The popular performer put together this fairly faithful cover as a tribute to Paul McCartney, as the, er, interesting video art indicates. This was pressed on vinyl and mailed to the artist's fan club members in 2017, but otherwise there's no independent audio I'm aware of.
January 2018 Archives
Oh, look, another historic boy band from the 90s is back for 2017 with a Christmas album. We gave the original entry in the holiday sweepstakes by this group a fairly good review back in the day, so what have they got to offer this time around? Well, as a man band they're still not bad at their specialty, hook-filled pop-rock, as their originals, the title song (previously out as a single a few years ago), "Happy Christmas," "Peace On Earth" and "Til New Years Night," amply demonstrate. The other 10 songs on here are covers of familiar tunes, although two of them, "Rudolph" and "Jingle Bells" are just 20-second stubs. Among the other selections are solid versions of Sir Paul's "Wonderful Christmastime," "Please Come Home For Christmas," Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas," "Winter Wonderland," "Blue Christmas," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Joy to the Mountain," a strong medley of "Joy to the World" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain." You might regard this as fodder for 35-year-old executive secretaries, but I'd gladly place the title song and "Til New Years Night" in my playlists. 
Smokey of course did the Christmas thing as a songwriter and also with the Miracles during his Motown days. This is new for 2017, however, and I'm always wary when historical artists like him make a latter-day lunge for the Christmas market. Smokey leans more to adult contemporary than R'nB in his old age, but he leans right back again too, making this a very listenable album. He does credible takes of "Please Come Home For Christmas" and "This Christmas," a peppy "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" with the help of Trombone Shorty, a very nice upbeat Motown/Latin take on "White Christmas," and a cool original "You're My Present" in which he's backed by the Dap-Kings. Another original, "The Night That Baby Was Born," is a solid performance you could almost hear the E Street Band perform, and he brings Us The Duo along on a remake of his classic "Christmas Everyday." That leaves a very gospel version of "Silent Night" featuring Mindi Abair and set-ender "O Holy Night," done a capella with the help of Take 6. For lovers of classic R'nB, this is definitely worth your while. Oh, it looks like this is an Amazon exclusive, btw.
