Welcome to the 23rd edition of The Definitive Version, a regular feature of my website. You can read more about the project here and read all past entries here.
Song: “The Christmas Song” (1945)
Composer: Mel Tormé
Lyricist: Bob Wells & Mel Tormé
Form: AABA
Standard Key: C Major or E-flat Major
Mel Tormé was a legendary singer and performer, with a wide-ranging and long-lasting career. But he’ll probably be most-remembered for his contribution to the Christmastime canon, “The Christmas Song.” According to Tormé, “I saw a spiral pad on his (Wells’s) piano with four lines written in pencil”, Tormé recalled. “They started, ‘Chestnuts roasting…, Jack Frost nipping…, Yuletide carols…, Folks dressed up like Eskimos.’ Bob 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.” (Wikipedia) Of course, that’s the same story that Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn used to describe composing “Let it Snow!” in that same summer of 1945.
The song is a standard AABA form – not yet retro in 1945, though most of the songs of the Great American were written before this. And the song does get slightly more adventurous than many of the style – he modulates freely to both the mediant and minor mediant (E and E-flat, in the key of C) in the A section, cycles through ii-V’s like the jazzer he was at heart, and has a cool and rather chromatic melody – hitting 11 out of 12 chromatic pitches.
And yet, it’s exceedingly singable – for all the harmonic and melodic twists, it’s so strong melodically that it attracts the voice. It covers barely over an octave (from low ti to high do) which helps.
According to BMI, this is the most performed Christmas song, and it’s easy to see why. It feels so very Christmasy.
Definitive Version: Nat “King” Cole (1961, from The Christmas Song)
Form: || String Intro || Full Chorus || Instrumental Bridge || Vocal Ending ||
Feel: in-tempo ballad (q = ~68)
Key: D-flat Major
Instrumentation: quartet – rhythm section + guitar
Did you really have any doubt over what was the definitive version? Of course it’s Nat “King” Cole, who makes it to the top of the charts every December with his classic version.
Actually, it’s not that simple – Nat recorded it at least four times over 16 years, ranging from his original trio version in 1945 to the lush stereo version which is the title track of his 1961 Christmas album.
Nat’s singing is intimate, inviting, and warm, like hot cocoa on Christmas eve. And the string arrangement is perfectly matched. The “Jingle Bells” tag at the end in the guitar is so iconic that some of my students felt that other versions were “wrong” for not including it.
There are so many great versions of this song by so many great singers, but in the end, it’s the great Nat “King” Cole who recorded the definitive version.
Also Recommended:
- Mel Tormé (1992, from Christmas Songs) It took Mel nearly 50 years from writing The Christmas Song to do a full-length Christmas album. Of course his own song is prominently featured. (Also watch this 1963 live version with Judy Garland!)
- Ella Fitzgerald (1960, from Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas) Ella makes this ballad swing!
- James Taylor (2004, from At Christmas) JT has a voice as suited to the classics as to his folk originals, and his interpretation is timeless. Note the slight lyric changes–”some holly and some mistletoe”, and “kids from one to 102”, not 92.
- Shirley Horn (1996, from Jazz For Joy: A Verve Christmas Album) Shirley Horn recorded very few Christmas songs, so this track from a ’90s compilation is a rare treat from one of the all-time great interpreters of American song.
- Leslie Odom, Jr. (2016, from Simply Christmas) Leslie Odom Jr., costar of the original production of Hamilton, released a fabulous contemporary Christmas album featuring tasteful arrangements and his wonderfully lyrical tenor.
- Nancy Wilson (2001, from A Nancy Wilson Christmas) Nancy’s singing soars in a freewheeling interpretation including some lytic changes of her own.