Name: Jimmy Boyd - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Columbia Records 1952) @ChristmasTimeTV
Uploaded: 2026-09-22T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: Jimmy Boyd - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Columbia Records 1952)

Jimmy Boyd - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Columbia Records 1952)

ChristmasTimeTV 2026-09-22 | Jimmy Boyd - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Columbia Records 1952)

The Temptations - Silent Night (A Temptations Montage) Gordy Records 1980

ChristmasTimeTV 2023-01-23 | "Silent Night" (German: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht") is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today. The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

The Temptations are an American vocal group known for their success with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. Known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and flashy wardrobe, the group has been said to be as influential to R&B and soul as The Beatles are to pop and rock.

The Temptations' singing this tune include Melvin Franklin (baritone); Dennis Edwards (lead vocalist); Glenn Leonard (falsetto); Otis Williams (background); and Richard Street (background). It was recorded in Los Angeles in the summer of 1980 and was arranged by Gil Askey.

'Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a mouse

In my mind, I want you to be free
For all of our friends, to listen to me
Now hear what I say, we wish you
A Merry Christmas to each one of you

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
Holy infant, so tender and mild
Sleep in Heavenly peace
Sleep, sleep in Heaven, Heavenly peace

Go on and rest your mind
And sleep, sleep in Heavenly

Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories streams from Heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing, "Alleluia"
Christ the Savior is born, oh yes He is Christ
Christ, Christ the Savior is born

What a joyous day!

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
Holy infant, so tender and mild
Sleep in Heavenly peace
Sleep, sleep in Heaven, Heavenly peace

Just sleep and relax your mind
To all our family and friends
I want you to remember this line
Merry Christmas to all of you
Merry Christmas to all of you

Merry Christmas from The Temptations

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Its the Happiest Time of the Year (Columbia Records 1982)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-18 | "It's the Happiest Time of the Year" is a song written by Carolyn Johns and Larry Farrow.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Christmas, it's Christmas my dear
A time of good cheer for hopes far and near
Oh Christmas I'm so glad you're here
It's the happiest time of the year

To love, to share, to show that we care
To laugh, to sing, to hear sleigh bells ring
To praise, the ? who freed us from fear
It's the happiest time of the year

To toast, to dine, more turkey more wine
To smile, to shine, to have a good time
To give from our hearts to those we hold dear
It's the happiest time of the year

Christmas, it's Christmas my dear
A time of good cheer for hopes far and near
Oh Christmas I'm so glad you're here
It's the happiest time of the year

To hug, to kiss, a brother or sis
To tough, to feel, emotions so real
To hold, to love, it's so very clear
It's the happiest time of the year

Christmas, it's Christmas my dear
A time of good cheer for hopes far and near
Oh Christmas I'm so glad you're here
It's the happiest
What a glorious time
It's the happiest time of the year

Gladys Knight & The Pips - That Special Time of The Year (Columbia Records 1982)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-18 | "That Special Time of the Year was written by Arnold Goland and Jack Gold.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

August and September,
Summertime is done,
Days of sweet November
Grow shorter one by one
Autumn leaves are falling
And wintertime is near.
It's getting very close
To that special time of year.
The snow will be the whitest
Stars will shine the brightest,
Bells will ring out merry and clear,
When we all get home for Christmas this year.

The kids will want the day off
Trying hard to stay up
Waiting for Saint Nick to appear
When we all get home for Christmas this year.

With Mom and Dad to meet us
And dear old friends to greet us
We will have the sweetest of holidays.
And when it's time for parting
We'll recall the fun we had
And think of all the love that was here
And we'll all get home for Christmas next year
Yes, we'll all get home for Christmas next year.

With Mom and Dad to meet us
And dear old friends to greet us
We will have the sweetest of holidays.
And when it's time for parting,
We'll recall the fun we had
And think of all the love that was here
Then we'll all come home for Christmas next year,
Yes, we'll all come home for Christmas next year.
Next Christmas!

The snow will be the whitest
Stars will be shine their brightest
The kids will want they day off
Trying hard to stay up
Mom and Dad will meet us
Dear old friends to greet us
At Christmas
At Christmas

Gladys Knight & The Pips - The Night Before Christmas (Buddah Records 1975)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-18 | A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837.

The poem has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American" and is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. It has had a massive effect on the history of Christmas gift-giving. Before the poem gained wide popularity, American ideas had varied considerably about Saint Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors. A Visit from St. Nicholas eventually was set to music and has been recorded by many artists.

On the night of Christmas Eve, a family is settling down to sleep when the father is disturbed by noises on the lawn outside. Looking out the window, he sees Saint Nicholas in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. After landing his sleigh on the roof, Saint Nicholas enters the house down the chimney, carrying a sack of toys. The father watches his visitor fill the stockings hanging by the fireplace, and laughs to himself. They share a conspiratorial moment before Saint Nicholas bounds up the chimney again. As he flies away, he wishes a "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

The authorship of A Visit is credited to Clement Clarke Moore who is said to have composed it on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historic Saint Nicholas. Moore originated many of the features that are still associated with Santa Claus today while borrowing other aspects, such as the use of reindeer. The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on 23 December 1823, having been sent there by a friend of Moore, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. It was first attributed in print to Moore in 1837. Moore himself acknowledged authorship when he included it in his own book of poems in 1844. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Moore had a reputation as an erudite professor and had not wished at first to be connected with the unscholarly verse. He included it in the anthology at the insistence of his children, for whom he had originally written the piece.

Moore's conception of Saint Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving, but Moore portrayed his "jolly old elf" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. At the time that Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants viewed Christmas as the result of "Catholic ignorance and deception" and still had reservations. By having Saint Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore "deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still-problematic religious associations". As a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives."

