José Feliciano’s classic Christmas song is celebrating a major musical milestone…
The 75-year-old Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer’s “Feliz Navidad” turns 50 this year, with no signs of age.
The classic Christmas song is one of the top 10-performing hits in the decade-plus history of Billboard‘s Holiday 100 chart, and one of the most popular Latin songs of all time.
Recorded in 1970, “Feliz Navidad” is a marvel in many ways.
“It just came to me; there’s no rhyme or reason,” he recently told Billboard. “The first lyric came to me, then I put the English lyric into it, not realizing I had made it the only bilingual Christmas song ever in the world. I created a monster.”
Feliciano stopped by The Tonight Show earlier this week to perform his timeless hit.
Last month, Amazon Music Lat!n revealed a special 50th anniversary reimagining of Feliciano’s iconic holiday classic, featuring 30 artists including CNCO, Jon Secada, Frankie J, Jencarlos Canela, Pablo Montero, Julio Iglesias, Jr., Jason Mraz, Gloria Gaynor, Patricia Manterola and Lin-Manuel Miranda.