Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Jon Batiste, Pale Waves & More Share New Holiday Covers

Spotify continues their holiday tradition unveiling a fresh batch of artists reimagining classic Christmas songs for the Spotify Singles: Christmas Collection playlist.

This year’s wonderfully eclectic line-up features a jazzy duet by Tony Bennett and Diana Krall covering ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town’, indie goth-pop rockers Pale Waves tackling the beloved classic, Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ and Amy Helm (daughter of classic rocker Levon Helm) delivering a stirring cover of The Band’s ‘Christmas Must Be Tonight’, backed by bluegrass band The Wood Brothers.

“Christmas is my favourite holiday to celebrate with family and friends,” Helm said in a statement. “I loved getting to sing this beautiful song my dad performed in The Band with my dear friends, and one my favourite bands, The Wood Brothers!”

Now in its second year, the playlist includes 15 new tracks and cuts across all genres and eras, offering a refreshing take on Christmas standards. The selections also offer a more global appeal recognizing the growing influence of Latin music, with boy band Why Don’t We giving a colourful take on ‘Feliz Navidad’ and rapper turned singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc covering ‘El Burrito Sabanero.

The Late Show bandleader, pianist and vocalist Jon Batiste also joins up with actress and singer Danielle Brooks (of Orange Is The New Black fame) for a sultry duet on ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’

One of the true highlights is a new Christmas cut by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts doing a Keith-Moon homage on ‘Little Drummer Boy’.

“Hopefully we captured the rock’n’roll flavour of Keith’s amazing style, while still maintaining the poignant nature of the great lyric and the song,” Jett said in a press release.

The executive producer behind the playlist Bryan Grone, agrees:

“It’s definitely the most rocking track we have across our Christmas singles,” Grone told Rolling Stone. “The moment you hear it you’re like ‘hell yeah, that’s Joan Jett’”.

Hear all of the new tracks and revisit classics from last year on the playlist here.

Format: UK English