The Gift of Christmas (Juice Newton album)


The Gift of Christmas is a 2007 Christmas album by country pop singer Juice Newton. It was originally released by OJM Records on November 14, 2007. The album was Newton's last collaboration with Otha Young, her professional partner of over 30 years. Young died of cancer in 2009.

Overview

The Gift of Christmas was produced by Newton herself and recorded at a studio in La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California. Among the 12 songs Newton recorded on the album were the old spiritual "Go Tell It on the Mountain", the English Christmas carol "The First Noel", and "Auld Lang Syne" from the poem by Robert Burns. She also performed the popular 1957 Bobby Helms tune "Jingle Bell Rock", the 1947 Leroy Anderson classic "Sleigh Ride", and Harry Belafonte's "Mary's Boy Child". One of the songs, "For Believers", was written by Otha Young and originally recorded by Newton for her 1983 album Dirty Looks. For this album Newton performed a special new rendition.
In discussing the album Newton remarked:
Newton did not have a major distributor at the time of the album's release so she sold it through her web site, her Myspace site and through CD Baby. The Gift of Christmas was subsequently released through iTunes in a "deluxe edition" with four additional songs. Two of these are non-Christmas songs with Newton singing duets with Willie Nelson. These two duets were originally released on Newton's 2010 album .

Track listing

Original release

Deluxe edition