Special time of year for CD buyers

How are sales of holiday music collections shaping up this year? It’s turned into a reindeer race between Harry Connick Jr. and a slew of acts whose seasonal tunes make up “Now That’s What I Call Christmas! The Signature Collection,” the second “Now” holiday compilation.

Check the reports on Thursday to see whether Nielsen SoundScan figures will show a change in the running. As of last week, Connick’s new “Harry for the Holidays” album was in front by a red nose, having sold 373,000 copies to “Now’s” 365,000 since they were released. Chart-wise, that puts Connick’s second Christmas album at No. 12 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart, and the “Now” entry at No. 17.

“I fully expect both to make the Top 10,” says Billboard charts director Geoff Mayfield. “That won’t happen every year, but there have been years where one or two did make the Top 10.”

Five others have placed Christmas albums in Billboard’s Top 100: the “American Idol” cast, Kenny Chesney, Whitney Houston, Michael Buble and pianist Jim Brickman. Houston’s album has only reached No. 53 on Billboard’s list so far, but “I think it’s too early to call that a disappointment,” Mayfield says. “Typically you don’t expect a Christmas record to start really big.”

Indeed, most record companies are less concerned about first-week sales of Christmas collections than when it comes to an artist’s standard releases. “The beauty about Christmas albums,” Mayfield says, “is that if you’ve done a good job, it’ll not just sell this year, but every year.”

Case in point: Connick’s first holiday album, 1993’s “When My Heart Finds Christmas.” It peaked at No. 13 in Billboard, yet despite missing the Top 10, has sold 2.7 million copies over the past decade.

And just when it seems that every musician on the planet has made a holiday album, enough time rolls around and many, like Connick, take a second, third or even fourth swing at it.

“Christmas always happens, so there will always be new Christmas albums,” Mayfield says. “There may or may not be one every year destined to make the Top 10, but there will always be something new to put fresh ears on some familiar music.”

-- Randy Lewis