Deeper Digs in Rock: A Very Special Christmas with Shelly Yakus

Ho, ho, ho!

The Rock N Roll Archaeologist spends some quality holiday time with legendary producer/engineer Shelly Yakus. Join them as they discuss the making of 1987 star studded philanthropic album for the Special Olympics organization, “A Very Special Christmas”.

A Very Special Christmas is the first in the A Very Special Christmas series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit Special Olympics. The album was released in mid-October 1987, and production was overseen by Jimmy Iovine and Shelly Yakus for A&M Records. A Very Special Christmas has also raised millions of dollars for the Special Olympics.[3] The cover artwork was designed by Keith Herring.

On January 16, 1998, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA for shipment of four million copies in the United States.
As of November 2014, A Very Special Christmas is the nineteenth best selling Christmas album in the United States during the SoundScan era of music sales tracking (March 1991 – present), having sold 2,520,000 copies according to SoundScan.

Shelly takes into Santa’s workshop circa 1987 and explains the inner workings of putting a charity compilation together by artists at their creative peak, working individually all around the globe for an incredibly good cause.

http://www.averyspecialchristmas.org

https://www.specialolympics.org