In 2017, Feliciano released a ska version of "Feliz Navidad" in collaboration with musician Jools Holland. Two weeks later, "Feliz Navidad" climbed to an all-time chart peak position of No.
10), becoming Feliciano's first top 10 hit on the Hot 100 chart since his cover of The Doors' " Light My Fire" peaked at No. 45 on the week ending December 5, 2020, "Feliz Navidad" made the top 10 for the first time (at No. Two years later, and just two weeks after re-entering the Hot 100 chart at No. 42, and the following week became Feliciano's first top 40 hit since 1968 by climbing to No. On the week ending December 22, 2018, the song re-charted on the Hot 100 at No. Nearly two decades later, "Feliz Navidad" entered the main Billboard Hot 100 songs chart for the first time, specifically on the week ending Januat No. Two years later, on the week ending January 8, 2000, the song re-entered the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart at a new peak of No. 18), and then on the Radio Songs chart the following week (reaching No. The original José Feliciano version of "Feliz Navidad" first charted on any of the US Billboard music charts more than two decades after it was recorded, first on the Adult Contemporary chart on the week ending Janu(reaching No. It was also recognized by ASCAP as one of the top 25 most played and recorded Christmas songs around the world. As of November 25, 2016, total sales of the digital track stand at 808,000 downloads according to Nielsen SoundScan, placing it eighth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history. įeliciano's 1970 recording of "Feliz Navidad" (in which he plays both an acoustic guitar and a Puerto Rican cuatro) is one of the most downloaded and aired Christmas songs in the United States and Canada. I missed the whole Christmas scene", he says. I missed my family, I missed Christmas carols with them. "It was expressing the joy that I felt on Christmas and the fact that I felt very lonely. He remembered celebrating Christmas Eve with his brothers, eating traditional Puerto Rican foods, drinking rum, and going caroling. Feliciano says he recorded the song while feeling homesick at Christmas, missing his family in New York and his extended family further afield as he sat in a studio in Los Angeles.