Christmas Is Johnny Farnham

Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham (later re-released twice as Memories of Christmas by Johnny Farnham, with different cover art, at the time of the album's release, he was now recording under John Farnham) is a studio album of Christmas songs recorded by Australian pop singer John Farnham (then billed as Johnny Farnham) and released on EMI Records in December 1970.[1][2][3] The single, "Christmas Happy", was also released in December. It would be Farnham's only Christmas album until some 46 years later, when in 2016 he would release Friends for Christmas, a duet seasonal album with Olivia Newton-John.

Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham
Studio album by
Johnny Farnham
ReleasedDecember 1970
RecordedDecember 1970
GenrePop
LabelEMI, Columbia
ProducerDavid Mackay
Johnny Farnham chronology
Looking Through a Tear
(1970)		 Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham
(1970)		 Johnny
(1971)
Singles from Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham
  1. "Christmas Happy"
    Released: December 1970
1995 Re-release
Memories of Christmas
1997 Re-release
Memories of Christmas with variant cover.

Re-releases

The album was re-released under the new title of Memories of Christmas,[4] on 13 November 1995 and again on 6 December 1997 with different covers and an altered track list each time.

Background

Johnny Farnham's first No. 1 single on the Go-Set National Singles Charts was the novelty song "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" released in 1967.[5] Selling 180 000 copies in Australia, "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" was the highest selling single by an Australian artist of the decade.[2][3] His first Christmas song was a non-album single, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", in November 1968.[6] A cover of B. J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was released in November 1969 and peaked at No. 1 for seven weeks in January–March 1970.[7][8] After his third album, Looking Through a Tear was released in July 1970, a non-album single, "Comic Conversation" was released in October and peaked at No. 10 on the Go-Set National Top 60 Singles Chart.[9] Farnham recorded his fourth album as Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham, it was released in December and contained Christmas songs but did not chart on the Go-Set National Top 20 Albums Chart. One of the songs, "Good Time Christmas", was written by Farnham.[10] The single, "Christmas Happy", was also released in December.

Track listing
  1. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (J.F. Coots, H. Gillespie) – 3:14
  2. "Christmas Is" (P. Faith, S. Maxwell) – 2:58
  3. "The Ringing Reindeer" (G. Skoglund) – 3:10
  4. "Little Drummer Boy" (K.K. Davis, H.V. Onorati, H. Simeone) – 3:42
  5. "Jingle Bells" (J.L. Pierpont) – 2:49
  6. "Good Time Christmas" (J. Farnham) – 2:28
  7. "Everything Is Beautiful" (R. Stevens) – 3:50
  8. "White Christmas" (I. Berlin) – 3:55
  9. "The First Noel" (traditional, arranged by D. Gilbert) – 3:08
  10. "Silent Night" (J. Mohr, F. Gruber, translated by J.F. Young) – 2:50
  11. "There's No Place Like Home" (H. Bishop, J.H. Payne) – 3:11
  12. "Little Boy Dear" (F. Vaz) – 3:38
  13. "It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas" (S. Cahn, J. van Heusen) – 3:21
  14. "Christmas Happy" (T. Leonetti, A. Kitson) – 2:28

References
  1. McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'John Farnham'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 29 August 2004. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
  2. Jenkins, Jeff; Ian Meldrum (2007). Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia. Melbourne, Vic: Wilkinson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921332-11-1. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  3. Creswell, Toby; Samantha Trenoweth (2006). 1001 Australians You Should Know. North Melbourne, Vic: Pluto Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-86403-361-8. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
  4. Holmgren, Magnus; Reboulet, Scott; Albury, Lyn; Birtles, Beeb; Warnqvist, Stefan; Medlin, Peter. "John Farnham". Passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  5. "Go-Set search engine results for "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)"". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  6. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.
  7. "Go-Set search engine results for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  8. "Go-Set Magazine's Number One Singles in Australia 1966–1974". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  9. "Go-Set Australian charts – 6 March 1971". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Retrieved 6 September 2009. NOTE: Farnham's single is listed as "Cosmic Conversations" [sic] at #52, over its 18-week run it had a peak position of #10.
  10. ""Good Time Christmas" at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 6 September 2009.
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