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Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham
Studio album by Johnny Farnham
Released	December 1970
Recorded	December 1970
Genre	Pop
Label	EMI, Columbia
Producer	David Mackay
Johnny Farnham chronology
Looking Through a Tear (1970) Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham (1970) Johnny (1971)
Singles from Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham
"Christmas Happy" Released: December 1970
1995 Re-release
Memories of Christmas
1997 Re-release
Memories of Christmas with variant cover.

Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham (later re-released twice as Memories of Christmas by Johnny Farnham, with different cover art, at the time of the album's release, he was now recording under John Farnham) is a studio album of Christmas songs recorded by Australian pop singer John Farnham (then billed as Johnny Farnham) and released on EMI Records in December 1970. The single, "Christmas Happy", was also released in December. It would be Farnham's only Christmas album until some 46 years later, when in 2016 he would release Friends for Christmas, a duet seasonal album with Olivia Newton-John.

Re-releases

The album was re-released under the new title of Memories of Christmas, on 13 November 1995 and again on 6 December 1997 with different covers and an altered track list each time.

Background

Johnny Farnham's first No. 1 single on the Go-Set National Singles Charts was the novelty song "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" released in 1967. Selling 180 000 copies in Australia, "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" was the highest selling single by an Australian artist of the decade. His first Christmas song was a non-album single, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", in November 1968. A cover of B. J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was released in November 1969 and peaked at No. 1 for seven weeks in January–March 1970. After his third album, Looking Through a Tear was released in July 1970, a non-album single, "Comic Conversation" was released in October and peaked at No. 10 on the Go-Set National Top 60 Singles Chart. Farnham recorded his fourth album as Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham, it was released in December and contained Christmas songs but did not chart on the Go-Set National Top 20 Albums Chart. One of the songs, "Good Time Christmas", was written by Farnham. The single, "Christmas Happy", was also released in December.

Track listing

Side A

1. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie) – 3:14
2. "Christmas Is" (Percy Faith, Spence Maxwell) – 2:58
3. "The Ringing Reindeer" (Gunnar Skoglund) – 3:10
4. "Little Drummer Boy" (Katherine Kennicott Davis, Henry Onorati, Harry Simeone) – 3:42
5. "Jingle Bells" (James Pierpont) – 2:49
6. "Good Time Christmas" (John Farnham) – 2:28
7. "Everything Is Beautiful" (Ray Stevens) – 3:50

Side B

1. "White Christmas" (Irving Berlin) – 3:55
2. "The First Noel" (Traditional; arranged by Davies Gilbert) – 3:08
3. "Silent Night" (Josef Mohr, Franz Gruber, translated by John Freeman Young) – 2:50
4. "There's No Place Like Home" (Henry Bishop, John Howard Payne) – 3:11
5. "Little Boy Dear" (François Vaz) – 3:38
6. "It Must Be Getting Close to Christmas" (Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 3:21
7. "Christmas Happy" (Tommy Leonetti, A. Kitson) – 2:28

References

1. McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'John Farnham'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 29 August 2004. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
2. ^ Jenkins, Jeff; Ian Meldrum (2007). Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia. Melbourne, Vic: Wilkinson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921332-11-1. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
3. ^ Creswell, Toby; Samantha Trenoweth (2006). 1001 Australians You Should Know. North Melbourne, Vic: Pluto Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-86403-361-8. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
4. Holmgren, Magnus; Reboulet, Scott; Albury, Lyn; Birtles, Beeb; Warnqvist, Stefan; Medlin, Peter. "John Farnham". Passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
5. "Go-Set search engine results for "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)"". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
6. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.
7. "Go-Set search engine results for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
8. "Go-Set Magazine's Number One Singles in Australia 1966–1974". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
9. "Go-Set Australian charts – 6 March 1971". Go-Set. Waverley Press. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2009. NOTE: Farnham's single is listed as "Cosmic Conversations" [sic] at #52, over its 18-week run it had a peak position of #10.
10. ""Good Time Christmas" at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 6 September 2009.

• John Farnham albums
• 1970 Christmas albums
• Albums produced by David Mackay (producer)
• Christmas albums by Australian artists
• EMI Columbia Records albums
• Pop Christmas albums