Christmas came early when Michael W. Smith was a kid. It started as soon as September, when his family broke out the holiday tunes by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and Andy Williams.

"The Andy Williams Christmas album is still one of my favorites. All of those records had big orchestras on them," Smith recalled recently as he sat beside a large console at his recording studio.

So when the contemporary gospel singer set out to make his own holiday album, he naturally went for that same lush sound, using a 67-piece orchestra and four choirs for "Michael W. Smith, It's a Wonderful Christmas."

Smith wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 11 songs and recorded them at London's Abbey Road Studios, best known for the Beatles albums but also where dozens of orchestral film scores were recorded.