Maps of Music

One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003)

Where the lyrics of One Wish: The Holiday Album take you, and where it was really made.

Houston's only Christmas album debuted at number 49 on the Billboard 200, the lowest chart position of any of her albums during her lifetime.

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One Wish: The Holiday Album is the only Christmas album and sixth studio album by Whitney Houston
Released on 18 November 2003 by Arista Records
Chiefly produced by Mervyn Warren
Additional production from Troy Taylor, Gordon Chambers and Barry Eastmond
Mixes traditional and contemporary holiday favorites with several new compositions
Includes a duet with Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown
Includes "Joy to the World" and "Who Would Imagine a King", both first heard on The Preacher's Wife soundtrack (1996)

2002: Just Whitney, Houston's fifth studio album, was her first under a new Arista contract
Just Whitney debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200 with 205,000 first-week sales
July 2003: Houston was reported to be recording her first-ever Christmas album
Mervyn Warren, main producer of The Preacher's Wife soundtrack, was at the helm
Houston contributed vocal arrangements and co-produced several tracks
Houston said she had wanted to make a holiday songs album for some time and considered the songs among the most beautiful ever written

1	The First Nöel	3:15
2	The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)	3:13
3	Little Drummer Boy	4:30
4	One Wish (for Christmas)	4:12
5	Cantique de Nöel (O Holy Night)	3:48
6	I’ll Be Home for Christmas	3:45
7	Deck the Halls / Silent Night	4:30
8	Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas	4:49
9	O Come O Come Emmanuel	3:07
10	Who Would Imagine a King	3:30
11	Joy to the World	4:42

Debut album Whitney Houston (1985) topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks.
Second album Whitney (1987) debuted at number one in the US and UK simultaneously.
Starred in The Bodyguard (1992); its soundtrack is among the best-selling of all time.
"I Will Always Love You" is the best-selling single by a female solo artist.
Died February 11, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California.

Music critics gave a mixed reception; many praised the production but were divided on Houston's vocal performance
New York Daily News editor David Hinckley wrote that the album reminds listeners why they liked Houston, with her voice a splendid vehicle for holiday songs
AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the clean, pristine production suits the predictable set of material
Moscow-Pullman Daily News wrote that Houston's voice dazzles across the album
New York Times critic Jones Pareles noted the lavish swoops, sultry whispers and meteoric crescendos
Richard Harrington of The Washington Post found the album not particularly memorable
Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian wrote that Houston seemed to have zoned out halfway through
Slant critic Sal Cinquemani found the album to be nothing more than damage control
Rolling Stone described the album as a lamentable Christmas collection

2014: Los Angeles Times critic Randy Lewis listed One Wish among the 12 worst holiday albums of the last 20 years
Lewis wrote that the set's melismatics often obliterate the spirit of the holiday tunes
2023: Black America Web ranked the album 18th best Black Christmas album of all time

Debuted and peaked at number 49 on the US Billboard 200, her only album to miss the top 40 there
Peaked at number 14 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, her first and only album to miss the top ten there
Peaked at number five on the Top Holiday Albums chart and spent 30 cumulative weeks there
January 2018: RIAA gold certification for domestic shipments above 500,000 units
Houston is one of very few artists to have all lifetime albums certified in the United States
Sold over 2 million copies worldwide
Returned to the Billboard 200 in December 2012 after Houston's death

The album's cover of "Cantique de Noël (O Holy Night)" was shortened into a performance video that served as an album commercial.
A lyric video for "One Wish (for Christmas)", created by filmmaker Katia Temkin, was released by the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment on 11 December 2020.
On 17 December 2022, a lyric video for "The First Noël" was released.
The album's songs gained renewed visibility years later as Houston's holiday catalog experienced a resurgence.
"Little Drummer Boy" was a duet with Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.