Bob Wells didn’t set out to write a classic when he envisioned “The Christmas Song”. He was just trying to stay cool. He started writing the lyrics on an unbearably hot summer day and hoped to employ a little wintry mind over matter. Co-writer Mel Torme noticed snippets of the now iconic sentences in Well’s notebook. They got to work and completed the song forty minutes later. Today it is one of the most recorded, and most loved, holiday tunes of all time.
You’re listening to Nat King Cole, of course, but this version may not be the one you’re familiar with. The 1961 recording is usually considered definitive. This one, however, was recorded fifteen years earlier in 1946.