Merry Christmas Radio

Christmas is coming and to celebrate the occasion Sesame Workshop is planning to releases some holiday items to help fans celebrate the season. Two classic Sesame Street albums - “A Sesame Street Christmas” and “Elmo Saves Christmas: Holiday Classics” - will be re-released on CD later this year. These albums feature hours of great holiday songs sung by everyone’s favorite Muppet characters. Both albums are set to hit store shelves on October 14, 2008 (just in time for the holiday season). These new releases have been updated with new cover artwork matching the new look of Sesame Workshop consumer products and CDs, and each disc will come with a color booklet containing the lyrics to all the songs! So be sure to pick up these albums when they hit stores in October (and with a suggested retail price around $10 each, how can you say no?).

Also on October 14th, Sesame Workshop will release the 2007 television special “Elmo’s Christmas Countdown” on DVD. Christmas finds itself in trouble when Stiller the Elf’s magical Christmas Counter-Downer breaks down. It is now up to Elmo and Abby Cadabby to help find the missing parts and get the official countdown to Christmas back on track. The giant musical extravaganza features many special guests - including Alicia Keys, Sheryl Crow, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Brad Paisley, Ty Pennington, Anne Hathaway, Tony Sirico, Steve Schirripa, Kevin James (as Santa Claus), and Ben Stiller (as the voice of Stiller the Elf). The 45-minute feature will make its DVD debut in a special foil embossed packaging, and will also carry a retail price just around $10.

So be sure to mark your calendars for October 14, 2008 and prepare to ring in the holidays with these great new Christmas releases from Sesame Street.

A Sesame Street Christmas:
1. Sesame Street Christmas Overture
2. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
3. Medley: Deck the Halls / Jingle Bells / White Christmas / Winter Wonderland
4. I Hate Christmas
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
6. The Twelve Days of Christmas
7. True Blue Miracle
8. Medley: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas / Silver Bells / The Christmas Song /Santa Claus is Coming to Town
9. All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)
10. A Christmas Pageant
11. Keep Christmas With You (All Through the Year)
12. We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Reprise)

Elmo Saves Christmas: Holiday Classics:
1. Sleigh Ride
2. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
3. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!
4. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
5. O Christmas Tree
6. Elmo Saves Christmas
7. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
8. Jingle Bell Rock
9. Here Comes Santa Claus
10. Most Wonderful Time of the Year
11. Blue Christmas
12. Feliz Navidad
13. It’s Christmas Again

TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider has confirmed rumors that the group’s “A Twisted Christmas” concept will make its way to Broadway. Speaking to Ralph Sutton of the nationally syndicated rock radio show “The Tour Bus” (web site), Snider revealed, “I have turned ‘A Twisted Christmas’, the album, into a musical, and in 2009 there will be a new TWISTED SISTER album, which will be a companion piece to go with the existing ‘A Twisted Christmas’ album. It’s gonna be old-school metal songs that are an addition to the show. So ‘The Twisted Christmas – A Musical’ is a combination of the Christmas album, the new album, which will have new metal songs on it and the best of TWISTED SISTER throughout history. And when you hear more about it, you’re gonna love the idea. The people that are hearing about it get pretty stoked. So it’s early on, but I’ve finished the script and now it’s time, we’re gonna start working on a new album, new songs, so it’s the first time for TWISTED SISTER in a very long time… I haven’t written since 19… Man, ‘98 was the last time I wrote a song, and that was for the ‘Strangeland’ soundtrack. It sort of came out of left field, but we’re all very fired up. When you hear the concept… everybody who hears it just smiles ear to ear and goes, ‘Man, that’s awesome.’”

He continued, “It’s either gonna be called ‘A Twisted Christmas…’ or ‘THE Twisted Christmas – A Musical’. It tells a story, but it’s very much a concert event. But there’s a storyline going on between. The show is about 20 songs. The band are the only actors. There is a narrator, I will tell you that much, who fills in the spaces — he’s on video screen — and he tells — ala ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, to be honest — he helps move the story along and tell the story. If you saw ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’, off Broadway, [a band] performs and then in between there is interaction, which further moves the story along. So it’s pretty involved. It’s a unique combination of things that have been done before and haven’t been done before. And the goal, really — ’cause we’re not playing ourselves, we’re playing a fictitious band in the musical — eventually is to, like the BLUE MAN GROUP, have a whole bunch of casts out there during the holiday season performing the show. So that’s the ultimate goal. So it’s in development, but it’s well on its way. Like I said, I finished the script, everybody loves it, and now I’m sinking my teeth into writing the album which we’ll start recording in January/February for release in 2009.”

