EVERETT — It’s the 31st anniversary of “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas,” an album that forever changed the pace of yuletide record releases. Today, most recording artists put out at least one Christmas album.
The Mannheim Steamroller Christmas show, which blends classical music with rock and jazz, comes to Everett’s Xfinity Arena on Tuesday evening. The arena concert also includes colorful multimedia effects and a light show.
For Steamroller fans, the 1984 album continues to be an all-time favorite collection of Christmas music.
Chip Davis, the composer from Nebraska who started Mannheim Steamroller, has sold more than 40 million albums, 27 million of those Christmas albums. In Omaha, Davis operates a huge recording complex.
Mannheim Steamroller is sort of a faceless group, but it includes various keyboards, big drums, orchestral parts and synthesizers.
The name “Mannheim Steamroller” comes from an 18th-century German musical technique, a crescendo passage with a melodic line over a bass line, which was popularized by the Mannheim school of composition.
For many people, it’s not officially the Christmas season until they hear Mannheim Steamroller’s contemporary version of “Joy to the World.”
If you go
Mannheim Steamroller Christmas is 7:30 p.m. Nov. 24 at Xfinity Arena, Hewitt and Broadway, Everett. Tickets, which range in price from $32 to $68, are available online at xfinityarenaeverett.com, by phone at 866-332-8499 or at the box office.
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