A Good Day for Music

A look at the development of one of the best selling Christmas tunes ever recorded.

The Christmas Song

Mel Torme

Song that was written when the Christmas season is far from anyone’s thoughts. Written on a particularly hot day in July by a couple of songwriters who would take turns going over to each other houses for songwriting sessions. On this day in July, Robert Wells showed up at Mel’s house where he noticed a pad of paper with some lines that described a perfect winter scene. Mel explained to his friend that it was such a hot day, that he decided to write down all the things one might find on a cold winters day. What they came up with was finished in about 35 minutes.

The first time the song was recorded was in 1946 with Mel’s own trio band providing instrumentation, but a new version was re-recorded with full orchestra when the original gained some popularity on the charts. The new version did even better and is the one that everyone recognizes.

Other artists have recorded this song and made it more popular than Mel’s, but Mel has released four versions that charted, making him a place for the music history books.