In An American Anthology, 1787–1900, editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the Dutch spelling of “Donder” and German spelling of "Blitzen" that he adopted, rather than the version from 1823 "Dunder and Blixem" that is more similar to the old Dutch “Donder en Blixem” that translates to "Thunder and Lightning".

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Silent Night (Buddah Records 1975)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-18 | "Silent Night" (German: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht") is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today. The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight,
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia-
Christ the Savior, is born!
Christ the Savior, is born!

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

Jesus, Lord, at thy birth...

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Jingle Bells (Columbia Records 1982)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822--1893) and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. Even though it is commonly thought of as a Christmas song, it was actually written and sung for Thanksgiving. It was mistakenly branded as a Christmas song because being extremely popular at Thanksgiving, it was sung again around Christmas.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
jimmy shang and kenya?
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank
And we all fell in the snow
what a way to go

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh yeah
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

Gladys Knight & The Pips - The Christmas Song (Buddah Records 1975)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé.

Nat King Cole recorded the song 4 times partly due to the fact that in the first pressing of the King Cole Trio’s 1946 version, he sang the last line of the bridge: “To see if reindeers really know how to fly.” The song had already become a seasonal hit when Tormé and Wells pointed out the grammatical error.

Tormé recalled “Nat, a true gentleman, and a dogged perfectionist, stewed over this mistake, and sure enough, at the end of another recording session, with the same-sized orchestra at hand, he rerecorded our song, properly singing ‘reindeer.’ The second version is virtually identical to the first, but those early first pressings have become collectors’ items.”

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yule-tide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight.

They know that Santa's on his way
He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh
And every mother's child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer really know how to fly.

And so I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said many times, many ways
Merry Christmas to you!

Gladys Knight & The Pips - This Christmas (Columbia Records 1982)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "This Christmas" is a song by American soul musician Donny Hathaway released in 1970 by Atco Records. The song gained renewed interest when it was included in 1991 on Atco Records' revised edition of their 1968 Soul Christmas compilation album and has since become a modern Christmas standard, with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers reporting that it was the 30th most-performed holiday song of all time.

Phil Upchurch said the song was "absolutely the premiere holiday song written by an African American". It was written by Hathaway and Nadine McKinnor.

"This Christmas" was recorded at Audio Finishers Studio on Ontario Street, Chicago in the fall of 1970. Ric Powell said that Hathaway was "very upbeat during the session" and that he "knew what he wanted to do musically and the impact he wanted to make with this song" regarding the representation of African Americans in Christmas music. On writing the song with Hathaway (who died in 1979), Nadine McKinnor said she felt "blessed to have written with Donny a song that celebrates the possibilities, the expectations, and the anticipation of Christmas and the good fun and happy loving times", and that the creation of the song "was a God plan. God was in this plan. And Donny Hathaway was a genius."

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Hang all the mistletoe
I'm gonna get to know you better
This Christmas
And as we trim the tree
How much fun it's gonna be together
This Christmas
Fireside blazing bright
We're caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be
A very special Christmas for me

Presents and cards are here
My world is filled with cheer, and you
This Christmas
And as I look around
Your eyes outshine the town, they do
This Christmas

Fireside blazing bright
We're caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be
A very special Christmas for me

Shake a hand, shake a hand now

Fireside blazing bright
We're caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be
A very special Christmas for me

Hang all the mistletoe
I'm gonna get to know you better
This Christmas
And as we trim the tree
How much fun it's gonna be together
This Christmas
Fireside blazing bright
We're caroling through the night
And this Christmas will be
A very special Christmas for me

Merry Christmas
Shake a hand, shake a hand now
Wish your brother "Merry Christmas"
All over the land

Gladys Knight & The Pips - What Are You Doing New Years Eve (Buddah Records 1975)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" is a popular song written in 1947 by Frank Loesser as an independent song—not written for a particular movie or musical. It first charted for The Orioles, peaking at No. 9 on Billboard's Best-Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues chart in December 1949. Other charted versions include Danté & The Evergreens (No. 107 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in December 1960) and Nancy Wilson (No. 17 on Billboard's Christmas Singles chart in December 1965 and No. 24 on the same chart in December 1967).

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Maybe it's much
Too early in the game
Ooh, but I thought
I'd ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's eve?

Wonder whose arms
Will hold you good and tight
When it's exactly
Twelve o'clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year
New Year's eve

Maybe I'm crazy to suppose
I'd ever be the one you chose
Out of the thousand invitations
You received

Ooh, but in case
I stand one little chance
Here comes
The jackpot question in advance
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's Eve?

Maybe I'm crazy to suppose
I'd ever be the one you chose
Out of the thousand invitations
You received

Ooh, but in case
I stand one little chance
Here comes
The jackpot question in advance
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's Eve?

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Do You Hear What I Hear? (Buddah Records 1975)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker. The pair were married at the time, and wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists.

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

Do You Hear What I Hear?
(Do You Hear What I Hear?)

Said the night wind to the little lamb
"Do you see what I see?
(Do you see what I see?)
Way up in the sky, little lamb
Do you see what I see?
(See what I see?)
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite."

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy
"Do you hear what I hear?
(Do you hear what I hear?)
Ringing through the night, shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear?
(Hear what I hear?)
A song, a song high above the trees
With a voice as big as the the sea
With a voice as big as the the sea."

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king
"Do you know what I know?
(Do you know what I know?)
In your palace warm, mighty king
Do you know what I know?
(Know what I know?)
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold--
Let us bring him silver and gold
Let us bring him silver and gold."

