Ben Folds: Me and Maurice

There is an objectively provable truth about holiday albums that continues to astound me every year by every artist who has never recorded one: the most popular, long-lasting, and beloved recordings an artist will ever produce are holiday recordings. Even more astounding is that those who do endeavor to record them often do so later in their careers rather than at their peak. I can’t say for sure when this change occurred, but there was a time when recording a holiday album was a given for any new, young artist. If not a full album, then at least the recording of a holiday single was a proven money-maker for pop artists for decades. Elvis Presley’s THIRD! album was a Christmas album. It is now his most beloved and best-selling album and one of the only reasons many people ever listen to his music. Holiday singles by artists such as Elton John (“Step Into Christmas”) and The Eagles (“Please Come Home For Christmas”) still receive massive airplay every December. The single “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby is the GREATEST SELLING SINGLE OF ALL TIME (over 50 million copies sold). The last artist to take full advantage of this trend was Mariah Carey. Her FOURTH ALBUM! was a Christmas album and it is still one of her best-selling albums and has made her the modern-day icon of holiday pop music (“All I Want For Christmas”).

This brings us to the album Sleigher by Ben Folds. While it is not going to sell nine million copies like Mariah’s album, it is going to give Folds a life-long revenue stream. If he had recorded this in 2000 with his original band, it could now be a multi-million seller and his best-selling album. If the manager of Kendrick Lamar, Ice Spice, or Bad Bunny are reading this, you would do well to tell them to drop the attitude that holiday music is not worth their time and go start working on their holiday release for 2025.

To learn more about Ben Folds, check out his Wikipedia page.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

• Holiday Music