Excitedly, we called Carlos Gastel [manager of Nat Cole and Peggy Lee], sped into Hollywood, played it for him, then for [lyricist] Johnny Burke, and then for Nat Cole… (CNN)Grab your Mariah Carey vocals. Here's a closer look at the stories behind some of your favorite holiday tunes. Retitled The Christmas Song, the album was … "Wells was nowhere to be seen," James says, "But there was a spiral pad at the piano. Over the years the music for this ubiquitous Christmas song has been erroneously attributed to plenty of famous composers, including Haydn and Beethoven. But when Gardner listened to their wishes, some of the, When songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine originally wrote the holiday classic for the 1944 movie, "Meet Me in St. Louis," Judy Garland didn't like it. Members of the Portland Community Chorus sing holiday carols in downtown Portland, Maine. On this page, there are some of the stories behind the carols below. If so, read on to learn about the stories behind some of your favorite holiday tunes. "Jingle Bells". The story helped create a timeless Christmas song so heartwarming that it has stood the test of time over the past three decades. ", James Tormé is a jazz singer and the youngest son of his father, Mel. hide caption. In the … Posted on November 26, 2020 September 19, 2020 by SingingtheSongInMyHeart. America's favorite Christmas song actually has a pretty dark back story. Originally done for The Nat King Cole Story (a 1961 LP devoted to stereo re-recordings of Cole's earlier hits), this recording was later included in a reissue of Cole's 1960 holiday album The Magic of Christmas replacing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Click the audio link to hear how Tormé and Wells got "The Christmas Song" in the hands of Nat King Cole, how the song has evolved over the past 70 years and what James Tormé has learned from his father's legacy. Read More: 'The Christmas Shoes': The Story Behind The Song + Hallmark Movie. Anonymous, ‘Away in a Manger‘. IVI Entertainment and Nora/Courtesy of the artist, We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020. While traveling to a music publisher's office in 1933, the tune's, It started off with Donald Gardner asking a group of second-graders to complete the sentence, "All I want for Christmas is ... " No, no one really said they wanted their two front teeth for Christmas. Some Stories behind Christmas Carols. Over the years "The Christmas Shoes" by Christian group NewSong has become a classic and it all started with a little story that was circulating in the 90s. I Saw Three Ships; Good King Wenceslas; Silent Night; The 12 Days of Christmas ; I Saw Three Ships . "Dashing through the snow, In a one-horse open sleigh, O'er the fields we go, Laughing all the way… That's when they wrote this song, in the middle of, songwriters John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie sat in a subway car, students' lisps gave him the inspiration for his 1948 hit, soldiers who were in the depths of World War II. Tag: Christmas song story. The song is the best-selling UK single never to reach number one, with over two million copies sold. Mel Tormé in Piccadilly, London, 1956. But Rudolph would change everything. The tune of this carol is a traditional English folk song and the words of this carol (of which there are several versions) were written by wandering minstrels as they traveled through the country. This content is … The True Story Behind the Song 'White Christmas' Is Even Sadder Than Its Lyrics. Songwriters and then-married couple Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker wrote the song during the, Walter Kent and James Gannon's song captured the mood of homesick Americans in 1943, especially the, It may actually be an 18th-century memory game intended to help young Catholics learn the tenants of their faith. hide caption. Wells said, "I thought that maybe if I could just write down a few lines of wintry verse, I could physiologically get an edge over this heat. As Tormé relates in his autobiography, “Improbable though it may sound, ‘The Christmas Song’ was completed about 45 minutes later. But that song was written by a different crooner: Mel Tormé. The Story Behind 'The Christmas Song' Mel Tormé famously co-wrote one of the most well-known carols of all time in 1945. His son, James, tells the story of how the song came to be. Sometimes a song is so special that it not only inspires a film but a book adaptation as well. When the lyrics to this classic traditional Christmas carol were first published in 1884 in the Boston periodical The Myrtle, the writers attributed the original verses of the song to Protestant reformer Martin Luther, born in 1483.This is almost certainly not true – the words are found nowhere in Luther’s surviving writings – and the lyrics were most probably a product … Image via Wikimedia Commons. Have you ever wondered about the meanings and history behind Christmas songs? 1. By Taysha Murtaugh. ", Those four lines were: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire / Jack Frost nipping at your nose / Yuletide carols being sung by a choir / And folks dressed up like Eskimos. Over the centuries, some said the song's gifts have, That's probably what composer Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn desperately wanted in July of 1945. Maybe you like to sing in three-part harmony with a bunch of friends or hum along to the radio alone in your car. Either way, Christmas carols are a staple to the holiday season. James Tormé is a jazz singer and the youngest son of his father, Mel. The, A plea for peace, maybe? Here are eight unusual stories about popular Christmas songs, that you didn't know. Forty-five minutes later, the lyrics of what would be "The Christmas Song" were finished. The song was actually written by two Austrians: one named Franz … But the true lyricist was unknown until as recently as 1995, when an 1820 manuscript was discovered that confirmed the men behind the song.