This Is the Time: The Christmas Album
album by Michael Bolton
This Is the Time: The Christmas Album is an album by Michael Bolton, released on October 1, 1996. Bolton's first Christmas release, it contains two new songs: "This Is the Time" (performed with Wynonna Judd), and "Love Is the Power", while the others were covers of traditional Christmas songs. "Ave Maria" was performed with Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. "White Christmas" was a single off the album Timeless: The Classics, but was also included on this album. The CD was an "enhanced" CD containing additional material viewable on a computer, including a video of "White Christmas", a discography, and a preview of a Bolton CD-ROM which was never released.
The album was released during Christmas time, narrowly missing the top 10 hitting #11. In United States the album was certified platinum.
Track listing
"Silent Night" (Franz Xaver Gruber, Joseph Mohr) – 4:06
"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (John Frederick Coots, Haven Gillespie) – 4:06
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin) – 4:02
"Joy to the World" (Lowell Mason, Isaac Watts) – 4:07
"Ave Maria" (with Plácido Domingo) (Traditional) – 4:42
"The Christmas Song" (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells) – 4:10
"O Holy Night" (Adolphe Adam, John Sullivan Dwight) – 4:54
"White Christmas" (Irving Berlin) – 3:44
"This Is the Time" (with Wynonna Judd) (Michael Bolton, Gary Burr) – 4:06
"Love Is the Power" (Walter Afanasieff, Bolton, Diane Warren) – 5:38
Personnel
Michael Bolton – vocals, arrangements (4, 8)
Walter Afanasieff – keyboards (1, 4, 7, 10), Synclavier (1), additional programming (1), acoustic nylon guitar (1), arrangements (1, 7), additional bass (2), additional drum programming (2), horn arrangements (2, 4), Hammond B3 organ (4, 7), synth bass (4, 7), drum and rhythm programming (4, 7, 10)
Dan Shea – keyboards (1, 2), synthesizer and Macintosh programming (1, 4, 7, 10), synth bass (1), drum programming (1, 2), arrangements (1, 5), acoustic piano (2), bass (2), rhythm programming (2), orchestra programming and performer (5), additional drum and rhythm programming (10)
Mike McKnight – additional synthesizer and Macintosh programming (1), synthesizer and Macintosh programming (4, 7)
Mike Lang – acoustic piano (3, 6)
Ian Underwood – synthesizers (3, 6), acoustic piano (8)
Randy Kerber – electric piano (8)
Keith Thomas – acoustic piano (9), synthesizer programming (9), guitars (9), drum programming (9), arrangements (9), string arrangements (9)
Phil Madeira – Hammond B3 organ (9)
Dann Huff – guitars (1, 2, 4, 7), acoustic guitar (10), electric guitar (10)
John Chiodini – guitars (3, 6)
Jerry McPherson – guitars (9)
Michael Landau – electric guitar (10)
Dean Parks – acoustic guitar (10)
Chuck Domanico – bass (3, 6)
Byron House – bass (9)
Sol Gubin – drums (3, 6)
Mark Hammond – drum programming (9)
Larry Bunker – vibraphone (3, 6), percussion (8)
Dan Higgins – baritone saxophone (2), tenor saxophone (2)
Marc Russo – tenor sax solo (2)
Bill Reichenbach Jr.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “This Is the Time: The Christmas Album” as album by Michael Bolton. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by Michael Bolton. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7786071. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996.
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This entry incorporates text from “This Is the Time: The Christmas Album” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.