On September 25, 2007, Razor & Tie Entertainment released “A Twisted Christmas Live”, a DVD of TWISTED SISTER’s holiday 2006 show at New Jersey’s legendary Starland Ballroom. The DVD features performances of tunes from “A Twisted Christmas” (which features rock n’ roll versions of beloved Christmas classics), as well as TWISTED SISTER’s greatest hits.

NEW CD AND DIGITAL COLLECTION SUPPORTED BY CHRISTMAS TOUR AND NBC SKATING SPECIAL NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 12

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ — When you are not only a
Grammy(R) Award-winning and multi platinum-selling artist, but also have three
best-selling Christmas CDs while selling over six million Christmas albums
overall, what do you do?  If you are Amy Grant, you hand-pick your favorites,
record four new songs, and put them all together in one special CD and digital
release.  Such is the case with Grant’s THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, which will
release nationwide on September 30th through AG Productions/Sparrow Records.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080812/LATU541)

Featuring the first new Christmas music recorded by Grant in nine years
(since 1999’s Christmas To Remember) THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION features
favorites including “Breath of Heaven,” “Grown Up Christmas List” and
“Tennessee Christmas,” along with new tracks produced by Brown Bannister
including original tunes “I Need A Silent Night,” co-written with Chris Eaton
(”Breath of Heaven”) including a special cameo from daughter Corrina as well
as “Baby It’s Christmas,” a song Grant co-wrote with husband Vince Gill.  The
result is a classic Christmas album reminiscent of the Bing Crosby, Frank
Sinatra, etc. albums of old (see full track listing below).

In support of the project, Grant will hit the road in early December for a
Christmas Tour that will also feature Vince Gill. Targeting 15 cities, Grant
will bring a festive and nostalgic evening to Baltimore, Atlanta, St Louis,
Nashville and more.

Just before the holiday season kicks into full swing Grant will tape a
“Holiday Celebration on Ice” on November 11th for NBC.  The special will
feature Grant singing Christmas favorites, along with Michael W. Smith, and
the skating talents of Olympic, World and National Champions including Nancy
Kerrigan and Viktor Petrenko.  Taped in HD, the special will be televised
nationally on NBC on Sunday, November 30th, as well as three separate times on
The Style Network between December 1 and 25, 2008, and shown a minimum of 20
times on the Universal HD network between December, 2008 and May, 2009.

For more information on Grant, THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, and her tours,
please go to http://www.amygrant.com.

Amy Grant’s career spans over 25 years and stretches from her roots in
gospel into an iconic pop star, songwriter, television personality, and
philanthropist. Grant has sold more than 30 million albums and won six Grammys
(R) in multiple categories, beginning with the platinum-selling Age to Age in
1982. She also has six #1 hits, including “Baby, Baby,” and “Every Heartbeat”
and is one of only two Christian artists to be awarded a star on the legendary
Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Grant released her first live recording in 25 years
with Time Again…Amy Grant Live in September 2006, and then announced her
first ever label shift to EMI Music Group where her entire music catalog was
re-mastered and released via a GREATEST HITS CD and made available for the
first time digitally.   This fall she will release her first new Christmas
music in 9 years, which in addition to four new songs, features tracks that
were hand-picked by Grant to include the best songs from her previous albums
that result in a classic Christmas album reminiscent of the Bing Crosby, Frank
Sinatra, etc. albums of old.

