Harry Connick Jr. - When My Heart Finds Christmas

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Title: When My Heart Finds Christmas
Artist: Harry Connick Jr.
Audio CD (June 5, 2007)
Original Release Date: 1993
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Christmas
Format: Free Lossless Audio Codec


Track Listing:

01. Sleigh Ride
02. When My Heart Finds Christmas
03. (It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus
04. Blessed Dawn of Christmas Day
05. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
06. Little Drummer Boy
07. Ave Maria
08. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
09. What Child Is This?
10. Christmas Dreaming
11. I Pray on Christmas
12. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
13. O Holy Night
14. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?


Amazon Review:
New Orleans pianist, singer, and songwriter Harry Connick Jr. has done what many makers of Christmas records strive for but seldom achieve: he's made a Christmas record that sounds convincingly like a '40s period piece and rigorously like a cool, contemporary jazz disc. His powerful, self-written Christmas songs sound like polished standards, and he delivers the whole package with a sassy, vocal economy (with the occasional New Orleans accent) and an orchestral richness that is never indulgent or overwhelming. When My Heart Finds Christmas is a true classic that no lover of big-band jazz and singing (in the Sinatra style)--and Christmas music--should be without. There are so many great moments here that singling any one out would be at the expense of the others. Still, the reverential, solo-piano intro to "Ave Maria," Connick's own "(It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus," (a rousing, second-line swing tune), and his triumphant "I Pray on Christmas" (a get-happy-now gospel song) deserve mention if only because they'll earn Connick extra credit in heaven and on Earth.

Allmusic Review:
For this Christmas jazz album, Harry Connick, Jr. emphasizes his vocals (his piano playing is quite secondary) as he sings ten familiar Christmas songs plus four of his somewhat forgettable originals while joined by a big band, a string section, and background singers. The results are reasonably pleasing, but of little interest to jazz listeners.