Gwen Stefani got an early Christmas present. On the heels of The Voice judge’s release of her very first holiday album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas , the album has debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Holiday Albums chart. Gwen Stefani’s freshman holiday effort beat out Alabama’s American Christmas , Fantasia’s Christmas After Midnight and even Elvis Presley’s Elvis Christmas With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the top holiday spot 10 days before Halloween.
Gwen Stefani previously told Billboard that she was inspired to write a Christmas song while going for a run on boyfriend Blake Shelton’s Oklahoma ranch. Gwen spontaneously recorded her ideas on a voice memo on her phone and was soon recording her first solo holiday song, “Christmas Eve.”
In addition to six self-penned original tracks, Gwen Stefani’s Christmas album includes covers of standards like “Jingle Bells,” “Let it Snow,” and “Silent Night.” But Stefani seems to have a soft spot for her new songs as she sets her sights on becoming a holiday tradition.
“I love the idea of being a part of the joy of Christmas,” Stefani told Entertainment Weekly . “And I love the idea of having a record that will be an annual thing. I really hope we hit on something that people want to hear every year. That would be the fantasy: to be Mariah Carey.”
Gwen Stefani’s Christmas ‘fantasy’ is ‘to be Mariah Carey’ https://t.co/pXm7zoshPH
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) October 12, 2017
Of course, beating out Elvis Presley on the album charts is no small feat, either. The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s fan base remains strong 40 years after his death, so Presley’s latest posthumous release is sure to become a Christmas classic. A press release posted on Graceland.com describes the King’s new album as a compilation of “Elvis Presley’s best-loved yuletide performances from Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957) and Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas (1971) re-imagined with sublime and exquisite new arrangements performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.” Some of the songs included on the album include “Blue Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” and “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane).”
While Gwen Stefani’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas currently holds the No. 1 spot on the Holiday Album charts, the 2017 holiday season marks the 60th anniversary of Elvis’ Christmas Album, the beloved Christmas classic that, to this day, remains the top-selling holiday album of all time.
You can listen to Gwen Stefani’s Christmas duet with boyfriend Blake Shelton from her album You Make It Feel Like Christmas below.
[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for CBS Radio]
