“Merry Christmas Everybody,” the first single from Train’s holiday album Christmas in Tahoe, is now streaming over at Billboard.com. The song was originally recorded by the British band Slade and remains a massive seasonal hit in the U.K. But Train recorded it because it’s little known in the U.S.
“Before we decided to make a full-fledged Christmas [disc], we were thinking, ‘Let’s make something for the U.K.,'” Train singer Pat Monahan tells Billboard. “And in the U.K. nobody knows [R&B standard] ‘Merry Christmas Baby.’ So that was the idea. And over here, a lot of people don’t know [‘Merry Christmas Everybody’], so it’ll feel like something fresh.”
Christmas in Tahoe, which features original songs, some tried-and-true classics and left-of-center covers like “Merry Christmas Everybody,” is out November 13, and is available exclusively through Amazon. The band plans to play a December 14 holiday show in San Francisco to benefit their favorite charity, Family House, and in February, they’ll launch their third annual Sail Across the Sun fan cruise. In addition, two more Train albums are in the works.
One of those albums will be a tribute to one particular band, the name of whom Train is keeping under wraps… but let’s just say that if you’re a Train fan, you might have a few good guesses as to who they are. The other is the followup to Train’s 2014 album Bulletproof Picasso. Monahan tells Billboard, “I love the people that are in [Train] now. They’re capable of doing things that people don’t know they’re capable of, so I want to make a record that really showcases them.”
