Jimmy Fallon officially has a hit holiday album on his hands.
During Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show, Fallon announced that his first holiday album, Holiday Seasoning, debuted at #2 on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart. The 16-track record also ranks third on this week’s Top Album Sales chart with almost 13,000 earned units.
When asked to guess which artist kept him from topping the holiday albums chart, several of Fallon’s audience members instinctually named Mariah Carey. In fact, her 1994 album Merry Christmas ranks third on the list, while first place belongs to Michael Bublé’s Christmas from 2011.
In the 13 years since its release, Bublé’s Christmas has spent 52 nonconsecutive weeks atop the holiday albums chart, while Carey’s Merry Christmas has only spent two weeks in first place.
Rounding out the top five for the week of November 16 are Ultimate Christmas, a newly released Bing Crosby compilation, and the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s classic 1965 album A Charlie Brown Christmas.
“It’s a great list to be on,” said Fallon. “I’m so honored and happy and proud. Thanks to everyone who picked up the album.”
As it happens, Fallon and Bublé will soon have a chance to hash out their Billboard rivalry when the crooner makes his eighth career appearance on The Tonight Show this Thursday. The new coach of The Voice was last interviewed by Fallon on December 3, 2021.
As we’ve previously reported, Fallon is set to star in an NBC holiday special built around his new album in early December. He’s also curating a holiday music channel on SiriusXM and will perform a selection from the album with The Roots at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
