Neil Diamond's first two holiday albums were plainly titled
The Christmas Album and The Christmas Album, Vol. 2, which gave a pretty good indication of the by-the-book music they contained, just like how the very name of 2009's
A Cherry Cherry Christmas is a tip-off that this collection is a decidedly less serious affair, even if it recycles a good chunk of the same recordings that comprised those earlier albums.
A Cherry Cherry Christmas keeps a barbershop quartet arrangement of "Deck the Halls," a doo wop "White Christmas," and a swinging "Jingle Bell Rock," but what's notable are the additions: a version of "Cherry Cherry Christmas" that's trumped only by a goofy cover of
Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song."
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Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi