The Christmas Song
Encyclopedia
"The Christmas Song" is a classic Christmas song written in 1944
1944 in music
-Events:*January 18 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the first time hosts a jazz concert; the performers are Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden....

 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

 (nicknamed in the music industry as "The Velvet Fog") and Bob Wells
Robert Wells (songwriter)
Robert Wells was an American songwriter, composer, script writer and television producer. During his early career, he collaborated with singer and songwriter Mel Tormé, writing several hit songs, most notably "The Christmas Song" in 1945...

. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. In an effort to “stay cool by thinking cool,” the most-performed (according to BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...

) Christmas song was born.

“I saw a spiral pad on his piano with four lines written in pencil,” Tormé recalled. “They started, ‘Chestnuts roasting ... , Jack Frost nipping ... , Yuletide carols …, Folks dressed up like Eskimos.’ Bob (Wells, co-writer) didn’t think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later that song was written. I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics.”

The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. At Cole’s
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

 behest — and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

 — a second recording was made the same year utilizing a small string section
String section
The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...

, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole again recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement with a full orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...

, and once more in 1961, in a stereophonic version with orchestra conducted by Ralph Carmichael
Ralph Carmichael
Ralph Carmichael is a composer and arranger of both secular pop music and contemporary Christian music, being regarded as one of the pioneers of the latter genre...

. Nat King Cole's 1961 version is generally regarded as definitive, and in 2004 was the most loved seasonal song with women aged 30–49, while Cole’s original 1946 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974. Mel Tormé recorded the song himself in 1954, and again in 1961, 1966 and 1992.

The Nat King Cole recordings

First recording: Recorded at WMCA Radio Studios, New York City, June 14, 1946. Label credit: The King Cole Trio (Nat King Cole, vocal-pianist; Oscar Moore
Oscar Moore
Oscar Moore was an American swing jazz guitarist.Moore was an integral part of the Nat King Cole Trio during 1937–1947, appearing on virtually all of Cole's records during the period. A superb and influential guitarist, Moore was himself influenced by Charlie Christian...

, guitarist; Johnny Miller, bassist). Not issued until 1989, when it was (accidentally) included on the various-artists compilation Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits (1935–1954) Rhino R1 70637(LP) / R2 70637(CD).

Second recording: Recorded at WMCA Radio Studios, New York City, August 19, 1946. First record issue. Label credit: The King Cole Trio with String Choir (Nat King Cole, vocal-pianist, Oscar Moore, guitarist; Johnny Miller, bassist; Charlie Grean
Charles Randolph Grean
Charles Randolph Grean was an American producer and composer.-Professional life:Grean's first work was as a copyist in several big bands, including Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Charlie Spivak...

, conductor of 4 string players, a harpist and a drummer) Lacquer disc master #981. Issued November 1946 as Capitol 311(78rpm). This is featured on a CD called The Holiday Album, which has 1940s Christmas songs recorded by Cole and Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

. In 2005 Capitol restored and re-released it for the 25 bit re-mastered Cole album "The Christmas Song," which also contains tracks from his 1960 and 1963 holiday albums.

Third recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, August 24, 1952. This was the song’s first magnetic tape
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...

 recording. Label credit: The King Cole Trio with String Choir (Actual artists: Nat King Cole, vocal; Nelson Riddle, orchestra conductor) Master #11726, take 11. Issued November 1953 as the “new” Capitol 90036(78rpm) / F90036(45rpm) (Capitol first issued 90036 in 1950 with the second recording). Correct label credit issued on October 18, 1954 as Capitol 2955(78rpm) / F2955(45rpm). Label credit: Nat “King” Cole with Orchestra Conducted by Nelson Riddle. This recording is available on the 1990 CD Cole, Christmas and Kids, as well as the various-artists compilation Casey Kasem Presents All Time Christmas Favorites. It was also included, along with both 1946 recordings, on the 1991 Mosaic Records
Mosaic Records
Mosaic Records is an American specialist jazz record label, founded in 1983 by Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie to issue coherent limited edition box sets of jazz recordings by individual musicians, which had fallen out-of-print...

 box set The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio.