Said the king to the people everywhere
"Listen to what I say!
(Won't you listen to what I say!)
Pray for peace, people, everywhere
Listen to what I say!
(Listen to what I say!)
The Child, the Child sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light."
(We want light)

Ella Fitzgerald - Santa Claus Got Stuck In My Chimney (Decca Records 1950)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "Santa Claus Got Stuck In My Chimney" is a song written by Billy Moore and William Hardy.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career.

Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
Bo-ho-ho-ho, bo-ho-ho-ho
Pour me
Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
Stuck in my chimney, stuck in the chimney
Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
When he came last year (poor Santa Claus)

Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
Stuck in my chimney, stuck in the chimney
Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
He won't come back I fear (bo-ho-ho)

There he was in the middle of the chimney
Roly-poly, fat, and round
There he was in the middle of the chimney
Not quite up and not quite down
Santa, please, come back to my chimney
Back to my chimney, back to my chimney
Santa, please, come back to my chimney
You can come back here (please do)
'Cause daddy made a brand new chimney
Just for you this year

(Oh Ella is a little girl who's trying to be good)
Yet I find that things don't always turn out as they should
(Why, just last Christmas Eve she waited up for Santa to drop five)
But I nearly missed him and here's the reason why
Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
Stuck in my chimney, stuck in the chimney
Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
When he came last year (poor, Santa Claus)

Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
Stuck in my chimney, stuck in the chimney
Santa Claus got stuck in my chimney
He won't come back I fear (bo-ho-ho)
There he was in the middle of the chimney
Roly-poly, fat, and round
There he was in the middle of the chimney
Not quite up and not quite down
Santa, please, come back to my chimney
Back to my chimney, back to my chimney
Santa, please, come back to my chimney
You can come back here (please do)
'Cause daddy made a brand new chimney
Just for you this year
(Santa Clause, come on down the chimney)
(Please come back this year)

Bing Crosby ft Ella Fitzgerald - Silver Bells (1950)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "Silver Bells" is a classic Christmas song, composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. The lyric is unusual for a Christmas song in that it describes the festival in the city and not a rural setting.

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1930 to 1954. He made over seventy feature films and recorded more than 1,600 different songs.

His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon.

Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.: Also in 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career.

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas
Hear the snow crunch, see the kids rush
This is Santa's big scene
And above all this bustle you'll hear

Silver bells, the corner Santa Claus
Silver bells, is busy now because
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, it feels the winter air
Hear them ring, you hear it everywhere
Soon it will be Christmas day

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas
Hear the snow crunch, see the kids rush
This is Santa's big scene
And above all this bustle you'll hear
Children laughing, people passing
Meeting smile after smile
Very soon it will be Christmas day

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day

Perry Como - There Is No Christmas Like A Home Christmas (RCA Victor Records 1966)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "There Is No Christmas Like A Home Christmas" is a song written by Carl Sigman and Mickey J. Addy.

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943.

He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multi-media star Bing Crosby.

"Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all."

Como received five Emmys from 1955 to 1959, a Christopher Award (1956) and shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason in 1956. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1987. Posthumously, Como received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He has the distinction of having three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio, television, and music.

There is no Christmas
like a home Christmas
with your Dad and Mother,
Sis an' Brother there!
With their hearts humming
at your home comin'
and that Merry Yuletide spirit
in the air!

( You can feel that Yuletide spirit! )

Christmas bells, Christmas bells,
ringing loud an' strong
follow them, follow them,
you've been away too long!

There is no Christmas
like a home Christmas
for that's the time of year
all roads lead home!

( Merry Christmas,
Merry, Merry Christmas! )
Christmas bells, Christmas bells,
ringing loud an' strong
follow them, follow them,
you've been away too long!

There is no Christmas
like a home Christmas
for that's the time of year . . .
the time when all roads lead home!

La, la, la la . . .

Perry Como - Winter Wonderland (RCA Victor 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-17 | "Winter Wonderland" is a winter song, popularly treated as a Christmas time pop standard, written in 1934 by Felix Bernard (composer) and Richard B. Smith (lyricist). Richard was reportedly inspired to write the song after seeing Honesdale's Central Park covered in snow. Mr. Smith had written the lyrics while in the West Mountain Sanitarium, being treated for tuberculosis. The original recording was by Richard Himber and his Hotel Ritz-Carlton Orchestra on RCA Bluebird in 1934. At the end of a recording session with time to spare, it was suggested that this new tune be tried with an arrangement provided by the publisher. This excellent "studio" orchestra included many great New York studio musicians including the legendary Artie Shaw. Due to its seasonal theme, "Winter Wonderland" is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere, although the holiday itself is never mentioned in the lyrics. There is a mention of "sleigh-bells" several times, implying that this song refers to the Christmas period.

You may find yourself asking who is Parson Brown? One can assume that "Parson" is used as a title, instead of a first name. In the period when this song was written, parsons (now known as a Protestant minister) often travelled among small rural towns to perform wedding ceremonies for denominational followers who did not have a local minister of their faith. Therefore, the children are most likely pretending that their snowman is a Parson with the surname "Brown," which would be visiting the town again in the future.

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943.

He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multi-media star Bing Crosby.

"Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all."

Como received five Emmys from 1955 to 1959, a Christopher Award (1956) and shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason in 1956. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1987. Posthumously, Como received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He has the distinction of having three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio, television, and music.

Sleigh bells ring, are ya listenin'?
In the lane snow is glistenin'
a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight
walkin' in a winter wonderland!

Gone away is the bluebird
here to stay is a new bird
he sings a love song as we go along
walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman
then pretend that he is Parson Brown
he'll say "Are you married?"
we'll say "No man!
But you can do the job,
when you're in town!"

Later on, we'll conspire,
as we dream, by the fire,
to face unafraid,
the plans that we've made
walkin' in a winter wonderland!

