The Christmas Song.

Prior to World War II how you celebrated Christmas depended largely on what region of the country you lived and what part of Old Europe your ancestors hailed from. It was only in the 20th Century that the marketing potential of the holiday began to take hold. Gradually it has moved away from a religious holiday to a national secular celebration of a season. During and after the War a national concept of Christmas seemed to jell, fueled largely by the World War II bringing people from different regions together and by the newly developed abilities of mass media to transmit music. The Christmas Song is a perfect example of this.

The "Christmas Song”, commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire“ or “Merry Christmas to You”, is a classic Christmas song written in 1944 by vocalist Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. 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) 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.”

Nobody owns this song like Nat King Cole. The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. At Cole’s behest — and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records — a second recording was made the same year utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole re-recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, and once more in 1961, in a stereophonic version with orchestra conducted by Ralph Carmichael. The latter recording is generally regarded as definitive and continues to receive considerable radio airplay each holiday season, while Cole’s original 1946 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.[1] Mel Tormé himself eventually recorded his own versions in 1954 and again in 1965 and 1992. {Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Christmas_Song }

Here then is Nat King Cole's most known version of this song.

Nat King Cole-The Christmas Song