Jimmy Barnes to release Blue Christmas, his first seasonal album

Mariah Carey might be in for some stiff competition with Jimmy Barnes revealing what childhood favourites have made it onto his first Christmas album. See the video.

Exclusive: It has taken Jimmy Barnes three decades to put on his Working Class Santa suit and join his children on the Australian Christmas pop playlist.

Back in 1991, his children Mahalia, Eliza Jane, Jackie and Elly May soared into the top 10 with their platinum-selling Hey Rudolph album.

Barnes will release Blue Christmas, his first collection of seasonal songs, in November, but fans score an early present this week with his version of the title track made famous by Elvis Presley in 1957.

The rocker recognises Australian artists face a conundrum when making Christmas records because the vast majority of silly season soundtrack favourites hail from the snowy, chestnut-roasting northern hemisphere.

The Scottish-born singer has settled for a mix of wintry standards from his own Christmas childhood memories, including Let It Snow, with less weather-centric pop faves such as Rockin’ Around The Christmas tree.

Jimmy Barnes celebrating Christmas. Picture: Instagram

But it is the album’s cover which screams Australia – Barnes standing in a coastal carpark against a brilliant blue sky and ocean backdrop and a cobalt blue classic Monaro parked behind him.

“I love the Elvis song obviously but the reason I called the record Blue Christmas is because we’re not surrounded by snow in Australia, it’s normally blue skies and sea,” Barnes said.

“And you don’t get more Australian than a V8 Monaro. I had the licence plate flown in; it’s the serial number for Elvis’s Blue Christmas.”

Jimmy Barnes’s Blue Christmas album cover artwork. Picture: Jesse Lizotte

Christmas has also come early for Vika and Linda fans, with the chart-topping sisters releasing their rendition of Tom Petty’s 1992 song Christmas All Over Again on October 6.

That song announced the chart-topping duo’s first cool Yule collection, delightfully titled Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas! steers well clear of the standards with their harmonic, danceable takes on merry music by The Ramones, Slade and Queen.

“We just wanted to make a Christmas record you could dance to,” Vika said. “Something to dance to while you’re cooking lunch on Christmas Day”.

Linda added: “A joyous record, something to make people happy. And we didn’t want to do the obvious songs.”

Vika and Linda Bull have released a Christmas album too. Picture: Supplied/Lisa Businovski

Other artists with early good musical cheer incoming this year include Backstreet Boys (A Very Backstreet Christmas) English pop star Cliff Richard (Christmas With Cliff) and Andrea, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli (A Family Christmas).

Australian artists have amped up their contribution to the Christmas songbook over the past decade to take on the chart supremacy of Michael Buble and Mariah Carey.

Paul Kelly, whose beloved How To Make Gravy carol has been celebrated by fans worldwide as part of the countdown to Christmas for the past 25 years, will have another crack at the chart summit in 2022.

The national music treasure will reissue his Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train album for the 2022 season, an eclectic collection of his family favourites and a stocking’s worth of Aussie-themed songs you may not have known existed.

The record debuted at No. 2 when it was released last November and bounced around the top 10 through December and January.

Vocal group Human Nature have been regulars on the end-of-year top 50 with The Christmas Album first released in 2013.

John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John album Friends for Christmas is likely to feature in the charts this festive season. Picture: Sony Music Australia.

You can also count of the John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John record Friends For Christmas and Delta Goodrem’s Only Santa Knows to feature in the chart race this year as their songs feature on streaming playlists made for the season.

As the newcomer to the carols record squad this year, Barnes reckons it’s less of a competition and the more Australians artists, the merrier.

“Look, there’s room for everybody, Christmas is all about sharing!” he said in the spirit of the season.

“Let’s face it, if you’re going to have Christmas music going all day, you need a bunch of really good records. And one of the reasons I made this record, is because I think there’s a handful of really good ones out there.”

Jimmy Barnes celebrating Christmas with family. Picture: Instagram

Barnes also made Blue Christmas as a gift for his family. He still loves to revisit the cassette recording – now saved digitally on his laptop – which his children and their cousins recorded in his garage as a present to him in the 90s.

“They went and did this medley of songs: River by Joni Mitchell, Away In A Manger, Silent Night, and there was a Ben Harper song too because Mahalia was a young teenager by then, they all sang these parts they had worked out, it was just so beautiful it makes you cry.”

Vika and Linda release Gee Whiz It’s Christmas! on November 4 and perform a Christmas Show at Melbourne Recital Hall on December 2.

Jimmy Barnes releases Blue Christmas on November 25, and you can pre-order it via jimmybarnes.com

Originally published as Jimmy Barnes to release Blue Christmas, his first seasonal album