[instrumental break]

Sleigh bells ring, are ya listenin'?
In the lane snow is glistenin'
a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight...
Oh!... walkin' in a winter wonderland!

Gone away is the bluebird
here to stay is a new bird ...
he sings a love song as we go along
walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman
then pretend that he is Parson Brown
he'll say "Are you married?"...
we'll say "No man!
But you can do the job,
when you're in town!"

Later on, we'll conspire,
as we dream, by the fire,
to face unafraid,
the plans that we've made
walkin' in a winter wonderland!

We'll be happy in love
as two turtle doves
livin' in a fairy land!...
Oh!... we'll be walkin'
in a winter wonderland!

Perry Como - Winter Wonderland (RCA Victor 1946)

Gene Autry - Sleigh Bells (Columbia Records 1957)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-16 | "Sleigh Bells is a song written by Gene Autry & Michael R Carr.

Orvon Grover Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.

From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true—and profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans. Autry was also one of the most important figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience. In addition to his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again", Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, "Here Comes Santa Claus", which he wrote, "Frosty the Snowman", and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is the only person to be awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for film, television, music, radio, and live performance. The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma was named in his honor.

You know bells have always been
Associated with Christmas
Well, how can we think of Christmas
And Santa Claus without his sleigh
Put 'em both together and what have you got
Sleigh Bells

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Everything's alright
What a happy sight
Santa's busy as a bee tonight

Oh, sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Christmas trees aglow
Holly and mistletoe
And the whitest kind of snow

All the kiddies are sleeping
As he rides through the sky
But there must be no peeping
Or he might pass you by

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Santa's on his way
Hear the sleigh bells say
A happy Christmas day

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Everything's alright
What a happy sight
Santa's busy as a bee tonight

Oh, sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Christmas trees aglow
Holly and mistletoe
And the whitest kind of snow

All the kiddies are sleeping
As he rides through the sky
But there must be no peeping
Or he might pass you by

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Santa's on his way
Hear the sleigh bells say
A happy Christmas day

Gene Autry - Sleigh Bells (Columbia Records 1952)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-16 | "Sleigh Bells is a song written by Gene Autry & Michael R Carr.

Orvon Grover Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.

From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true—and profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans. Autry was also one of the most important figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience. In addition to his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again", Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, "Here Comes Santa Claus", which he wrote, "Frosty the Snowman", and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is the only person to be awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for film, television, music, radio, and live performance. The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma was named in his honor.

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Everything's alright
What a happy sight
Santa's busy as a bee tonight

Oh, sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Christmas trees aglow
Holly and mistletoe
And the whitest kind of snow

All the kiddies are sleeping
As he rides through the sky
But there must be no peeping
Or he might pass you by

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Santa's on his way
Hear the sleigh bells say
A happy Christmas day

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Everything's alright
What a happy sight
Santa's busy as a bee tonight

Oh, sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Christmas trees aglow
Holly and mistletoe
And the whitest kind of snow

All the kiddies are sleeping
As he rides through the sky
But there must be no peeping
Or he might pass you by

Sleigh bells jinglin'
Jing, jing, jinglin'
Santa's on his way
Hear the sleigh bells say
A happy Christmas day

Chuck Berry - Run Run Rudolph (Chess Records 1958)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-12-15 | "Run Rudolph Run" is a Christmas song popularized by Chuck Berry, written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie and published by St. Nicholas Music (ASCAP). The song was first recorded by Berry in 1958 and released as a single on Chess Records.

It has since been covered by numerous other artists, sometimes with the title "Run Run Rudolph". The song is a 12-bar blues, musically similar to Berry's very popular and recognizable song "Johnny B. Goode", and melodically identical to his song "Little Queenie", the latter of which was released shortly after, in 1959.

The song was written by Johnny Marks (the writer of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") and Marvin Brodie. Berry's 1958 45-rpm single, however, gives writing credits to "C. Berry Music – M. Brodie". All subsequent cover versions of the song are credited to Marks and Brodie, as published by Marks's St. Nicholas Music (ASCAP).

The song's dialogue between Santa and the children references popular toys of the 1950s:

Said Santa to a boy child "What have you been longing for?"
"All I want for Christmas is a rock and roll electric guitar"
And then away went Rudolph a whizzing like a Shooting Star

Said Santa to a girl child "What would please you most to get?"
"A little baby doll that can cry, sleep, drink and wet"
And then away went Rudolph a whizzing like a Sabre jet.

Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

Born into a middle-class African-American family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart.

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[9] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record.

Out of all the reindeers you know you are the mastermind
Run, run Rudolph, Randolph ain't too far behind
Run, run Rudolph, Santa's gotta make it to town
Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph 'cause I'm reelin' like a merry-go-round

Said Santa to a boy child, "What have you been longin' for?"
"All I want for Christmas is a rock 'n' roll 'lectric guitar"
And then away went Rudolph whizzin' like a shootin' star

Run, run Rudolph, Santa's has to make it in town
Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph, reelin' like a merry-go-round

Run, run Rudolph, Santa's gotta make it to town
Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph, I'm reelin' like a merry-go-round

Said Santa to a girl child, "What would please you most to get?"
"A little baby doll that can cry, sleep, drink and wet"
And then away went Rudolph, whizzin' like a Saber jet

Run, run Rudolph, Santa's gotta make it to town
Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down
Run, run Rudolph I'm reelin' like a merry-go-round

The Carpenters - Merry Christmas Darling (A&M Records 1978)

ChristmasTimeTV 2021-08-20 | "Merry Christmas Darling" is a Christmas song by the Carpenters (music by Richard Carpenter, lyrics by Frank Pooler), and originally recorded in 1970. It was first available on a 7-inch single that year (A&M Records 1236), and was later re-issued in 1974 (A&M 1648) and again in 1977 (A&M 1991). The single went to number one on Billboard's Christmas singles chart in 1970 (and did so again in 1971 and 1973) and peaked at number 41 in Cashbox.

