The 4½ versions of Nat Cole's The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You).
In 1946 both the Nat Cole Trio and Mel Tormé & His Mel-Tones were managed by Carlos Gastel and their paths crossed one night in May at the Trocadero club in Los Angeles.
After hours, Mel played a new Christmas song he had co-written and the Trio liked what they heard and learned the song on the spot.
In mid-June, while the Trio was in New York City, they recorded the song at the WMCA radio studios. Nat Cole wasn't pleased with the recording and strongly felt it needed more music than the Trio could provide and eventually Capitol Records agreed to provide an "orchestra" of four violins, a harp and a drummer when they returned to the same studio to record it on the 19th of August.
The recording was a very big hit in 1946 and remained a popular Christmas recording for the rest of the 20th century.
With the mechanical master showing signs of wear, on 24 August 1953 Capitol had Nat record a new, but very similar, version on magnetic tape, with the new version replacing the original 1946 recording, but not for long.
On 30 March 1961 Capitol had Nat record it a 4th time so that the song could be mixed for stereo and released on The Nat "King" Cole Story LP. It was also mixed to mono and released as a single. I had the orange/yellow swirl single for years but didn't think to save the mono mix when I did a vinyl dump about 15 years ago.
Appreciate the story and the versions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of the work on your great compilations.
Happy Holidays!