Feliz Navidad: An amazing journey of 5 decades for the beloved Christmas classic

Feliz Navidad: Heartwarming in any language

Various members of my family including myself have said that it's not Christmas until we hear Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano. For some reason, I thought I recalled hearing the song on the kitchen radio in what we called our old house. My family moved from there in 1968 and the classic Christmas song was not written until 1970 so my recolection is wrong,

This holiday staple can be heard on practically every radio station that airs Christmas music and is one of the most played and well beloved songs of the season of all time. Much music today is dark and the lyrics are angry, profanity-filled, and or sexually explicit. This makes those who enjoy Feliz Navid appreciate the simple holiday greeting in song, a bit more.

Feliciano sings the song with such heartfelt warmth and the lyrics of this traditional Spanish Christmas/New Year greeting come to life. "Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad" means "Merry Christmas, a prosperous year and happiness". When the tempo goes up and Feliciano sings in English "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart" you really do feel it.

The English translation is as follows but does not have the same ring as the words do in Spanish.:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

A prosperous year and happiness

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

A prosperous year and happiness

I wish you a merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas

From the bottom of my heart

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

A prosperous year and happiness

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

A prosperous year and happiness

I wish you a merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas

From the bottom of my heart

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Feliz Navidad: The history behind the song

The back story on the song is pretty interesting and began when Feliciano felt homesick during the holidays. He was missing his family in New York and his extended family who were further away as he sat in a Los Angeles studio. He beganthinking back on Christmas Eve celebrations with his brothers, where they ate traditional Puerto Rican foods, drank rum, and went caroling. Feliciano added, "It was expressing the joy that I felt on Christmas and the fact that I felt very lonely. I missed my family, I missed Christmas carols with them. I missed the whole Christmas scene".

When he recorded Feliz Navidad in 1970 he played both an acoustic guitar and a Puerto Rican cuatros. Not only did he lift his own spirits but Feliciano brightens hearts every year this tune is played during the holidays. The song is one of the most downloaded and aired Christmas recordings in Canada and the United States.

Feliz Navidad: Climbing the charts

The continual rise of this song over a 50 year period is also pretty fascinating. It actually took close to 3 decades before this Christma classic charted and it has been going up every since. Feliciano really hit pay dirt because he has been getting royalties from this one recording for 5 decades. That's pretty impressive. The first time the song charted was when it reached number 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart during the week ending January 3, 1998 over 28 years after it's release. The following week it landed at number 70 on the Radio Songs chart. During the week ending January 8, 2000, Feliz Navidad returned to the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart at No. 12. Close to two decades later, on the week ending on January 7, 2017 "Feliz Navidad" found its way to the main Billboard Hot 100 songs chart for the first time at No. 44.

On the week ending December 22, 2018, the song re-charted on the Hot 100 list at No. 42. The following week Feliz Navidad became Feliciano's first top 40 hit since 1968 when it climed the chart to No. 34. In 2020 the song was in the Hot 100 chart again at No. 45 on the week ending December 5. "Feliz Navidad" made the top 10 for the first time when it reached No. 10 and became Feliciano's first top 10 hit on the Hot 100 chart since August 1968 when his cover of The Doors' "Light My Fire" reached No. 3. in August 1968.[11] Two weeks later, "Feliz Navidad" climbed to an all-time chart peak position of No. 6 on the Hot 100.

Feliciano released a ska version of "Feliz Navidad" in 2017 incollaboration with musician Jools Holland. You can listen to it by clicking the above link. As of November 25, 2016, total digital sales of the track were 808,000 downloads according to Nielsen SoundScan. This places Feliz Navid at number 8 on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history. Feliciano's recording was also recognized by The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) as one of the top 25 most played and recorded Christmas songs around the world.

Jose Feliciano was born bind on September 10, 1945 and began his love of music at age 3. He met Susan Ollman in 1970 and they married in 1981 and have 3 children.