In 1978, the Carpenters issued their Christmas Portrait album, which contained a new version of "Merry Christmas Darling". The original 1970 mix continued to be used for all single releases, however. The major difference between the 1970 and 1978 versions is a newly recorded vocal by Karen Carpenter on the latter, which was done at her request. Richard Carpenter himself calls the original recording one of his sister's very best. The original single version of the song can be found on the compilation albums From the Top and The Essential Collection: 1965–1997. The song covered by Lea Michele on "A Very Glee Christmas", the 10th episode of the two season of Glee. It is featured on the Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album.

The lyrics were written in 1944 by an 18-year-old Frank Pooler, which, according to him, were about a love interest he had at the time. 22 years later in 1966, when he was choral director at California State University, Long Beach, two of his aspiring music students, Karen and Richard Carpenter, who were beginning to have success as a local band, asked him (their favorite professor) if he had any ideas for holiday songs. According to Pooler, they had become tired of the standard holiday songs they were singing. Pooler gave them the lyrics of the song he had written from years before, and told them he did not think much of the original melody. According to Pooler, Richard wrote a new tune for the lyrics—the tune currently used—in 15 minutes. Four years later, in 1970, the Carpenters first recorded and released it as a single.

The Carpenters (officially known as Carpenters) were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (born 1946). They produced a distinct soft musical style, combining Karen's contralto vocals with Richard's harmonizing, arranging and composition skills. During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 10 albums along with numerous singles and several television specials.

The siblings were born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in 1963. Richard took piano lessons as a child, progressing to California State University, Long Beach, while Karen learned the drums. They first performed together as a duo in 1965 and formed the jazz-oriented Richard Carpenter Trio followed by the middle-of-the-road group Spectrum. Signing as Carpenters to A&M Records in 1969, they achieved major success the following year with the hit singles "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun". The duo's brand of melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary music genres. They had three number-one singles and five number-two singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and 15 number-one hits on the Adult Contemporary chart, in addition to 12 top-10 singles. They have sold more than 90 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The duo toured continually during the 1970s, which put them under increased strain; Richard took a year off in 1979 after he had become addicted to Quaalude, while Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa.

Their joint career ended in 1983 when Karen died from heart failure brought on by complications of anorexia. Extensive news coverage surrounding these circumstances increased public awareness of eating disorders. Their music continues to attract critical acclaim and continued commercial success.

Greeting cards have all been sent
The Christmas rush is through
But I still have one wish to make
A special one for you

Merry Christmas darling
We're apart that's true
But I can dream and in my dreams
I'm Christmas-ing with you

Holidays are joyful
There's always something new
But every day's a holiday
When I'm near to you

The lights on my tree
I wish you could see
I wish it every day
Logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say

That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year, too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you

Logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say

That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year, too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you
I wish I were with you
(Merry, merry, merry Christmas)
(Merry Christmas, darling)

Pearl Bailey ft Hot Lips Page - Baby Its Cold Outside (Columbia Records 1957)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-21 | "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944 and introduced to the public in the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter. While the lyrics make no mention of a holiday, it is popularly regarded as a Christmas song owing to its winter theme. The song was released in eight recordings in 1949 and has been covered numerous times since.

During the 1940s, whenever Hollywood celebrities with vocal talents attended parties, they were expected to perform songs. In 1944, Loesser wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to sing with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel. They sang the song to indicate to guests that it was time to leave. Garland has written that after the first performance, "We became instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of 'Baby.' It was our ticket to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act." In 1948, after years of performing the song, Loesser sold it to MGM for the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. Garland was furious: "I felt as betrayed as if I'd caught him in bed with another woman." The song won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Original Song.

This duet is a conversation between two people, a host (called "Wolf" in the score, usually performed by a male singer) and a guest (called "Mouse", usually performed by a female), in call and response form. Every line in the song features a statement from the guest followed by a response from the host. While both the Wolf and the Mouse want the night to continue, the Mouse says they "ought to say no, no, no, sir" and return home, because of what family and neighbors will think. In the film Neptune's Daughter the song is first performed by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams, then by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton but with a comic parody twist: this time the man wants to leave and the woman is the host and wants him to stay.

In at least one published version the tempo of the song is given as "Loesserando", a humorous reference to the composer's name.

Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-Black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.

Oran Thaddeus "Hot Lips" Page (January 27, 1908 – November 5, 1954) was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist.

Gee Hot Lip you have a nice place here
And I've been enjoying myself
But I've got to go now
Oh don't leave now
Well I've got to go I'll tell ya'

I really can't stay
But, baby, it's cold outside
Can't help it, I got to go away
But baby, it's cold outside
This evening has been
I've been hoping that you'd drop in
So very nice
I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice
My mother will start to worry
Beautiful, what's your hurry?
And father will be pacing the floor
Listen to the fireplace roar
Really I'd better scurry
Beautiful, please don't hurry
Well if you insist, I'll have a half a drink more
Put some records on while I pour
You mean harmony records?

The neighbors u'll think
But baby, it's bad out there
I can't help it man what did you put in this drink?
Look it's no cabs to be had out there
I wish I knew how
Your eyes are like starlights now
To break the spell
I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell

Well I ought to say no, no, no, sir
Mind if I move in closer
Course not, I'm gonna say that I tried
What's the sense of hurting my pride?
I really can't stay
Oh, baby don't hold out, baby
Ahh, but it's cold outside

I'm not kidding now Hot Lip
I'm tellin' you I've got to get home
But, baby, you'd freeze out there
You think so?