Fourth recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, New York City, March 30, 1961. This rendition, the first recorded in stereo, is widely played on radio stations during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 season, and is probably the most famous version of this song. Label credit: Nat King Cole (Nat King Cole, vocal; Charles Grean & Pete Rugolo
Pete Rugolo
Pietro "Pete" Rugolo was an Italian-born jazz composer and arranger.-Life and career:Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California...

, orchestration; Ralph Carmichael, orchestra conductor). The instrumental arrangement is nearly identical with the 1953 version, but the vocals are much deeper and more focused. Originally done for The Nat King Cole Story
The Nat King Cole Story
The Nat King Cole Story is a 1961 album by Nat King Cole. The album was a retrospective of Cole's recording career, designed to present many of his earlier hits in new recordings featuring stereo sound...

 (a 1961 LP devoted to stereo re-recordings of Cole’s earlier hits), this recording was later appended to a reissue of Cole’s 1960 holiday album The Magic of Christmas
The Magic of Christmas (Nat King Cole album)
The Magic of Christmas is a 1960 album by Nat King Cole, arranged by Ralph Carmichael.This was Cole's only full album of Christmas songs, although he had recorded several holiday singles earlier in his career...

. Retitled The Christmas Song, the album was issued in 1963 as Capitol W-1967(mono) / SW-1967(stereo) and today is in print on compact disc. This recording of “The Christmas Song” is also available on numerous compilation albums. Some are Capitol pop standards Christmas compilations while others are broader-based. It’s available on WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM is a CBS-owned radio station in New York City. The station's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in Manhattan, and its transmitter is located on the Empire State Building....

’s Ultimate Christmas Album Volume 3, for example.

There were several covers of Nat Cole's original record in the 1940s. The first of these was said to be by Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes
Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter....

 on the Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 label, but his was released first--not recorded first. The first cover of "The Christmas Song" was performed by pop tenor and bandleader Eddy Howard
Eddy Howard
Eddy Howard was an American vocalist and bandleader who was popular during the 1940s and 1950s.-Biography:...

 on Majestic
Majestic Records
Majestic Records was a mid-20th century New York City based record label. The label enjoyed its greatest commercial success in the 1940s, until over-ambitious expansion and an inability to keep distributors supplied with pressings of discs resulted in financial problems, and the label folded in...

. Howard was a big Cole fan, and also covered Nat's versions of "I Want to Thank Your Folks" and "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons," among others.

Selective list of notable recordings

"The Christmas Song" has been covered by numerous artists from a wide variety of genres, including:
  • Trace Adkins
    Trace Adkins
    Tracy Darrell "Trace" Adkins is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1996 with the album Dreamin' Out Loud, released on Capitol Records Nashville. Since then, Adkins has released seven more studio albums and two Greatest Hits compilations...

  • Clay Aiken
    Clay Aiken
    Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released...

  • Herb Alpert
    Herb Alpert
    Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...

  • Thomas Anders
    Thomas Anders
    Thomas Anders is a German singer, composer and record producer. Anders was the lead singer of Germany's popular pop-duo Modern Talking in 1984–1987 and in 1998–2003.-Early years:...

  • India.Arie
    India.Arie
    India.Arie is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer . She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.-Background:Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado...

     and Stevie Wonder
    Stevie Wonder
    Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

     (winner of the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
    Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
    The Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality pop songs on which singers collaborate...

     in 2003)
  • Aska
  • Babyface
  • Tony Bennett
    Tony Bennett
    Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

  • Polly Bergen
    Polly Bergen
    Polly Bergen is an American actress, singer, and entrepreneur.-Career:Bergen appeared in many film roles, most notably in the original Cape Fear opposite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum...

     (who sang the song on the December 14, 1957 airing of her NBC
    NBC
    The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

     variety show
    Variety show
    A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

    , The Polly Bergen Show
    The Polly Bergen Show
    The Polly Bergen Show is a half-hour 18-episode comedy/variety show, starring then 27-year-old Polly Bergen, which aired on NBC in the 1957-1958 television season. The program is remembered for its impressive guest-star lineup as well as its closing theme song, "The Party's Over" .The Polly Bergen...

    )
  • Justin Bieber
    Justin Bieber
    Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian pop/R&B singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager...

