In the Swing of Christmas is the third Christmas-themed album by Barry Manilow. Released on November 1, 2007, it was available exclusively at Hallmark Gold Crown stores.[2] The album was certified Gold in the United States by the RIAA in 2008,[3] and was nominated for a Grammy in the 'Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album' category at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.[4]
Produced and arranged by Manilow and co-produced by Scott Erickson, the album features more of a swing jazz style than his previous Christmas releases.[5] The jazz ensemble MaD Fusion[a] (Matt Herskowitz—piano, Mat Fieldes—bass, and David Rozenblatt—drums) accompanied Manilow on four tracks, and The Randy Kerber Trio (Randy Kerber—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, with Manilow overdubbing all of the vocals himself. The album included instructions for downloading a bonus track, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear".[6]
On October 13, 2009,[7] the album was re-released on Arista Records 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.[6][8] The downloadable bonus track from the Hallmark release was not included. The re-release appeared on the Billboard 200 chart for four non-consecutive weeks in late 2009, peaking at #127 during the week ending December 19.[9]
^"Barry Manilow". Barry Manilow. STILETTO Entertainment. 2007-10-30. Archived from the original on 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2023-11-30. Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Two more days left until the new Christmas album, IN THE SWING OF CHRISTMAS, is available in Hallmark Gold Crown stores on November 1!
