Christmas and the Beads of Sweat

Trivia

• Christmas and the Beads of Sweat features the two longest songs Laura Nyro submitted to record - those being the mystical "Map to the Treasure" and the politically-charged "Christmas in My Soul."
• It is regularly thought, considering the title, that the album is a holiday record. Columbia Records tried to get Nyro to change the title but she would not allow it, and some stores still stock it only at Christmas.
• It is the only Laura Nyro album to produce a chart hit, and ironically that song - "Up on the Roof" - was not written by Nyro, who wrote many substantial hits for other artists.
• Four of the album's songs were selected to appear on 1997's retrospective collection Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro.
• The cover portrait was originally left as a present to Nyro by one of her fans, art student Beth O'Brien, and Nyro asked if she could use it for the album cover. O'Brien agreed, Nyro added a red earring with her lipstick, and O'Brien received $300 and two tickets to Nyro's New York concert.