Friends for Christmas
Friends for Christmas is a collaborative Christmas album by John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John recorded at Playback Recording Studio in Santa Barbara, California. It was released through Sony Music Australia and produced by Farnham's long-time music director Chong Lim, Released on 11 November 2016 on CD format, as well as for digital download. The album features well-known traditional holiday standards, by mostly American composers. The album was re-released in 2017 with three additional tracks. Synopsis. "Friends for Christmas" is Farnham's first Christmas album in 46 years; when billed as "Johnny" he  released the album "Christmas Is Johnny Farnham" in 1970. It is Newton-John's fourth, the most recent being "This Christmas" (2012) recorded with her "Grease" co-star, John Travolta. Farnham and Newton-John promoted the album in Australia in November. Artists' press statements. Farnham said: "I have always loved working with Olivia. To record a Christmas album seemed like the right, almost inevitable thing to do. I hope everyone enjoys listening to it as much as we loved recording it together." Newton-John said: "It was such a joy singing these beautiful holiday songs with my favourite singer and  good mate John Farnham. The holidays are about family and friends and having this chance to sing these classics with John was pure fun from beginning to end!" John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John have performed together in concert numerous times, and have released two ARIA number-one albums: "Highlights from The Main Event" in 1998, from The Main Event Tour, also featuring Anthony Warlow and more recently "Two Strong Hearts Live" in 2015. Critical reception. Cameron Adams and Mikey Cahill from news.com.au gave the album three-and-a-half stars out of five and said: "In a sea of  corporate Christmas albums, this has a welcome quality missing from most: authenticity. First, they’re actual friends and Farnsey insisted on them recording together, eye-to-eye." They added: "Everything here is turned into a duet (and) producer Chong Lim hasn’t done much except capture the voices and add choirs and orchestration to make it as lush as you’d expect." Samantha Jonscher from "The Music" gave the album two-and-a-half out of five, writing: "If you are the music programmer for David Jones this Christmas season then this is the Yuletide album for you. The Broadway  smiles one imagines plastered across their faces may not be contagious, but the "cheer" will certainly be heard over even the most frantic Christmas eve shopper's pounding, desperate heartbeat." Charts. "Friends for Christmas" debuted a number 3 and reached number 1 in its fifth week of charting on 19 December 2016. It became the tenth No. 1 album for Farnham and the fifth for Newton-John.