Merry Christmas is an album of grammophone records by
Bing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American popular singer and actor whose career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death....
, released in
1945-Events:*The Motion Picture Daily Fame Poll designates Bing Crosby "Top Male Vocalist" for the ninth straight year.*July 26 - Composer Ernest John Moeran marries cellist Peers Coetmore.*August 19 - Dick Powell marries June Allyson....
on
Decca RecordsDecca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; later the link with the British company was broken for several decades...
, catalogue
A-403. It has remained in print through the
vinylLong-playing record albums are 33⅓ rpm vinyl gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988...
and
compact discA Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store sound recordings exclusively, but later it also allowed the preservation of other types of data. Audio CDs have been commercially available since October 1982...
eras, currently as the disc
White Christmas on
MCA RecordsMCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part...
, a part of the
Universal Music GroupUniversal Music Group is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, reissued in June of 1995. It includes Crosby's
signature songA signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
"
White Christmas"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about a White Christmas. It is the second-best selling single of all time, and won an Academy Award. The morning after Berlin wrote the song in 1940 at the poolside — he often stayed up all night writing — he told his...
", the best-selling single ever, with sales of over 50 million copies worldwide. The album itself has sold over 15 million copies, and is the best-selling
Christmas albumChristmas Album may refer to:*Christmas Album , a 1968 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass*Christmas Album , a 1981 album by Boney M...
of all-time.
The original album consisted of ten songs on five 78 records, all of which had been previously released.
Merry Christmas is an album of grammophone records by
Bing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American popular singer and actor whose career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death....
, released in
1945-Events:*The Motion Picture Daily Fame Poll designates Bing Crosby "Top Male Vocalist" for the ninth straight year.*July 26 - Composer Ernest John Moeran marries cellist Peers Coetmore.*August 19 - Dick Powell marries June Allyson....
on
Decca RecordsDecca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; later the link with the British company was broken for several decades...
, catalogue
A-403. It has remained in print through the
vinylLong-playing record albums are 33⅓ rpm vinyl gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988...
and
compact discA Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store sound recordings exclusively, but later it also allowed the preservation of other types of data. Audio CDs have been commercially available since October 1982...
eras, currently as the disc
White Christmas on
MCA RecordsMCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part...
, a part of the
Universal Music GroupUniversal Music Group is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, reissued in June of 1995. It includes Crosby's
signature songA signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
"
White Christmas"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about a White Christmas. It is the second-best selling single of all time, and won an Academy Award. The morning after Berlin wrote the song in 1940 at the poolside — he often stayed up all night writing — he told his...
", the best-selling single ever, with sales of over 50 million copies worldwide. The album itself has sold over 15 million copies, and is the best-selling
Christmas albumChristmas Album may refer to:*Christmas Album , a 1968 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass*Christmas Album , a 1981 album by Boney M...
of all-time.
Content
The original album consisted of ten songs on five 78 records, all of which had been previously released. Each one had a holiday theme with the exception of "
Danny Boy"Danny Boy" is a ballad written by Frederick Weatherly and usually set to the tune of the Londonderry Air; it is most closely associated with Irish communities.-Background:"Danny Boy" was written by Frederick Weatherly in 1910...
," paired with "I'll Be Home for Christmas" on its original record. Prior to the
long-playing album eraLong-playing record albums are 33⅓ rpm vinyl gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988...
, such assemblies were not common for
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
,
Merry Christmas instigated by the enormous popularity of the "White Christmas" record. Decca issued a second edition in this format in 1947, catalogue
Decca A-550, consisting of four 78s, omitting recordings of "Danny Boy" and "Let's Start the New Year Right" from the previous release, and including new recordings of "White Christmas" and "
Silent Night"Silent Night" is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song Stille Nacht were written in German by the Austrian priest Father Josef Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young published the English translation that is...
" from March 19, 1947. This recording of "White Christmas," heard on every subsequent pressing, is actually a re-recording of the song as, in an unprecedented occurrence, the 1942
masterA master recording is an original recording, from which copies may be made.When recording on to magnetic or digital tape, the original tape is known as the master tape.When recording on to a computer hard disk, it is known as session files....
had actually worn out and was no longer usable. Decca and Crosby undertook the remake with the same orchestra and chorus, in an attempt to re-create the original May 1942 recording as closely as possible.
The 1955 vinyl LP configuration is the one extant to date, consisting of the entirety of Decca A-550 plus four additional tracks. The Andrews Sisters, often Crosby's recording partners in the
1940sThe 1940s decade ran from January 1, 1940, to December 31, 1949.The Second World War took place in the first half of the decade, which had a profound effect on most countries and people in Europe, Asia and elsewhere...
