SMALL FACES: With Michael Jackson’s “History” greatest-hits...

SMALL FACES: With Michael Jackson’s “History” greatest-hits package now definitely too late to be in stores by Christmas, Jackson will take his time finishing the five or more new songs that will be part of the two-CD set. No new release date has been set, but Epic execs are hoping to have it ready before Easter. . . .

Another one you can scratch off the Christmas list is Stevie Wonder’s new album, which has now been bumped to sometime next year, while Wonder sifts through a mountain of new songs and takes his notorious time fine-tuning the tracks. . . .

However, there will be Christmas spirit aplenty in a new video featuring Jon Bon Jovi and Cindy Crawford, directed by noted photographer Herb Ritts. The clip, expected to start airing on MTV in early December, is for Bon Jovi’s version of Charles Brown’s “Please Come Home for Christmas,” which can be found on the 1992 album “A Very Special Christmas 2.” The two “Special Christmas” collections have raised more than $30 million for the Special Olympics since 1987. . . .

Dates are being booked for what will likely be the big R&B; tour of the winter: Boyz II Men headlining, with Babyface also on the bill for the tour’s first portion. . . . Naughty by Nature has finished its next album, “Poverty’s Paradise,” but with copyright clearance for the samples of other recordings still being secured, the set won’t be released until March. . . . Naughty is also featured on what should be the winter’s biggest rap soundtrack, “New Jersey Drive”--from a movie executive-produced by Spike Lee. The star-studded album, due in late February, also features Queen Latifah, Coolio, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and MC Eiht. . . . The Grateful Dead is in the studio working on its first new studio album since 1989. Among the songs being recorded are the Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter compositions “Days Between” and “Lazy River Road” and a song Bob Weir wrote with the late Willie Dixon titled “Eternity.” . . .

The reunited L.A. punk icons Circle Jerks are signing to Mercury and will start work on a new album soon. The group is also part of the lineup for the Ringling Sisters’ annual “Fun-Raiser” benefit on Dec. 19 at the Palace. Also on the bill so far are Babes in Toyland, 7 Year Bitch, Possum Dixon, Dave Alvin, Rosie Flores and John Trudell, along with the Ringlings. Proceeds will go to the Hollygrove Orphanage, Rock for Choice, the L.A. Youth Network and the media watchdog group F.A.I.R.