This Christmas

Hathaway wrote this soulful Christmas song with Nadine McKinnor. It evokes the spirit of the holiday, as he's looking forward to spending the season with friends and family. In the memorable chorus, he sings: And this Christmas, will be A very special Christmas, for me

Like many Christmas songs, this one took a while to find an audience. Released as a single in 1970, it went nowhere, but later became a modern holiday standard, covered by a wide range of artists including Destiny's Child, Aretha Franklin and Lady Antebellum. Chris Brown is the only artist to chart with the song, reaching #62 in 2007 with his rendition.

While a blizzard was dumping snow on Chicago in 1967, Nadine McKinnor, a postal worker, was singing Christmas carols to pass the time. She was thinking of Nat King Cole when she came up with the lyrics for this tune, not having a clue who Donny Hathaway was. "I loved 'The Christmas Song' and was trying to capture the swirl of music, department store windows, lights on the South Side - Chicago at Christmas," she told the Chicago Tribune in 2017. "It's like I'm talking about a love affair with the atmosphere of the holiday. My kids were little then, I was out shopping for toys, enjoying the mood. It's a romance with the season."