1946 HITS ARCHIVE: The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole (his original hit)

The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) (Wells-Torme) by The King Cole Trio, vocal by King Cole, with String Choir conducted by Charles Grean, recorded August 19. 1946

Cole had initially recorded the Mel Torme-Bob Wells tune two months earlier on June 14th with only the usual Cole jazz trio instrumentation (in a version not issued in the U.S. at the time, listen here: https://youtu.be/Isf42hchmD4 ), but made the career-altering decision to try it again with some added orchestration. It’s that second one, heard here, that featured strings for the first time on a Cole single and became one of the most famous performances in recording history. This version reached #7 on Billboard’s pop sales chart and returned every year until 1954, when it was replaced by a new recording that featured Nelson Riddle conducting a similar arrangement. Cole’s final remake was an early ‘60s stereo recording conducted by Ralph Carmichael. The trio’s original Capitol single of “Route 66” is also included in this 1946 collection.

THE 1946 HITS ARCHIVE - a collection of commercial recordings and songs that proved popular during the calendar year 1946 (some were recorded in 1945) via sales, sheet music, radio exposure, and juke box play.…plus some others that have gained increased recognition or have been shown to have had an impact during the decades that followed. .
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The three* MusicProf channels are home to The HITS ARCHIVES, YouTube’s most comprehensive collection of U.S. ‘popular music’ recordings from 1925 thru 1975. Discover thousands of original hit versions, conveniently arranged in year-by-year playlists and sorted alphabetically in your choice of either song title or artist name. Simply visit this channel’s home page (here: https://www.youtube.com/@the78prof72 ), scroll down the rows of playlist categories, choose a favorite year, click on “view full playlist,” and then pick out the songs that you want to hear. Enjoy the music!

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