track

The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)

1962Released
3:12

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You). By Songfacts®.

This song is often known by its first line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," as "The Christmas Song" doesn't appear in the lyric.

Here's the story of how this song was written: Mel Torme and Bob Wells were songwriting partners, and used to take turns going over to each others' homes to write songs. One particularly hot July day, Mel drove over to Bob's house in Teluca Lake, California. When he got there he walked into the house, couldn't find Bob, but found a spiral notepad of paper with some words on it: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, Yuletide Carols being sung by a choir, folks dressed up like Eskimos." When Mel found Bob, he asked him, "What's this?" and Bob said, "It's so blistering hot here, and thought it would be fun to see if I could write something about a totally different season, the winter season, Christmas season, and see if I could mentally, virtually cool off." Mel said, "Not only have you also cooled me off, but I think you've got a song here!" And the duo wrote the rest of the song in about 35 minutes.

Nat King Cole recorded this for the first time in 1946 with his group The Nat King Cole Trio. They were the big act on Columbia Records, who had them re-record the song with a string section - the first time the trio used strings on a record. The no-strings version was shelved (later released in 1989 on a Rhino compilation called Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits 1935-1954), and the strings version issued - it made #3 in the US and hung around the charts even after Christmas. Cole recorded it again in 1953 with Nelson Riddle, who was an ace arranger at Capitol famous for his sessions with Frank Sinatra. Capitol Records released it again in December of 1960 as part of Cole's Christmas album The Magic of Christmas. Cole recorded another version (this time in stereo) in 1961, and this one was issued as a single in 1962, making #65 in the US. In the UK, the song was released several times, reaching its peak chart position of #69 in 1991. The song became more popular than ever in the '00s, as radio stations in a variety of formats added it to their holiday playlists every year. In 2006, ASCAP announced that it was the most-played holiday song of the previous five years, and while many artists had recorded it, Cole's version was still by far the most popular. In 2011, ASCAP announced that the song was the third most played holiday song that year, behind "Sleigh Ride" and "Winter Wonderland."

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You).
C♯Key
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
79BPM

Album

The album The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You).
CAPITOL CATALOG MKT (C92)
© 1962 UMG Recordings, Inc.
A Capitol Records Release; This Compilation ℗ 2018 UMG Recordings, Inc.

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