, are featured on the tracks "
Jingle Bells"Jingle Bells" is one of the best known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and copyrighted under the title 'One Horse Open Sleigh' on September 16 1857. Despite being inextricably connected to Christmas, it is not specifically a Christmas song...
," "
Mele Kalikimaka"Mele Kalikimaka" is a Christmas song sung as a warm greeting from Hawaii. The song takes its title from the phrase "Mele Kalikimaka", derived from the Hawaiian pronunciation of "Merry Christmas". Since Hawaiian does not have all English phonemes, in particular the "R" and "S", "Merry Christmas"...
," and "
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" is a Christmas song. It was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934....
." It has been continually in-print longer than any other album in the history of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, after the original cast recording to
Oklahoma!, also from Decca Records, released in
1943-Events:*January 1, 1943 - Frank Sinatra appears at The Paramount causing a mob of hysterical bobby-soxers to flood Times Square and blocking midtown New York City traffic for hours...
.
Release history
After the introduction of the LP by
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers,...
in
1948-Events:*Aldeburgh Festival is founded by Benjamin Britten, Eric Crozier and Peter Pears.*Al Jolson is voted the "Most Popular Male Vocalist" in 1948 by a Variety poll...
, its competitors in the music industry began switching over to the new format. Decca reissued the eight song
Merry Christmas album in the form of a
10-inch LPLong-playing record albums are 33⅓ rpm vinyl gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988...
in 1949, catalogue
Decca DL-5019 with its standard brown label. The original 78 album cover had a light blue background and showed a large black and white photograph of Crosby's head. This was the same cover design that had been used on all issues of the 78 rpm album. Copies released after 1951 featured a newly-designed red and green cover.
Merry Christmas was also issued as a
45 rpmIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
box set in 1950, catalogue
Decca 9-65. It had the same basic cover and the same four singles as the 78 rpm album A-550, and the individual records had the same catalog numbers, in this case preceded by the "9-" prefix. Several years later, the 45 box was discontinued, replaced by a
2-EPAn extended play is a vinyl record, CD, or music download which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as an LP. Usually, a CD single has around 10–28 minutes of music, an EP has up to 36 minutes, and an album generally has 30–80 minutes. Mini-LPs generally contain 20–30...
set, catalogue
Decca ED 547. This had the same cover as the second version of the 10-inch LP; each 7-inch single had two songs per side, and the sides were numbered 91123 and 91124, respectively.
When Decca (and the rest of the industry) abandoned the 10-inch LP format in
1955-Events:*January 1 - RCA victor announces a marketing plan called "Operation TNT." The label drops the list price on LPs from $5.95 to $3.98, EPs from $4.95 to $2.98, 45 EPs from $1.58 to $1.49 and 45's from $1.16 to $.89...
, it created a 12-inch LP version of
Merry Christmas, catalogue
Decca DL-8128, with four additional songs and the now familiar cover with Crosby in his
Father ChristmasFather Christmas is the name used in many English speaking countries for a symbolic figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name exists in several other countries, including France Spain , Portugal , Italy and Romania...
stocking cap as pictured above. The new songs were "Silver Bells" and "
Mele Kalikimaka"Mele Kalikimaka" is a Christmas song sung as a warm greeting from Hawaii. The song takes its title from the phrase "Mele Kalikimaka", derived from the Hawaiian pronunciation of "Merry Christmas". Since Hawaiian does not have all English phonemes, in particular the "R" and "S", "Merry Christmas"...
," both recorded in September of 1950, and "
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a classic Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas"...
" and "
Christmas in KillarneyChristmas in Killarney is an Irish Christmas song written by John Redmond, James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon, copyright 1950. This song has been performed by many artists, most notably Bing Crosby on his album White Christmas. The singer Ruby Murray also recorded a version during the 1950s, as did...
," both recorded on October 1, 1951. The album's track listing was also adjusted slightly, with "Faith of Our Fathers" now preceding "I'll Be Home for Christmas." This issue has remained unchanged to present; first pressings of the album were released on Decca's all-black label with the catalog number in the top left corner of the front cover.
In 1963 the album was made available in electronically re-channeled stereo,
Decca DL-78128. Mono copies made after the introduction of stereo have "DL-8128" in the bottom left corner of the front cover. All copies from the
1960sThe 1960s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1960, to December 31, 1969.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France,...
feature the Decca rainbow label. The mono version was deleted in 1968.
In 1973, after Decca had been purchased by the
Music Corporation of AmericaMCA, Inc. was an American corporation in the music and television businesses. MCA published music, booked acts, ran a record company, and distributed television productions and home videos.-The Early Years:...
