The Philadelphia Eagles can now add ‘performing artist’ to their resumes. After recording A Philly Special Christmas, the album topped four Billboard charts, becoming No. 1 on the Compilation Albums chart.
The album that was created specifically for charity was led by offensive linemen Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, and Jordan Mailata.
A PHILLY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS
‘A Philly Special Christmas’ originated from an idea Eagles’ center Jason Kelce had last year. While volunteering at Philadelphia Children’s Crisis Treatment Center’s toy drive in 2021, Kelce wanted to pay homage to the Eagles’ sole Super Bowl win, which is where the title of the album originated.
“We wanted it to be a Philadelphia thing,” Kelce said. “We wanted it to be something that community could embrace and have fun with. We wanted it to be something that could raise Christmas spirit and give some kids great holidays.”
Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata joined Kelce for the album, recording renditions of holiday songs to create seven tracks. Mailata previously competed on “The Masked Singer”, and takes the lead in many of the songs, though appearances were made by other Eagles players, including quarterback Jalen Hurts.
“What Jordan [Mailata] did, you could call singing,” Kelce said. “What Lane [Johnson] did, you could call singing. I don’t know if you could call what I did singing. I’m very much just a yeller in certain tones.”
With the help of former Eagles’ player Connor Barwin, who served as the executive producer, the album was recorded over several days at a recording studio in Conshohocken this past summer.
A new track was released every Friday during the month of December. The entire album became available on December 23. A total of 3,000 copies of vinyl were sold, becoming so popular that the trio released a two more sales of vinyls. The album also had 11,000 copies sold digitally during the last week of December, becoming the largest sales week for a non-soundtrack compilation album in over two years.
Hoping to raise $30,000 for charity through album sales, the trio raised more than $250,000.
“Do not worry, we are coming back next year, bigger and better,” Connor Barwin tweeted.
EAGLES TRIO TOPS BILLBOARD CHARTS
This week it was announced that A Philly Special Christmas topped four charts, including hitting No. 1 on the Billboard compilation albums chart. It also reached No. 4 on top current album sales, No 8 on independent albums, and No. 9 on top album sales.
Out of the top-ten, the album reached No. 26 on the top holiday albums chart, and No. 80 on the Billboard 200.
The album can be streamed through Spotify or Apple Music.