     & Usher
    Usher (entertainer)
    Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...

     (#58 in US, #59 in Canada)
  • Michael Bolton
    Michael Bolton
    Michael Bolton is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, both on his early solo albums and those recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack...

  • Toni Braxton
    Toni Braxton
    Toni Michelle Braxton is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Braxton has won six Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards and has sold over 60 million records worldwide...

  • Garth Brooks
    Garth Brooks
    Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

  • James Brown
    James Brown
    James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

  • Les Brown
    Les Brown
    Les Brown may refer to:*Les Brown , U.S. Big Band leader, or his son, Les Brown Jr., leader since 2001*Les Brown , American author-See also:*Leslie Brown...

     and his Orchestra (with Doris Day
    Doris Day
    Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

     on lead vocal)
  • Michael Bublé
    Michael Bublé
    Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...

     (his version, bearing close similarities to Celine Dion's recording of the song, reached #6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in December 2003.)
  • Kenny Burrell
    Kenny Burrell
    Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...

  • The Canadian Brass (from their 1985 Christmas album A Canadian Brass Christmas)
  • The Carpenters
    The Carpenters
    Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...

     (from their 1978 Christmas album Christmas Portrait
    Christmas Portrait
    Christmas Portrait is the first Christmas album recorded by The Carpenters , originally released on October 13, 1978 ....

    )
  • Celtic Woman
    Celtic Woman
    Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...

  • Charice
  • Chicago
    Chicago (band)
    Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...

  • Christmas Who? (a SpongeBob Christmas special. SpongeBob and Patrick in a Christmas song sing as a lyric "...chestnuts roasting and burns in the third degree" before the ending of their song.)
  • Charlotte Church
    Charlotte Church
    Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...

  • Rosemary Clooney
    Rosemary Clooney
    Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...

  • Natalie Cole
    Natalie Cole
    Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...

  • Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass
    Danny Davis (country musician)
    Danny Davis was a band leader, trumpet player, vocalist and producer and founder/leader of the Nashville Brass.-Early life and career:...

     (1970)
  • Doris Day
    Doris Day
    Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

     (from her 1964 Christmas album The Doris Day Christmas Album
    The Doris Day Christmas Album
    The Doris Day Christmas Album was an album of Christmas songs performed by Doris Day, released by Columbia Records on September 14, 1964 as a monophonic LP album and a stereophonic LP album .-Track listing:...

    )
  • Gavin DeGraw
    Gavin DeGraw
    Gavin Shane DeGraw is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is known for his songs "Chariot", "Follow Through", "I Don't Want to Be" , "In Love with a Girl", and "Not Over You".-Early life:DeGraw grew up in the Catskills in South Fallsburg,...

  • Celine Dion
    Celine Dion
    Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

  • Vanessa Doofenshmirtz (voiced by Olivia Olson on the album Phineas and Ferb Holiday Favorites)
  • Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

  • Gloria Estefan
    Gloria Estefan
    Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan; known professionally as Gloria Estefan is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those...

  • Connie Francis
    Connie Francis
    Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

  • Aretha Franklin
    Aretha Franklin
    Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

  • Judy Garland
    Judy Garland
    Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

    , who sang the song in a duet with its composer, Mel Torme
    Mel Tormé
    Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

    , on a Christmas-themed episode of her television show
    The Judy Garland Show
    The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star...

     in December 1963.
  • Amy Grant
    Amy Grant
    Amy Lee Grant is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop"...

     (from her 1983 Christmas album A Christmas Album
    A Christmas Album (Amy Grant album)
    A Christmas Album is the seventh album by Christian music singer Amy Grant, released in 1983. The release was Grant's first of many Christmas albums.A Christmas Album was issued on the heels of Grant's immensely successful 1982 LP Age to Age...

    )
  • Josh Groban
    Josh Groban
    Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...

  • Hampton String Quartet
    Hampton String Quartet
    The Hampton String Quartet considered by many to be one of the founders of the "alternative music" genré of chamber music is a string quartet specializing in rock music and other popular styles, playing serious chamber music arrangements of songs using classical composer influences and frequently...