, the album received a new catalogue number,
MCA 167. This version was only available for a short time. Eventually, MCA chose to create a new numbering series for its reissued Christmas albums, and Merry Christmas was assigned
MCA 15024. This exists on the black with rainbow, tan, and blue with rainbow labels. All were rechanneled.
In 1986
Merry Christmas was transferred to compact disc,
MCAD-31143 and included these same twelve songs. A new
remasterRemaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
was made in 1992 and reissued in 1995, which is the one available at present. The entirety of the album, minus the song "Faith of Our Fathers," can be found on the 1998 double-disc
Bing Crosby: The Voice of Christmas, a compendium of all of Crosby's Christmas recordings for Decca from 1935 to 1954. After purchasing MCA, Universal changed the name of the album to
White Christmas, keeping the contents and the catalogue number unchanged.
On August 29, 2008, the "White Christmas" album was re-issued as a "Collector's Edition" by Madacy Special Products. This issue featured the original album's 12 tracks in a slightly different order and added two additional tracks ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Here Comes Santa Claus"). The album was packaged in a collectible tin along with the Special Edition DVD of the 1942 film "Holiday Inn." This version of the album, unfortunately, has noticeably inferior sound quality as opposed to the 12-track MCA CD release of the same name- possibly due ot the fact that Madacy used the rechanneled stereo mixes for many of the tracks instead of the more contained, and intimate sounding mono originals.
The 1945 album issue
Decca A-403 consisted of these previously issued 78 rpm records:
- “Silent Night” / “Adeste Fideles” (Decca 18510)
- “White Christmas” / “Let’s Start the New Year Right” (Decca 18429)
- “I'll Be Home for Christmas” / “Danny Boy” (Decca 18570)
- “Faith of Our Fathers” / “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (Decca 18511)
- “Jingle Bells” / “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (Decca 23281)
The 1947 album issue
Decca A-550 consisted of these 78 rpm records, and with the exception of the two remakes, all were reissues of the earlier recordings:
- “Silent Night” (1947 remake) / “Adeste Fideles” (Decca 23777),
- “White Christmas” (1947 remake) / “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (23778)
- “I'll Be Home for Christmas” / “Faith of Our Fathers” (Decca 23779),
- “Jingle Bells” / “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (Decca 23281).
The additional tracks were issued as 78 rpm and 45 rpm singles in 1950 and 1951 respectively:
- "Mele Kalikimaka" (Decca 27228) (Decca L-5830)
- "Silver Bells" (Decca 27229) (Decca L-5832)
- "Christmas in Killarney" / "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (Decca 27831) (Decca L-6462 and L-6463)
Track listing
- "Silent Night," recorded March 19, 1947 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.
- "Adeste Fideles
"Adeste Fideles" is the name of a hymn tune attributed to John Francis Wade and the first line of the Latin text for which the tune was written...
," recorded June 8, 1942 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr's Mixed Chorus.
- "White Christmas
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about a White Christmas. It is the second-best selling single of all time, and won an Academy Award. The morning after Berlin wrote the song in 1940 at the poolside — he often stayed up all night writing — he told his...
," recorded March 19, 1947 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.
- "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
God rest you merry, gentlemen is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is in a minor key and is in common time or cut time...
," recorded June 8, 1942 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr's Mixed Chorus.
- "Faith of Our Fathers," recorded June 8, 1942 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr's Mixed Chorus.
- "I'll Be Home for Christmas," recorded October 1, 1943 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.
- "Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and copyrighted under the title 'One Horse Open Sleigh' on September 16 1857. Despite being inextricably connected to Christmas, it is not specifically a Christmas song...
," recorded September 27, 1943 with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and His Orchestra.
- "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" is a Christmas song. It was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934....
," recorded September 27, 1943 with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and His Orchestra.
- "Silver Bells," recorded September 8, 1950 with Carole Richards and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.
- "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a classic Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas"...
," recorded October 1, 1951 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires.
- "Christmas in Killarney
Christmas in Killarney is an Irish Christmas song written by John Redmond, James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon, copyright 1950. This song has been performed by many artists, most notably Bing Crosby on his album White Christmas. The singer Ruby Murray also recorded a version during the 1950s, as did...
," recorded October 1, 1951 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires.
- "Mele Kalikimaka
"Mele Kalikimaka" is a Christmas song sung as a warm greeting from Hawaii. The song takes its title from the phrase "Mele Kalikimaka", derived from the Hawaiian pronunciation of "Merry Christmas". Since Hawaiian does not have all English phonemes, in particular the "R" and "S", "Merry Christmas"...
," recorded September 7, 1950 with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and His Orchestra.