Merry Christmas, Baby

Critical reception

Merry Christmas, Baby received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 53, which indicates "mixed or average reviews", based on 6 reviews.

Commercial performance

Merry Christmas, Baby debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart, with first week sales of 117,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spent a total of eight weeks in the top 10. With total U.S. sales of 858,000 copies in 2012 according to SoundScan, Merry Christmas, Baby was the best-selling Christmas/holiday album of the year. The album was also the year's fifteenth best-selling album in the U.S. according to Billboard and the ninth best-selling physical album in the U.S. according to the Nielsen Company's 2012 Music Industry Report.

In the UK, the album debuted at No. 2 on the Official Albums Chart and has so far spent six weeks in the top 10. It sold 421,000 copies in the UK in 2012 and its current UK sales stand at 636,000.

In Canada, the album spent eight weeks in the top ten of the Canadian Albums Chart, with three consecutive weeks at the No. 1 spot. It was the ninth best-selling album in Canada in 2012 according to year-end sales data from Nielsen SoundScan Canada with sales of 135,000.

Worldwide, the album achieved total 2012 sales of 2.6 million according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, making it the seventh best-selling album of the year.

Track listing

All tracks produced by David Foster; except "Auld Lang Syne" produced by Rod Stewart and Kevin Savigar.

Note

"What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" uses a vocal sample of the Ella Fitzgerald recording of the same name

Personnel

Musicians and Vocalists

Rod Stewart – vocals

David Foster – acoustic piano (1–3, 6–8, 10, 15), keyboards (5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16)

Jochem van der Saag – synthesizers (1–12, 14–16) programming (1–12, 14–16), sound design (1–12, 14–16)

Kevin Savigar – keyboards (13), programming (13)

Dean Parks – guitars (1–3, 5–9, 11, 12, 14–16), guitar solo (4, 10), mandolin (16)

Emerson Swinford – guitars (13)

Jorge Vivo – additional guitars (14)

Chuck Berghofer – bass (1, 2, 6–8, 10, 14, 15)

Peter Erskine – drums (1, 2, 7, 10, 15)

Matt O'Connor – percussion (2, 3, 5, 6, 9), additional percussion (11, 14)

Jeff Driskel – saxophones (2, 6, 7)

Dan Oestreicher – baritone saxophone (5, 9)

Tim McFatter – tenor saxophone (5, 9)

Dave Koz – saxophone solo (6)

Jimmy Roberts – saxophone solo (9)

Bob McChesney – trombones (2, 6)

Trombone Shorty – trombone (5, 9), trumpet (5, 9)

Production

Jay Landers – A&R

Katherine Tempesta – A&R coordinator

Evelyn Morgan – A&R administrator

David Hage – music copyist

Thanh Tran – music copyist

Jullian Peploe Studio – art direction, design

Penny Lancaster – photography

Arnold Stiefel – management

Technical credits

Vlado Meller – mastering at Vlado Meller Mastering (Charleston, South Carolina)

Jochem van der Saag – mixing, recording (1–12, 14–16), engineer (1–12, 14–16)

Don Murray – recording (1–12, 14–16)

Jorge Vito – recording (1–12, 14–16), engineer (1–12, 14–16)

Kevin Savigar – engineer (13)

Tom Weir – choir recording (13)

Jack Miele – additional recording (1–12, 14–16)

Jonathan Allen – orchestra recording (1–4, 8–15)

Steve Price – orchestra recording (1–4, 8–15)

John Barrett – orchestra Pro Tools engineer (1–4, 8–15)

Matt O'Connor – technical assistant for Rod Stewart

Awards and recognition

In February 2013, the album was nominated for a Canadian Juno Award in the International Album of the Year category.