The Christmas Album, Chris Rea (Magnet)

It had only recently occurred to me that despite flagging numerous covers of this guy's popular Christmas song "Driving Home For Christmas" from 1986, we never gave it its own dedicated post. Two recent developments reminded me of this shortfall; one, the 2025 release of this compilation of holiday tunes by him, and two, his demise this week at age 74. "Driving" had actually dropped as the B-side of "Hello Friend" but, especially in his native UK and Europe, the record got flipped regularly at the end of the year for this nostalgic slice of yacht rock about holiday travels. This compilation is kind of slight, in that it includes two versions of "Driving" and "Footprints in the Snow," the latter one vocal and one instrumental; the slinky semi-spoken "Joys of Christmas"; the ballads"Smile" and "Winter Song"; and the instrumental reggae goof "Rudolph's Rotor Arm." Streaming and downloads everywhere, of course.