Merry Christmas, Baby

Hard as it may be to believe, but Rod Stewart has gotten through five decades without succumbing to a holiday album. That streak ends in 2012 with the release of Merry Christmas, Baby, an easygoing and chipper collection of secular seasonal standards. A couple of carols are thrown in for good measure but these songs -- "Silent Night," "We Three Kings" presented as a duet with Mary J. Blige -- along with a mildly incongruous "When You Wish Upon a Star," slide by easily on the mellow big-band swing of the rest of the record. Song for song, Merry Christmas, Baby is very much of a piece with Rod's ongoing Great American Songbook series, with Stewart not straying from the familiar form of these songs and producer David Foster laying on all manner of soft, soothing sounds, whether it's acoustic guitars, synthesizers, strings, or a children's choir on "Silent Night." Very rarely does this hint at the Rod of the '70s -- and when it does on the closing "Auld Lang Syne," its intro given a spare folky treatment reminiscent of his Mercury work, it's a bracing, effective reminder of Stewart's skill as a singer -- and instead relies on a gladhanding charm that suits the season, not to mention Stewart in his crooning dotage.

1. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane 4:31
2. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie 2:48
3. "Winter Wonderland" (featuring Michael Bublé) Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith 2:26
4. "White Christmas" Irving Berlin 3:49
5. "Merry Christmas, Baby" (featuring Cee Lo Green & Trombone Shorty) Johnny Moore, Lou Baxter 3:53
6. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (featuring Dave Koz) Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne 2:51
7. "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" (featuring Ella Fitzgerald & Chris Botti) Frank Loesser 3:43
8. "Blue Christmas" Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson 3:30
9. "Red-Suited Superman" (featuring Trombone Shorty) Rod Stewart, David Foster, Amy Foster 3:11
10. "When You Wish Upon a Star" Leigh Harline, Ned Washington 3:47
11. "We Three Kings" (featuring Mary J. Blige) Traditional 3:27
12. "Silent Night" Traditional 4:24
13. "Auld Lang Syne" Traditional 3:45