Barnes & Noble Releases Exclusive Joan Osborne Holiday CD; Other Great Holiday Exclusives for EVERYONE on Your List

Business Wire, Nov 21, 2005

NEW YORK -- Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced that it is releasing the holiday album, Christmas Means Love, by blues and soul singer Joan Osborne. The former eight-time Grammy nominee for Relish, which included the worldwide hit "One of Us," has recorded a collection of holiday songs exclusively for Barnes & Noble. This album can be found only in Barnes & Noble stores and online at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com).

In her newest CD, Christmas Means Love, Joan Osborne adds a bluesy beauty to seasonal tunes like "Great Day in December" and "Santa Claus Baby." Her characteristic soulful style is brought to such classics as "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger." The collection also includes the sassy new song she wrote especially for this Barnes & Noble album, "What Do Bad Girls Get?"

Other Barnes & Noble Exclusives

The Osborne album continues Barnes & Noble's tradition of exclusive CDs. Other holiday music exclusives include A Charlie Brown Christmas: A Two-CD Boxed Set, and A Christmas Festival of Songs featuring such famous singers as Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, and Leontyne Price.

For a new take on a classic family tradition, Barnes & Noble offers A Charlie Brown Christmas, a boxed set with the original soundtrack recording of A Charlie Brown Christmas plus a very special tribute disk, 40 Years A Charlie Brown Christmas. The holiday package for Peanuts fans features all new recordings of timeless holiday classics by Vanessa Williams ("Just Like Me"), Dave Koz ("Linus and Lucy"), The Rippingtons ("Red Baron") and a Barnes & Noble exclusive recording of "Greensleeves" by the David Benoit Trio. Complete with the famous artwork of Charles Schultz, the pairing of the Vince Guaraldi holiday classic score with the all-star tribute disk is available only at Barnes & Noble.

Another Barnes & Noble exclusive is A Christmas Festival of Songs. This compilation of Christmas favorites was hand selected for Barnes & Noble from several decades of classic recordings by opera stars and choral groups such as Luciano Pavarotti ("Gesu Bambino"), Joan Sutherland ("Joy to the World"), Leontyne Price ("O Holy Night"), Jose Carreras ("Ave Maria"), and Musica Sacra ("Carol of the Bells"). Delightful surprises include Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" sung by Kiri Te Kanawa and the famous recording of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.

From "What Do Bad Girls Get?" to "Linus and Lucy" to "O Holy Night," Barnes & Noble has a holiday song for every listener.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 824 bookstores in 50 states. For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation's top retail brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend(R) Brand Study by Harris Interactive(R). Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites and the number one online bookseller for quality among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.