Kenny G Discusses Success of Holiday Albums
JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: You can't have the holidays without holiday music. You have to have "Grandma Got Run Over by the Reindeer" and that kind of thing.</s>NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I think everyone probably has a Kenny G Christmas CD somewhere, don't you think, in their collection. We all have our favorite holiday songs, from the traditional to more modern tunes. In fact, in this one. Kenny G covers a little bit of everything on his holiday CDs. Right now he is covering two spots on Billboard's Top 20 list of holiday albums, and he joins us live from Los Angeles. Happy holidays.</s>KENNY G: Same to you.</s>ALLEN: Kenny, how do you maintain being on the top of the charts every holiday?</s>KENNY G: Well, you know, holiday music isn't something that just comes and goes, it is here forever. Every year, you know, you are going to like the same music. I am just flattered people like the way that I do these holiday songs.</s>CHEN: And you have two of them on the Billboard charts right now, like number 2 and number 11, I think.</s>KENNY G: That is pretty good. I like that.</s>CHEN: Pretty successful. I also understand that you sort of branched out and got a little bit away from music. We have here the Kenny G Corbel champagne.</s>ALLEN: I haven't opened it yet.</s>CHEN: Very nice, Kenny. Tell us what your contribution is to this bottle.</s>KENNY G: Well, I actually helped design this bottle, and I came up with this brilliant idea to put a saxophone on the bottle. And so Corbel and I have been actually partnering in the last year, and they sponsored my tour, and they are actually contributing money to my foundation that helps brings instruments to kids and schools that don't have the music program. It's been a very good partnership, music, champagne and it's good for celebrations, and we feel like it is a good partnership.</s>ALLEN: Where are you spending the holidays? What will you be doing?</s>KENNY G: I think I am going to be here in L.A. for a bit, and then I have got a couple of concerts to play up in Seattle, Portland and Vancouver. And Seattle is my home town, so I am spending New Year's Eve in Seattle. It is going to be great.</s>CHEN: Seattle is a great place. Do you remember any of your childhood favorite songs that you really liked when you were a little kid?</s>KENNY G: I always liked "White Christmas," you mean Christmas songs? I liked "White Christmas," let it snow was always a favorite of mine. And I mean, I actually like all of the melodies, you know, I didn't really listen to much to the words because, for me, the Christmas season isn't really about -- a religious season, it's more of a celebratory season. So I listen to the melodies. That is why I felt good about doing the albums because, for me, it was more of a musical expression, rather than a religious one.</s>ALLEN: What are you going to play for us right now?</s>KENNY G: Well, we are going to play "Let It Snow."</s>CHEN: A good way to go out for the hour. Kenny, thanks. ("LET IT SNOW")