Yea, well lend me your coat
You know what it's up to your knees out there
Is it that deep?
It's really bad
Yea but you've been very grand
I'm thrilled when you touch my hand
But don't you see
How can you do this thing to me
Oh I'm not really cruel but
There's bound to be talk tomorrow
Think of my life long sorry
Well they'll be plenty implied
If you caught pneumonia and died?
Can't help it I really can't stay
Get over that doubt
Baby it's cold outside

You know Lips I tell you
I want to believe you so much
I think I'll look out the window
And see if it's still snowing
Say who is that woman downstairs out front?
Oh that's just a friend of mine
Oh you want me to go there
Oh, oh no indeed I'm not going out there
I don't have no fur coat no how
This floral coat is to... I can't go
So wonderful let me stay a while
Let me show you my etchings
Oh now that sounds more like it
I'll tell her to go on about her business
Baby it's cold outside
Ha you're a cause you know that don't you?
Ain't it nice in here?
Sure is
Nice

Ella Fitzgerald ft Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - Baby, Its Cold Outside (Decca Records 1949)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944 and introduced to the public in the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter. While the lyrics make no mention of a holiday, it is popularly regarded as a Christmas song owing to its winter theme. The song was released in eight recordings in 1949 and has been covered numerous times since.

During the 1940s, whenever Hollywood celebrities with vocal talents attended parties, they were expected to perform songs. In 1944, Loesser wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to sing with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel. They sang the song to indicate to guests that it was time to leave. Garland has written that after the first performance, "We became instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of 'Baby.' It was our ticket to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act." In 1948, after years of performing the song, Loesser sold it to MGM for the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. Garland was furious: "I felt as betrayed as if I'd caught him in bed with another woman." The song won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Original Song.

This duet is a conversation between two people, a host (called "Wolf" in the score, usually performed by a male singer) and a guest (called "Mouse", usually performed by a female), in call and response form. Every line in the song features a statement from the guest followed by a response from the host. While both the Wolf and the Mouse want the night to continue, the Mouse says they "ought to say no, no, no, sir" and return home, because of what family and neighbors will think. In the film Neptune's Daughter the song is first performed by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams, then by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton but with a comic parody twist: this time the man wants to leave and the woman is the host and wants him to stay.

In at least one published version the tempo of the song is given as "Loesserando", a humorous reference to the composer's name.

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career.

Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era.

I really can't stay
But, baby, it's cold outside
I got to go away
But baby, it's cold outside
This evening has been
Been hoping that you'd drop in
So very nice
I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice
My mother will start to worry
Beautiful, what's your hurry?
And father will be pacing the floor
Listen to the fireplace roar
So really I'd better scurry
Beautiful, please don't hurry
Well, maybe just a half a drink more
Put some records on while I pour
The neighbors might think
But baby, it's bad out there
Say, what's in this drink?
No cabs to be had out there
I wish I knew how
Your eyes are like starlight now
To break the spell
I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell
I ought to say no, no, no, Sir
Mind if I move in closer
At least I'm gonna say that I tried
What's the sense of hurting my pride?
I really can't stay
Oh, baby don't hold out, baby
Ahh, but it's cold outside
I simply must go
But, baby, it's cold outside
The answer is no
But, baby, it's cold outside
The welcome has been
How lucky that you dropped in
So nice and warm
Look out the window at that storm
My sister will be suspicious
Gosh, your lips look delicious
My brother will be there at the door
Waves upon a tropical shore
My maiden aunt's mind is vicious
Gosh, your lips are delicious
Well, maybe just a cigarette more
Never such a blizzard before
I've got to get home
But, baby, you'll freeze out there
Say, lend me a comb
It's up to your knees out there
You've really been grand
I thrill when you touch my hand
But don't you see
How can you do this thing to me?
There's bound to be talk tomorrow
Think of my life long sorrow
At least there will plenty implied
If you caught pneumonia and died
I really can't stay
Get over that old out, baby
Ahh, but it's cold outside
Where could you be going
When the wind is blowing and it's cold outside?
Baby, it's cold, cold outside

Lester Lanin - White X-mas, Home for X-mas, Home for the Holiday, Happy Holiday (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time. Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, poolside at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song, written by Kim Gannon, Walter Kent and Buck Ram. It was first copyrighted on August 24, 1943, by Kent (music) and James "Kim" Gannon (lyrics). The two revised and re-copyrighted their song on September 27, 1943, and it was this version that was made famous by Crosby. The label on Crosby's recording credits "I'll Be Home for Christmas" to Kent, Gannon, and Ram. Later recordings usually credit only Kent and Gannon. The discrepancy arose from the fact that on December 21, 1942 Buck Ram copyrighted a song titled "I'll Be Home for Christmas (Tho' Just in Memory)"—that song bore little or no resemblance, other than its title, to the Crosby recording. According to Ram, who was primarily a lyricist, he had written the lyrics as a 16-year-old, homesick college student. Prior to his publishers planned release, he had discussed the song with two acquaintances in a bar. He left a copy with them, but never spoke to them about it again. Both he and his publisher were shocked when the song was released by a competing publishing house. Per news articles of the day, Ram's publisher, who had been holding the song back a year because they were coming out with "White Christmas," sued Gannon and Kent's publisher and prevailed in court. On October 4, 1943, Crosby recorded "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records. Within about a month of Kent and Gannon's copyright the song hit the music charts and remained there for eleven weeks, peaking at number three. The following year, the song reached number nineteen on the charts. It touched a tender place in the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, who were then in the depths of World War II, and it earned Crosby his fifth gold record. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" became the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O. shows in both Europe and the Pacific and Yank, the GI magazine, said Crosby accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era.

