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Springsteen Never Released a Christmas Album Because He Doesn’t Have To

He’s a holiday treasure any time of year

Paul Combs
3 min readDec 11, 2021
Image: Rolling Stone

We are deep into the time of year when every artist under the sun is singing Christmas songs; it’s a tradition that goes back to Bing Crosby and the other crooners of the 1940s. Releasing a Christmas album, no matter how bad it might be, seems to be a requirement, especially for those in the Christian and Country/Western genres. However, one artist has managed to avoid that holiday cash grab for more nearly 50 years.

Bruce Springsteen could have released a Christmas album once a decade since 1975 and each would have been a bestseller. His legion of fans will snap up pretty much anything the man does, mainly because it is all brilliant. Yet since his debut album in 1973, Bruce has recorded only two Christmas songs in 49 years. Just for comparison, Reba McEntire has released three full Christmas albums over the past 44 years, and everyone’s darling Mariah Carey has released two full Christmas albums in a 20-year span.

The first Christmas song he recorded, the classic “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town,” was something of a fluke. Recorded during a concert at C.W. Post College in December of 1975, it received radio airplay while only existing as a bootleg for fans. This changed in 1982 when it finally showed up…

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Paul Combs
Paul Combs

Written by Paul Combs

Writer, bookseller, would-be roadie for the E Street Band. My ultimate goal is to make books as popular in Texas as high school football...it may take a while.

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