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A Very Special Christmas is the first in the A Very Special Christmas series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit the Special Olympics. The album was released on October 12, 1987, and production was overseen by Jimmy Iovine for A&M Records. A Very Special Christmas has raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics.[4] The cover artwork was designed by Keith Haring.

A Very Special Christmas
Cover art by Keith Haring
Compilation album by various artists
Released	October 12, 1987[1]
Genre	Christmas music, Children's music
Length	50:57 (Original version) 51:11 (Revised version)
Label	A&M
Producer	Jimmy Iovine
Various artists chronology
A Very Special Christmas (1987) A Very Special Christmas 2 (1992)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
New Musical Express	9/10[3]

On January 16, 1998, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies in the United States.[5]

As of November 2014, A Very Special Christmas is the 19th best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era of music sales tracking (March 1991 – present), having sold 2,520,000 copies according to SoundScan.[6]

Track listing

Track	Song Title	Writer(s)	Artist	Time
1.	"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"	John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie	The Pointer Sisters	3:22
2.	"Winter Wonderland"	Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith	Eurythmics	3:36
3.	"Do You Hear What I Hear?"	Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker	Whitney Houston	3:33
4.	"Merry Christmas Baby"	Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore	Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band	4:53
5.	"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"	Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane	The Pretenders	4:42
6.	"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"	Tommie Connor	John Cougar Mellencamp	2:39
7.	"Gabriel's Message"	Charles Bordes and Sabine Baring-Gould	Sting	2:14
8.	"Christmas in Hollis"	Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell	Run-D.M.C.	3:00
9.	"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"	Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Phil Spector	U2	2:21
10.	"Santa Baby"	Joan Javits, Philip Springer and Tony Springer	Madonna	2:35
11.	"The Little Drummer Boy"	Katherine Kennicott Davis, Harry Simeone and Henry Onorati	Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band	3:32
12.	"Run Rudolph Run"	Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie	Bryan Adams	2:43
13.	"Back Door Santa"	Clarence Carter and Marcus Daniel	Bon Jovi	3:54
14.	"The Coventry Carol"	Traditional	Alison Moyet	3:25
15.	"Silent Night"	Josef Mohr and Franz X. Gruber	Stevie Nicks	4:37

• First pressings of the album contain a spoken introduction on The Pretenders' "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", presumably by a child. This introduction was later omitted, shortening the track by about 13 seconds.
• Starting in 1992, "Back Door Santa" was replaced by another Bon Jovi song, "I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas", which originally appeared as a B-side on their single Keep The Faith.

References

External links

• Official website
• A Very Special Christmas Article at SpecialOlympics.org

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