"(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" is a popular song, commonly associated with the Christmas season although the lyrics are more applicable to the Thanksgiving holidays. The music was written by Robert Allen, the lyrics by Al Stillman. The song was published in 1954. The best-known recordings were made by Perry Como, who recorded the song twice. The first recording, done on November 16, 1954, was released as a single for Christmas, 1954, by RCA (catalog number 20-5950-B on 78rpm and 47-5950-B on 45rpm). Como's second recording of the song, in stereo and with a different musical arrangement, was made on July 15, 1959. It was released as a 33rpm single (RCA catalog # VP-2066)

"Happy Holiday" (sometimes performed as "Happy Holidays") is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1941. The song was first performed by Bing Crosby for the 1942 film Holiday Inn. While it is often regarded as a Christmas song, in the movie it is performed on New Year's Eve, and expresses a wish for the listener to enjoy "happy holidays" throughout the entire year. The titular phrase is now most commonly associated with inclusive holiday greetings for the period around Christmas and the New Year.

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Lester Lanin - Jingle Bells (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822--1893) and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. Even though it is commonly thought of as a Christmas song, it was actually written and sung for Thanksgiving. It was mistakenly branded as a Christmas song because being extremely popular at Thanksgiving, it was sung again around Christmas.

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Lester Lanin - Here Comes Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" is a Christmas song written by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman. Autry got the idea for the song after riding his horse in the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade in Los Angeles, during which crowds of spectators chanted, "Here comes Santa Claus". This inspired him to write a song that Haldeman set to music. A demo recording was made by singer/guitarist Johnny Bond, whose recording made use of ice cubes to mimic the sound of the jingling sleigh-bells. This inspired the use of real sleigh-bells in Autry's own recording of the song.

"Frosty the Snowman" is a popular song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950. It was written after the success of Autry's recording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" the previous year; Rollins and Nelson shipped the new song to Autry, who recorded "Frosty" in search of another seasonal hit. Like "Rudolph," "Frosty" was subsequently adapted to other media including a popular television special. The song was originally titled "Frosty the Snow Man."

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Lester Lanin - Silver Bells, Oh Christmas Tree, We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "Silver Bells" is a classic Christmas song, composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. The lyric is unusual for a Christmas song in that it describes the festival in the city and not a rural setting.

"O Tannenbaum", or, in its English version, "O Christmas Tree", is a Christmas carol of German origin. A Tannenbaum is a fir tree (German: die Tanne) or Christmas tree (der Weihnachtsbaum). Its evergreen qualities have long inspired musicians to write several "Tannenbaum" songs in German. The melody is an old folk tune (Lauriger Horatius). The first known "Tannenbaum" song lyrics date back to 1550.

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a traditional English Christmas carol, listed as numbers 230 and 9681 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The famous version of the carol is from the English West Country, but the song had previously been performed by carolers, wassailers and mummers in the nineteenth century, with a variety of tunes and lyrics.

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Lester Lanin - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" is a popular Christmas song written by Johnny Marks based on the original story Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer published in 1939 and written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May. The song was first sung commercially by crooner Harry Brannon on New York city radio in the latter part of 1948, before Gene Autry recorded it formally in 1949, and has since filtered into the popular consciousness.

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Lester Lanin - Santa Claus Is Comin To Town (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-19 | "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is a Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day and more than 400,000 copies sold by Christmas. The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934 (Decca 264A) featuring Tom Stacks on vocal, the version shown in the Variety charts of December 1934. The song was a sheet music hit, reaching #1. The song was also recorded on September 26, 1935, by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra. The song is a traditional standard at Christmas time, and has been covered by numerous recording artist.

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Bing Crosby - A Marshmallow World (Decca Records 1950)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-17 | "A Marshmallow World" (sometimes called "It's a Marshmallow World") is a popular song that was written in 1949 by Carl Sigman (lyrics) and Peter DeRose (music). It was published the following year by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. The song is about winter and is commonly regarded as a Christmas song, although the lyrics make no mention of the holiday.

The song was first a hit for Bing Crosby (backed by the Lee Gordon Singers and Sonny Burke and his Orchestra). Crosby's version, recorded in 1950, peaked at number 24 on the pop singles chart in January 1951. Other artists who recorded the song in 1950 include Ray Anthony, Vic Damone, Johnny Desmond, Arthur Godfrey, and Vaughn Monroe.

The song compares a snowfall to marshmallows covering the ground. It also describes the snowfall as whipped cream and the sun as a red pumpkin head. The singer "waits for it the whole year 'round."

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1930 to 1954. He made over seventy feature films and recorded more than 1,600 different songs.

His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon.

Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.: Also in 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.

It's a marshmallow world in the winter
When the snow comes to cover the ground
It's the time for play, it's a whipped cream day
I wait for it all year round

Those are marshmallow clouds being friendly
In the arms of the evergreen tree
And the sun is red like a pumpkin head
It's shining so your nose won't freeze

The world is your snowball, see how it grows
That's how it goes, whenever it snows
The world is your snowball just for a song
Get out and roll it along

It's a yum-yummy world made for sweethearts
Take a walk with your favorite girl
It's a sugar date, what if spring is late
In winter, it's a marshmallow world

It's a marshmallow day in the winter
When the snow comes to cover the ground
It's the time for play, it's a whipped cream day
And we wait for it the whole year round

Just you remember that those are marshmallow clouds being friendly
In the arms of the evergreen tree
And the sun is red like a pumpkin head
It's shining so your nose won't freeze

You must remember that the world is your snowball, see how it grows
That's how it goes, whenever it snows
The world is your snowball just for a song
Get out and roll it along

It's a yum-yummy world made for sweethearts
Take a walk with your favorite girl
It's a sugar date, what if spring is late
In winter, it's a marshmallow world
In winter, it's a marshmallow world
In winter, it's a marshmallow world

Brenda Lee - Jingle Bell Rock (Decca Records 1964)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-17 | "Jingle Bell Rock" is a popular Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas time since then. "Jingle Bell Rock" was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal (1900--1967), and James Ross Boothe (1917--1976).

