19 Santa Alicia Keys Baby

ALICIA KEYS’ FIRST seasonal release, Santa Baby, steps in at No. 19 on Top Holiday Albums as the chart’s highest debut of the week. It starts with 3,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate, with traditional album sales powering 74% of that sum. The 11-track set is also Keys’ first independently released album after a career in the major-label system, first with J Records and then RCA. AMPED is distributing physical for Santa Baby, while EMPIRE is handling digital duties. The download and streaming editions of the album are exclusive to the iTunes Store and Apple Music, respectively, while the physical album is widely available to all retailers.

Keys’ cover of “Please Come Home for Christmas” enters at No. 27 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart, her seventh visit to the list.

Meanwhile, a second debut joins Santa Baby on Top Holiday Albums as Switchfoot’s first Christmas release, This Is Our Christmas Album, arrives at No. 44 (1,000 units). Coincidentally, both sets include covers of a pair of classics: “Christmas Time Is Here” and “The Christmas Song.” Plus, Michael Bublé’s Christmas rules the chart for a 37th nonconsecutive week, while the various-artists compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector jumps 10-2 (a new peak) as holiday streaming kicked into gear post-Halloween during the chart’s tracking week of Nov. 4-10.

On the all-genre Billboard 200, it’s starting to get festive as five holiday albums reenter the list. Bublé’s Christmas (No. 48), the Spector album (No. 77), Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (No. 85), Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack (No. 90) and Nat “King” Cole’s The Christmas Song (No. 182) return to the chart. All five reached the top 10 last season.