Slowhand's first full-length holiday album will arrive on October 12.
(Image credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images)
Eric Clapton has announced Happy Xmas, a Christmas album featuring a mix of holiday standards, lesser-known Christmas songs and one original track, “For Love On Christmas Day.”
The album—Slowhand's first full-length foray into holiday music—will arrive October 12 via Bushbranch/Surfdog. It's the legendary guitarist's first album since 2016's I Still Do.
"I had in my head that these holiday songs could be done with a slight blues tinge, and I started to figure out how to play the blues lines in between the vocals,” Clapton told Billboard about the album. “I got it down and one of the most identifiable songs on the album, the one that became the foundational style, is ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’”
Happy Xmas was co-produced by Clapton with Simon Climie. You can check out its Clapton-designed cover art and tracklist below.
For more on Clapton, point your browser over to ericclapton.com.
Happy Xmas Track List:
1. White Christmas
2. Away In A Manger (Once In Royal David’s City)
3. For Love On Christmas Day
4. Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday
5. Christmas Tears
6. Home For The Holidays
7. Jingle Bells (In Memory Of Avicii)
8. Christmas In My Hometown
9. It’s Christmas
10. Sentimental Moments
11. Lonesome Christmas
12. Silent Night
13. Merry Christmas Baby
14. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.