  • Eddie Higgins
    Eddie Higgins
    Edward Haydn Higgins was a jazz pianist, composer and orchestrator. -Biography:Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Higgins initially studied privately with his mother. He started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music...

  • Hootie & the Blowfish
    Hootie & the Blowfish
    Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band that enjoyed popularity in the second half of the 1990s. They were originally formed in 1986 at the University of South Carolina by Darius Rucker, Dean Felber, Jim Sonefeld, and Mark Bryan. The band has recorded five studio albums to date, and has...

  • Whitney Houston
    Whitney Houston
    Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...

  • Ramon "RJ" Jacinto
    Ramon Jacinto
    Ramon Pereyra Jacinto is a Filipino musician and entrepreneur. He is more commonly referred as RJ Jacinto. He is the founder of the legendary radio station, DZRJ and the proprietor of the Rajah Broadcasting Network.-Background:...

     (from his 1988 Christmas album Pasko Na Naman)
  • The Jackson 5
    The Jackson 5
    The Jackson 5 , later known as The Jacksons, were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...

  • Alan Jackson
    Alan Jackson
    Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...

     (from his 2007 Christmas album Let It Be Christmas
    Let It Be Christmas
    -Track listing:#"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" – 2:58#"Winter Wonderland" – 2:18#"O Come All Ye Faithful" – 3:18#"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" -Track listing:#"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin) – 2:58#"Winter Wonderland" (Felix Bernard, Dick Smith) –...

    )
  • Al Jarreau
    Al Jarreau
    Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...

  • Joe
    Joe
    Joe may be a nickname originating from the name "Joseph", "Josephina" and others.Joe may refer to:-People:* Joe , an American R&B singer and record producer* Joe , a character known only as "Joe" on the popular children's show...

  • Wynonna Judd
    Wynonna Judd
    Wynonna Ellen Judd is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds...

  • Peggy Lee
    Peggy Lee
    Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

  • Damien Leith
    Damien Leith
    Damien Leo Leith is an Irish Australian singer–songwriter. He was the winner of the Network Ten music contest Australian Idol 2006Damien has also guest co-hosted 'The Morning Show' on Network Ten on 18 July 2011.He was born in Ireland and now lives in Australia with his Australian wife, Eileen...

     (from a special limited Christmas edition of his 2007 album Where We Land
    Where We Land
    Where We Land is the first studio album by Australian Idol 2006 winner Damien Leith. It was released by Sony BMG in Australia on 18 August 2007, and in Ireland on 28 September 2007. Leith produced the album for seven months and created the album entirely with acoustic songs...

    )
  • The Lettermen
    The Lettermen
    The Lettermen are an American male pop music vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959...

  • Lovedrug
    Lovedrug
    Lovedrug is an indie rock band from Canton, Ohio that formed in 2001. The band’s name is something of a word play; singer Michael Shepard initially left music to attend film school but his first ‘love’ of the music medium ‘dragged’ him back .- History :Lovedrug released their first EP, the...

  • Aimee Mann
    Aimee Mann
    Aimee Mann is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist.-Early life:Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, graduated from Open High School in 1978 and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes...

     (from her 2006 album One More Drifter in the Snow
    One More Drifter in the Snow
    One More Drifter in the Snow is the tenth album and first Christmas album by Aimee Mann, released by SuperEgo Records in the United States on October 31, 2006 . It was produced by Paul Bryan and comprises covers of "standard great Christmas classics" and two original compositions: "Christmastime",...

    )
  • Martina McBride
    Martina McBride
    Martina McBride is an American country music singer and songwriter. McBride has been called the "Céline Dion of Country Music" for her big-voiced ballads and soprano range....

  • Reba McEntire
    Reba McEntire
    Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...

  • Brian McKnight
    Brian McKnight
    Brian McKnight is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B/Pop musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet....

  • *NSYNC
  • Ricky Nelson
    Ricky Nelson
    Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...

     (on the episode of TV's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
    The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
    The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...

     titled "A Busy Christmas")
  • Aaron Neville
    Aaron Neville
    Aaron Neville is an American soul and R&B singer and musician. He has had four top-20 hits in the United States along with four platinum-certified albums...

  • New Kids on the Block
    New Kids on the Block
    New Kids on the Block are an American boy band from Boston, Massachusetts, assembled in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr. The band currently consists of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood.New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and...

  • Des O'Connor
    Des O'Connor
    Des O'Connor, CBE is an English comedian and singer. A former talkshow host, he was the presenter of the long-running Channel 4 gameshow Countdown for two years...

     (from a Tesco
    Tesco
    Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

     Christmas advert)
  • Alexander O'Neal
    Alexander O'Neal
    Alexander O'Neal is an American R&B singer. He is best-known for the songs "If You Were Here Tonight" and "Fake", and the duets with Cherrelle, "Saturday Love" and "Never Knew Love Like This".-Biography:...

  • Olivia Olson
    Olivia Olson
    Olivia Olson is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is known for her role of Joanna, singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in Love Actually , and for her voice-roles as Vanessa Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb and as Marceline the Vampire Queen in Adventure Time with Finn and...

     (from a 2010 Christmas album Phineas and Ferb: Holiday Favourites)
  • The Partridge Family
    The Partridge Family
    The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...

     (from their 1971 Christmas album A Partridge Family Christmas Card)
  • Les Paul
    Les Paul
    Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...

  • CeCe Peniston
    CeCe Peniston
    CeCe Peniston is an African American recording artist and former beauty queen. At the beginning of the nineties, she was considered to be one of the most successful dance club artists in the history of the U.S...

     (from the 1996 Christmas album Merry Arizona II: Desert Stars Shine at Christmas
    Merry Arizona II: Desert Stars Shine at Christmas
    Additional notes* "Angels We Have Heard on High" was previously released on Indio Records* "Little Drummer Boy" was previously released on New Haven Records* "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was previously released by Sahnas Music...

    )
  • LeAnn Rimes
    LeAnn Rimes
    LeAnn Rimes is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Patsy Cline-intended single "Blue" when Rimes was only age 13, resulting in her...

     (on her first holiday album What a Wonderful World
    What a Wonderful World (LeAnn Rimes album)
    What a Wonderful World is a Holiday/Christmas album by LeAnn Rimes. This is a jazz inspired holiday album. Rimes released four singles from this album: "O Holy Night", "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree", "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, and "A Different Kind Of Christmas." LeAnn also...

    )
  • Raven-Symoné
    Raven-Symoné
    Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman , known professionally as Raven-Symoné , or simply Raven, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, comedian, dancer, television producer and model. Symoné launched her successful career in 1989 after appearing in The Cosby Show as Olivia...

  • Smokey Robinson
    Smokey Robinson
    William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...

     & The Miracles
    The Miracles
    The Miracles are an American rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation . Their single "Shop Around" was Motown's first million-selling hit record, and the group went on to become one of Motown's signature...

     (from their 1963 Christmas album Christmas with The Miracles
    Christmas with The Miracles
    Christmas with The Miracles is a seasonal favorites' album by Motown soul group The Miracles recorded in 1963. It features traditional Christmas songs, with one Smokey Robinson original, "Christmas Everyday".The entire album was produced by Miracles member Ronnie White. Miracle Pete Moore was...

    )
  • Linda Ronstadt
    Linda Ronstadt
    Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...

     (from her 2000 Christmas album A Merry Little Christmas)
  • SWV
    SWV
    Sisters with Voices, better known as SWV, is an American female R&B trio from New York. Formed in 1990 as a gospel group, SWV became one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s. They had a series of hits, including "Weak", "Right Here/Human Nature", "I'm So Into You", and "You're the One"....

  • Diane Schuur
    Diane Schuur
    Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...

     (nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
    Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
    The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for quality jazz vocal performances...

     in 1990)
  • Neil Sedaka
    Neil Sedaka
    Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...

     (from his 2008 first-ever holiday album, The Miracle of Christmas)
  • Jessica Simpson
    Jessica Simpson
    Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...

  • Frank Sinatra
    Frank Sinatra
    Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

     (including two recordings: a virtual duet with Nat King Cole, and an actual duet with Bing Crosby
    Bing Crosby
    Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

    )
  • George Strait
    George Strait
    George Harvey Strait is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the "King of Country," and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional...

  • Donna Summer
    Donna Summer
    LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...

