Maps of Music

A Very Special Season (1994)

Where the lyrics of A Very Special Season take you, and where it was really made.

Diana Ross's first holiday album was released only for the international market, and it was later repackaged as Wonderful Christmas Time.

Place unknown

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A Very Special Season: twentieth studio album and first holiday album by American singer Diana Ross
Released 14 November 1994 by EMI Records
Produced by Nick Martinelli, whom Ross worked with several times in the early nineties
A lush, soulful pop album
Mostly traditional Christmas standards, plus takes on songs by Burt Bacharach, John Lennon and Stevie Wonder
Fourteen tracks in the track listing
Released only for the international market

Ross's first holiday album, arriving in the middle of a career that had already produced twenty studio albums
Includes Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now" (with Hal David)
Includes Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"
Includes Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed"
Traditional standards include "Winter Wonderland", "White Christmas", "Silent Night", "O Holy Night", "Ave Maria" and "The Christmas Song"
Also includes Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time"

1	Winter Wonderland	3:23
2	White Christmas	3:20
3	Wonderful Christmastime	3:10
4	What the World Needs Now	4:21
5	Happy Christmas (War Is Over)	3:16
6	Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!	2:14
7	Amazing Grace	5:21
8	His Eye Is on the Sparrow	3:54
9	Silent Night	5:02
10	Overjoyed	4:05
11	O Holy Night	4:44
12	Someday at Christmas	4:09
13	Ave Maria	5:52
14	The Christmas Song	3:13

Diana Ross was born March 26, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, and was the lead singer of the Supremes.
The Supremes joined Motown in 1961 under the name chosen by Florence Ballard, after the group first formed as the Primettes.
The Supremes became Motown's most successful act in the 1960s and one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.

The Supremes' members included Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and later Cindy Birdsong.
Ross left the Supremes in 1970 and began a solo career.

The Supremes remain the best-charting female group in history, with 12 number-one pop singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
Ross's solo career produced six Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Endless Love".
Ross starred in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), earning Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, and later starred in Mahogany and The Wiz.
Ross has sold over 100 million records worldwide as a solo artist.
Ross was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as a member of the Supremes and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

AllMusic editor Jose F. Promis said the album ranks among the diva's best of the 1990s
Promis noted that the songs avoid hip arrangements aimed at a younger, jaded audience
Instead, all songs are classically arranged with lush orchestrations
Promis called it a truly timeless holiday album, close to what crooners and singers of earlier decades would have made
He wrote that every song is lovingly produced
He wrote that Ross wraps her voice around each tune with utmost sincerity

Peaked at number 37 on the UK Albums Chart
Certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI)
Released only for the international market
The 2018 reissue as Wonderful Christmas Time reached number 15 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums

Six tracks Ross originally recorded for the 1994 Hallmark album Making Spirits Bright, with the London Symphony Orchestra, were added to the reissue.
The album was remastered and repackaged as Wonderful Christmas Time in 2018.
The 2018 reissue was issued by Ross's own label, Ross Records, with new cover art.
Ross promoted the reissue with live performances in late 2018.