Evergreen Tunes

Record buyers across the nation aren’t heading to the cash registers this holiday season with just copies of the latest rock, rap or country releases. As sales figures show, Americans are still in love with Christmas music.

Whether they’re ‘90s recordings by Kenny G or Mannheim Steamroller or chestnuts from Nat King Cole or Elvis Presley, Christmas albums represent nearly a quarter of the albums on this week’s list of the nation’s Top 200 sellers.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” says Mike Shalett, chief operating officer of SoundScan, the firm that monitors record sales in the United States. “A lot of casual music buyers buy Christmas records.

“People like this kind of music, whether it’s to play while trimming the tree or as a backdrop on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Some of these things just sell year in and year out.”

Leading the way last week was “Miracles--The Holiday Album,” a 1994 release by saxophonist Kenny G that sold about 183,000 copies to rank ninth among all sellers.

Two years ago, “Miracles” sold a staggering 2.6 million copies during a five-week period and spent three weeks at No. 1, becoming the first holiday album to top the chart since Mitch Miller’s “Holiday Sing Along With Mitch” in January 1962.

The Kenny G record has sold a total of 7 million copies, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, making it the top-selling holiday album of all time.

Ironically, the musician--who plays tonight at the Pond of Anaheim and Friday through Dec. 30 at the Universal Amphitheatre--was lukewarm to the idea of making the album when first approached by Clive Davis, president and CEO of Arista Records. One reason for his hesitation: Kenny G, whose real name is Kenny Gorelick, is Jewish.

“We spoke to him for several years before he agreed to do it,” says Roy Lott, executive vice president and general manager of Arista. “It was just a matter of him realizing that a holiday album or a seasonal album didn’t have to be a Christian album. This is a much broader genre than a Catholic Mass, if you will.”

Kenny G was so pleased with the success of the collection that he plans a second album of holiday music, perhaps next year.

In addition to “Miracles,” four other holiday albums ranked among the nation’s Top 30 last week: Mannheim Steamroller’s “Christmas in the Aire”; Michael Bolton’s “This Is the Time--The Christmas Album,” which is the No. 1 seller among the more than 60 seasonal albums that were released this year; Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas”; and Jimmy Buffett’s “Christmas Island.”

Scattered among the Top 200 were Christmas albums by such artists as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Estefan, Garth Brooks and Neil Diamond, plus compilations that include songs by everyone from U2 and Bruce Springsteen to Madonna and Snoop Doggy Dogg.

The year-old, multimillion-selling Mannheim Steamroller album is the third holiday collection by the orchestral rock ensemble, which reigns as the champion of this lucrative corner of the business. Its two previous Christmas albums, 1984’s “Christmas” and 1988’s “A Fresh Aire Christmas,” each sold 5 million copies, according to the RIAA. Among holiday albums, only “Miracles” has sold more.

The wide appeal of Christmas music is proven anew year after year--to the delight of the record companies that haul them out of storage each fall, dust them off and send them out to eager retailers.

“They sell only during this core period of November and December,” Lott says, “but you can sell an enormous number of records during that time.”

Pete Howard, editor and publisher of the ICE CD newsletter, has stockpiled a collection of about 400 Christmas albums.

“Christmas music makes you feel good,” he says. “It’s music that brings back great memories of our childhood involvement with Christmas--the Christmas tree and Santa Claus and all that stuff.

“It’s basically joyous and spiritual in nature, and the best Christmas carols are fabulous melodies. . . . They’re timeless.”

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Best-Selling Christmas Albums

1. Kenny G, “Miracles--The Holiday Album,” 7 million

2. Mannheim Steamroller, “Christmas,” 5 million

Mannheim Steamroller, “A Fresh Aire Christmas,” 5 million

4. Mariah Carey, “Merry Christmas,” 4 million

5. Garth Brooks, “Beyond the Season,” 3 million

Mannheim Steamroller, “Christmas in the Aire,” 3 million

Barbra Streisand, “Christmas Album,” 3 million

Source: Record Industry Assn. of America