  • Demi Lovato
    Demi Lovato
    "She’s got the range, the full emotional spectrum, incredible control… Vocally, she’s the best thing Disney’s had since Christina Aguilera."—Producer Toby Gad on Demi Lovato's vocals...

  • The Supremes
    The Supremes
    The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...

     (remained unreleased until their 1965 Christmas album, Merry Christmas, was re-released in 1999 with additional tracks)
  • Take 6
    Take 6
    Take 6 is an American a cappella gospel music sextet formed in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. The group sings in a contemporary style, integrating R&B and jazz influences into their devotional songs and has 10 Grammy wins, 10 Dove Awards, one Soul Train Award and two...

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor
    James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

  • Team Rocket (voiced by Rachael Lillis, Eric Stewart and Maddie Blaustein on the album Pokémon Christmas Bash)
  • The Temptations
    The Temptations
    The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...

  • Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
  • Luther Vandross
    Luther Vandross
    Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...

  • Andy Williams
    Andy Williams
    Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...

  • Stevie Wonder
    Stevie Wonder
    Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

     (from his 1967 Christmas album Someday at Christmas
    Someday at Christmas
    Someday at Christmas is a Christmas album by Stevie Wonder, released in 1967 under Motown Records. It was his eighth studio album release. It would also be re-released in 1978 with different cover art and different Catalog number...

    )
  • Dwight Yoakam
    Dwight Yoakam
    Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...

  • Ascap entry for song showing numerous other covers

Christina Aguilera version

"The Christmas Song" was covered by pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 singer Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

 for her holiday album, My Kind of Christmas
My Kind of Christmas
My Kind of Christmas is the first Christmas album by American recording artist Christina Aguilera. It was released on October 24, 2000.- Background :...

. Her vocal range on the track spans from"C3 to "C♯7. Released in 1999, the single debuted at #87 and peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, the first single by Aguilera not to reach #1 nor enter the top 10. The single was not released in the UK.

Parodies

  • The title of The Simpsons
    The Simpsons
    The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

     episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
    Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
    "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", also known as "The Simpsons Christmas Special", is the first full-length episode of The Simpsons to air despite originally being the eighth episode produced for season one. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 17, 1989...

    " is a parody of the song.
  • Bob Rivers
    Bob Rivers
    Bob Rivers is a well-known American rock and roll radio on air personality in the Pacific Northwest as well as a prolific producer of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas song parodies....

     parodied the song with his 2000 album, and the title track from said album, "Chipmunks Roasting On an Open Fire
    Chipmunks Roasting On an Open Fire
    Chipmunks Roasting On an Open Fire is the fourth Christmas album by Bob Rivers. It was released in 2000, three years after More Twisted Christmas, and two years before White Trash Christmas.-Track listing:# The Twisted Chipmunk Song - 2:01...

    ."
  • Stan Freberg
    Stan Freberg
    Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...

    's "Green Chri$tma$
    Green Chri$tma$
    Green Chri$tma$ is a radio play written and performed by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler and released by Capitol Records in 1958 . Musical arrangement and direction by Billy May, performed by the Capitol Records house orchestra. Other vocal performances by Marvin Miller , Will Wright and the Jud...

    " includes several snippets of holiday songs. One segment begins with a sincere-sounding "Chestnuts roasting..." and quickly segués into a mock 1950s radio or TV ad, for a brand of chestnuts, being described as if they were toothpaste or cigarettes.
  • Twisted Sister
    Twisted Sister
    Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands...

     parodied the song in his 2006 album A Twisted Christmas
    A Twisted Christmas
    A Twisted Christmas is a Christmas album from US heavy metal group Twisted Sister, released on October 17, 2006. The album features classic Christmas songs performed in Heavy metal versions.-Track listing:...

    .
  • Flyleaf
    Flyleaf
    Flyleaf is an American alternative metal band, formed in the Belton and Temple, Texas regions in 2000. The band has charted on mainstream rock, Christian pop and Christian metal genres. They performed around the United States in 2003 until releasing their eponymous debut album, Flyleaf, in 2005....

    released a song entitled "Christmas Song" on their EP, "Music as a Weapon." The song has nothing to do with the original, and features the story of Jesus' birth.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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