How The Christmas Song Came to Be
The editorial staff at AMAC and the AMAC Foundation wish you the very best this Holiday Season! And the spirit of the season, we’re departing from our normal “Headline News” format with this historical account of one of America’s most revered musical treasures. We hope you enjoy…
One of the most iconic and cherished songs of the Christmas season is Nat King Cole’s original version of The Christmas Song. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Jack Frost nipping at your nose are now undoubtedly forever a part of the holiday season, but how did this unique song come to be? The story is full of rich jazz history and a few great surprises.
In early May of 1946, the King Cole Trio, was appearing at The Trocadero in Hollywood. One night after the last set, a then 21-year-old Mel Tormé came up to the bandstand and told Nat that he had a new song that he was eager for him to hear. After the last few customers had left, Mel sat down at the piano and performed The Christmas Song. Nat loved it immediately; he sat down at the piano and ran it down a couple of times. As much as Nat liked the song, he told Mel that it would be wrong to record it with just his trio, that it deserved a bigger showcase. Carlos Gastel, who was managing both Nat and Mel at the time, tried to persuade Capitol Records to use a few strings just for this one song.
On June 14, 1946 while appearing at Kelly’s Stable in New York, the Nat King Cole Trio went into the studios of WMCA radio to record The Christmas Song. As soon as he heard the first playback, Nat knew it was wrong. Nat convinced Capitol to let him re-record it with a string section, a very non-traditional practice for the jazz label. On August 19, 1946 Nat returned to the same WMCA studio for his first-ever orchestral recording. The session turned out perfectly, and became a watershed recording in his career.
Nat’s first recording of The Christmas Song hit record stores the third week of November 1946, and the response was incredible. One week later it reached the #3 spot on Pop and R&B charts, an uncommon crossover, and a portent of what would ultimately become Nat’s boundless appeal. This was the recording that Capitol would reissue every holiday season for the next seven years, and each year it would chart in the Top 5. The song was recorded twice more in Nat’s career, and the original 1946 recording was inducted into The Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.
Hear The Christmas Song and many more Christmas favorites on the Holiday Jazz channel. And for your added pleasure, we’ve included this YouTube video of the great Nat King Cole singing his signature. song.