“Feliz Navidad” turns 50 this year, and it’s showing no signs of age.

The classic Christmas song is one of the top 10-performing hits in the decade-plus history of Billboard’s Holiday 100 chart, and one of the most popular Latin songs of all time.

Recorded in 1970 by Puerto Rican singer and songwriter José Feliciano, “Feliz Navidad” is a marvel in many ways. “It just came to me; there’s no rhyme or reason,” he recently told Billboard. “The first lyric came to me, then I put the English lyric into it, not realizing I had made it the only bilingual Christmas song ever in the world. I created a monster.”

Feliciano stopped by The Tonight Show on Monday (Dec. 7) to perform his enduring hit. Watch below.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.