AMY GRANT: THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION (CD, Digital Album)
1.  Jingle Bells (NEW RECORDING)
2.  It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
3.  I Need A Silent Night (NEW RECORDING)
4.  Winter Wonderland
5.  Baby, It's Christmas (NEW RECORDING)
6.  Sleigh Ride
7.  Count Your Blessings (NEW RECORDING)
8.  Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing
9.  Silent Night
10. Breath Of Heaven (Mary's Song)
11. Joy To The World/For Unto Us A Child Is Born
12. Grown-Up Christmas List
13. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
14. Tennessee Christmas
15. A Christmas To Remember
16. O Come All Ye Faithful
17. A Mighty Fortress/Angels We Have Heard On High
18. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

AMY GRANT CHRISTMAS TOUR FEATURING VINCE GILL (all dates subject to
change)
Dec 4Albany, NY/Times Union
Dec 5Augusta, NE/Augusta Civic Center
Dec 6West Point, NY/Eisenhower Hall
Dec 7Mashantucket, CT/MGM Grand @ Foxwoods
Dec 10   Baltimore, MD/Lyric Opera House
Dec 11   Salisbury, MD/Wicomico
Dec 12   Manchester, NH/Verizon Wireless Arena
Dec 13   Worcester, MA/DCU Center
Dec 15   Atlanta, GA/Fox Theater
Dec 16   Charlotte, NC/Ovens Auditorium
Dec 20   St Charles, MO/Family Arena
Dec 22   Nashville, TN/Ryman
Dec 23   Nashville, TN/Ryman

SOURCE  AG Productions/Sparrow Records

A new metal christmas album named “Metal Christmas” has been announced which will feature some of the biggest names in heavy metal music taking part with the following tracklisting confirmed:

“Run Rudolph Run”
Vocal/bass: Lemmy Kilmister (MOTÖRHEAD)
Guitar/vocals: Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ TOP)
Drums/vocals: Dave Grohl (FOO FIGHTERS)

“Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”
Vocal: Alice Cooper
Guitar: John 5 (MARILYN MANSON/ROB ZOMBIE)
Bass: Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG/ NIACIN)
Drums: Vinnie Appice (HEAVEN AND HELL/ BLACK SABBATH)

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
Vocal: Ronnie James Dio
Guitar: Tony Iommi (Heaven And Hell/ Black Sabbath)
Bass: Rudy Sarzo (WHITESNAKE/DIO)
Drums: Simon Wright (AC/DC/DIO)

“Little Drummer Boy”
Vocal: Dug Pinnick (KING’s X)
Guitars: George Lynch (DOKKEN)
Bass: Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big)
Drums: Simon Phillips (THE WHO/TOTO)

“Santa Claus Is Back In Town”
Vocal: Tim Ripper Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN/ex-JUDAS PRIEST/ICED EARTH)
Lead Guitar: Steve Morse (DEEP PURPLE)
Rhythm guitar: Juan Garcia (AGENT STEEL)
Bass: Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake/TED NUGENT)
Drums: Vinnie Appice

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
Vocal: Tommy Shaw (STYX)
Guitars: Steve Lukather (TOTO)
Bass: Marco Mendoza
Drums: Kenny Aronoff (TONY IOMMI/SMASHING PUMPKINS)

“Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer”
Vocal/Guitar: Ace Frehley (ex-KISS)
Bass: Billy Sheehan
Drums: Greg Bissonette (DAVID LEE ROTH)

“Rocking Round The Xmas Tree”
Vocal: Joe lynn Turner (RAINBOW/Deep Purple)
Guitars: Bruce Kulick (KISS/GRAND FUNK)
Bass: Rudy Sarzo
Drums: Simon Wright

“Silent Night”
Vocal: Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT)
Guitar: Scott Ian (ANTHRAX)
Lead Guitar: Jon Donais (SHADOWS FALL)
Bass: Chris Wyse (Ozzy/THE CULT)
Drums: John Tempesta (ROB ZOMBIE)

“Silver Bells”
Vocal: Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie Malmsteen/JOURNEY)
guitar: Carlos Cavazo (QUIET RIOT)
Bass: James Lomenzo (MEGADETH/DLR BAND)
Drums: Ray Luzier (KORN/DAVID LEE ROTH)

“Deck The Halls”
Vocal: Oni Logan (LYNCH MOB)
Guitar: Craig Goldy (Dio)
Bass: Tony Franklin (THE FIRM)
Drums: John Tempesta

“We Wish You a Merry Xmas”
Vocal: Geoff Tate (QUEENSRŸCHE)
Guitars: Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake)
Bass: Chris Wyse
Drums: Ray Luzier

More details are expected to follow soon.