appearances around the world with his colleagues José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti in the now legendary The Three Tenors concerts are one of the great musical success stories of the 1990s. As a singer, his repertoire encompasses more than 140 roles, both as tenor and baritone, with more than 3500 career performances and more than 100 recordings of complete operas, compilations of arias and duets and crossover discs. His work in the recording studio has earned him 12 Grammy Awards, including 3 Latin Grammy Awards.

This collection features a sampling of four Tony Bennett Christmas albums – Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album, Our Favorite Things, Christmas with Tony Bennett, and A Swingin’ Christmas – released between 1968 and 2008. Highlights include such traditional holiday standards as "Silver Bells," "Silent Night," and "Winter Wonderland," plus “Christmas in Herald Square” taken from the album The Playground. This is a nice addition to any Christmas collection.

Best known for her unique interpretations of popular songs, operatic arias and hymns, singer Katherine Jenkins will embrace a new genre this fall when the multi-million selling mezzo-soprano releases her first Christmas album, This is Christmas. This will be the ninth studio album from Jenkins and features 10 newly recorded holiday classics. For this upcoming collection, Jenkins unique vocals can be heard singing traditional holiday tunes from around the world as well as a number of contemporary favorites including "Away In A Manger", "Hark The Herald Angels Sing", "Deck The Halls", and "Come What May", featuring Placido Domingo. "These holiday songs bring back such wonderful memories for me of times spent with family and loved ones", says Jenkins. "I have always hoped that one day I d have the opportunity to record a Christmas album and I can t wait to share my interpretations of these songs with everyone".

The instrumental trio The Three Suns had been around for about two decades, capturing fans as far-ranging as First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and the Platters (who took their Twilight Time to the top of the charts), when they cut this record for RCA s famed Living Stereo series in 1959. And, no doubt inspired by the new-fangled recording technology in RCA s Studio A, they turned in one of the most wacky and entertaining Christmas albums of the era, adding rock and roll guitar and instrumentation as varied as chimes, bells, oboes and two (!) tubas to create a Space Age stereophonic spectacular suitable for the Jetsons next holiday party. This record s long been cherished by Christmas music devotees, and our Real Gone worldwide CD debut reissue features a sparkling remastering job by Maria Triana at Sony s Battery Studios and liner notes by Joe Marchese. Every bit as fizzy as the champagne you re going to open to toast the season!

After signing with Reprise in 1975, Al Jarreau has become a master of both studio and stage. He is one of the most exciting and critically acclaimed performers of our time. This recordingis his first-ever holiday album. Christmas includes the singer's disctinctive vocal spin on a dozen yuletide classics.

Who better to help you celebrate that most wonderful time of the year than holiday favorites Bad Religion? Bad Religion have threatened to record an album of seasonal classics for years, and now they've gone and done it, tackling eight chestnuts in their classic punk rock style.

Most of the notables on GRP's roster in 1988 participated in this pleasing Christmas CD. There is one selection apiece from guitarist Daryl Stuermer, Tom Scott, David Benoit, Diane Schuur, Dave Valentin, Lee Ritenour, Gary Burton, Yutaka, Chick Corea's Elektric Band ("God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"), Szakcsi, Eddie Daniels, Mark Egan, Special EFX, Kevin Eubanks and Dave Grusin. This relaxed set will be enjoyed by fans of those artists.

Christmas Is Almost Here is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 25th album, 21st studio album, and first Christmas album. The album was first released in 2002, then in 2003, it was re-released as Christmas Is Almost Here Again with two bonus tracks, "White Christmas" and "Forgive".

Christmas is one of the most special times of the year. We gather with our loved ones with a sense of harmony and willing to share good times. To achieve this special ambiance, music is essential.

The Soulful Strings were without a doubt the hippest project ever to emerge from the 60s with the word Strings in its name. Brainchild of producer/arranger/bassist/songwriter (and genius) Richard Evans, the group was a far cry from the interchangeable outfits that flourished during the beautiful music era; instead, The Soulful Strings were actually composed of members of the Chess/Cadet label house band, including flautist Lennie Druss, guitarist Phil Upchurch, bassist/cellist Cleveland Eaton and harpist Dorothy Ashby, who laid down a tasty electric groove into which Evans stirred lush strings and unusual instrumentation like the kalimba and sitar. The result was a sound that resided at the crossroads of easy listening, jazz, R&B and exotica and, as one might expect from that description, every Soulful Strings release (they made seven albums) is treasured by cratediggers worldwide. This 1968 release was their highest-charting record at #35 on the charts, and appears on CD for the first time anywhere in the world, with liner notes by Gene Sculatti. The soundtrack to many a swingin 60s Christmas party.

The Beatles never quite made a commercially released Christmas album, though they put together special singles for their fan club every year from 1963 to 1969, then compiled them as The Beatles Christmas Album, also just for the fan club, in 1970. These recordings were more spoken-word than musical, though there was a song, "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)," heard in excerpts on the 1967 record. It has been left to Ringo Starr to release the first full-length Christmas album from a Beatle, and I Wanna Be a Santa Claus is very much in the group's spirit. Since he returned to recording in 1992, Starr has made a point of making music reminiscent of the Beatles, hooking up in 1998 with a group led by Mark Hudson dubbed the Roundheads. Hudson is everywhere on I Wanna Be a Santa Claus, co-writing the half-dozen originals with Starr and others, co-producing with Starr, and handling a variety of instruments. He and keyboard player/arranger Jim Cox clearly are steeped in the Beatles, and they have effectively recreated a Beatles sound on the record, in some cases aping specific songs.

A Christmas Cornucopia is the fifth studio album by the Scottish singer-songwriter Annie Lennox, released in November 2010. It was Lennox's first album after signing to the Universal Music Group following her departure from Sony BMG, which had been her label for almost 30 years. It was also her second cover album (after 1995's Medusa) and her first of holiday music. Lennox was also born on Christmas Day. The album is a collection of Lennox's favourite Christmas songs, though includes one original track written by Lennox, "Universal Child".

A Christmas Celebration of Hope is the thirty ninth studio album by American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter B.B. King released in November 2001 through MCA Records. It is a holiday album. The album earned King two Grammy Awards at the 45th Grammy Awards (2003): he, Anthony Daigle and John Holbrook were presented the award for Best Traditional Blues Album and the track "Auld Lang Syne" earned King the award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

An entry for the 2003 Christmas season was a natural move for Kenny Chesney after the blockbuster No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems made 2002 his banner year. But in typical Chesney fashion, his holiday album tries to be a little more easygoing than the usual Music City rehash of tried 'n' true yuletide chestnuts. The sunny south of the border vibe that lit up the video for No Shirt's title cut is alive and well on All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan; the album's own title track is a nice, swaying number that approximates the Cascades' "Rhythm of the Rain" into its breezy Buffett feel. Like Chesney's best material, it's a contemporary country number crossed effortlessly with pop, and it's just a little bit cheeky, too. "Don't worry baby," he sings.