A KOOL Day for Music

A song that sees the top of the Christmas favorite song list most often. Co-written by a Jazz singer on a hot summer day in 1941.

Nat King Cole

The Christmas Song

Co-written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells after the nation was just coming off World War II. A couple of songwriters would take turns for songwriting sessions at each other’s houses. One hot day in July it was Mel Torme’s turn to arrive at Robert Wells home. When Mel arrived, he noticed that there was a pad of paper with a few lyrics written that described the perfect winter scene.

Wells explained that the weather was so hot that he was trying to think of all the things he could one might find on a cold winter day.

Together, they finished the song 35 minutes later.

The first time their song was recorded was in 1946 with Nat King Cole’s own trio providing instrumentation without much success the music charts.

Cole realized how special the song was so he petitioned the label to re-record it with a full orchestra and goes into music history as the first song to use a string section. The reason it got the very generic title was the fact that its a song with no real chorus.

The song was recorded at least four times by Nat King Cole, but the one that stands out as the crowd favorite was the one recorded in 1961 that became a massive hit on both the Pop and R&B charts.