"Jingle Bell Rock" has been performed by many, but Helms' version is the most known in the world. Its title and some of its lyrics are takeoffs on the old Christmas standard, "Jingle Bells." It makes brief references to other popular songs of the 1950s, such as "Rock Around the Clock," and mentions going to a "Jingle hop." An electric guitar played by Hank Garland can be heard playing the first notes to the chorus from "Jingle Bells."

Despite being titled a Jingle Bell "Rock", Helms' version of the song was performed in the crossover style known as rockabilly.

Bobby Helms' original version on Decca 9-30513 from 1957, was re-recorded by him on Kapp K-719 in 1965 and yet again in 1967 on Little Darlin' LD-0038. In 1970, Helms recorded an entire album titled "Jingle Bell Rock" on Certron C-7013, releasing from the album the title track on Certron C-10021 with a picture sleeve. In yet another re-recording, Helms released a version on Ashley AS-4200 (year unknown). In 1983, Bobby Helms released his last recording of "Jingle Bell Rock" on Black Rose 82713.

Helms's original version charted at No. 13 on Billboard's Most Played C&W by Jockeys chart, a predecessor to the Hot Country Songs chart. After it was featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 film Jingle All the Way, the original version returned to the country charts in late 1996-early 1997, reaching a peak of No. 60.

It also crossed to the pop charts, reaching #11 in the Cashbox Top 60, week ending January 11, 1958.

Brenda Mae Tarpley known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Performing rockabilly, pop and country music, she had 47 US chart hits during the 1960s and is ranked fourth in that decade, surpassed only by Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Ray Charles. She is known for her 1960 hit "I'm Sorry", and 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", which has become a Christmas standard.

At 4 ft 9 inches tall (approximately 145 cm), she received the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite" in 1957, after recording the song "Dynamite" when she was 12, and was one of the earliest pop stars to have a major contemporary international following.

In 1969, Lee returned to the charts with her recording "Johnny One Time" penned by A.L. "Doodle" Owens and Dallas Frazier. The song reached #3 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart and #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also earned Lee her second Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal. Later success came with a return to her roots as a country singer, with a string of hits through the 1970s and 1980s. She is a member of the Rock and Roll, Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. She is also a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Lee is the only woman to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Halls of Fame. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bell swing and jingle bells ring
Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun
Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time
Dancin' and prancin' in jingle bell square
In the frosty air
What a bright time, it's the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go glidin' in a one horse sleigh
Giddy up, jingle horse pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and mingle in a jinglin' beat
That's the jingle bell rock
Jing, jing, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time
Dancin' and prancin' in jingle bell square
In the frosty air
What a bright time, it's the right time
We're gonna rock the night away
Jingle bell time it's a swell time
To go glidin' in a one horse sleigh, hey
Giddy up, jingle horse pick up your feet
Jingle around the clock
Mix and mingle in a jinglin' beat
That's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell
That's the jingle bell rock

Darlene Love - White Christmas (Philies Records 1963)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-15 | "White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time. Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, poolside at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"

Darlene Wright known by her stage name, Darlene Love, is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a No. 1 American single in 1962, and was one of the artists who performed on the celebrated Christmas album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, produced by Phil Spector in 1963. She is ranked number 84 among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers.

As a minister's daughter, she grew up listening to gospel music and was a dedicated member of her church. She began singing in her church choir at age ten. During choir practice she caught the attention of choir director Cora Martin-Moore. After singing for Martin she was asked to go to the Music Mart where she sang and did some broadcasts; Love's career began there. As it was her first musical experience, it was also the main influence for her to pursue a music career. Those who knew her described her vocals as "a voice of a nightingale." She claimed, "(singing in) the choir was a big influence on my life. I call it my learning ground. Singing in the choir, I learned harmony.

Beginning in 1986 and continuing for 29 years, Darlene Love performed the song annually on the final new episode before Christmas of Late Night with David Letterman (NBC, 1986–92) and Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 1993–2014), 28 times in all. The exception was in 2007, when Love was unable to perform due to the Writers' Strike; a repeat of her 2006 performance was shown instead.

Beginning in 2015, the tradition of Love's annual performance of the song moved to The View (ABC, 2015–present), where it has continued during its last edition before Christmas in the years since. The song has been used in several movies – including during the main titles of Gremlins, in a scene in GoodFellas in which some of the characters spend money from the Lufthansa Heist on lavish gifts, in Christmas with the Kranks, in the 2012 ABC Family TV movie The Mistle-Tones, and most recently in the 2017 Hallmark Channel TV movie Christmas Getaway. On the December 17, 2011 holiday episode of Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon sang a version of the song with lyrics reflecting upon his past experiences with the show.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow, snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white
The sun is shining
The grass is green
The orange and palm trees sway
There's never been such a day in old L.A.
But it's December the 24th
And I'm longing to be up north
So I can have my very own white Christmas
Oh yeah

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white, yeah, be white

Dean Martin - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow (Reprise Records 1966)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-11 | "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in 1945. It was written in July 1945 in Hollywood, California during one of the hottest days on record. First recorded by Vaughn Monroe, it became a popular hit, reaching number one on the Billboard music chart the following year. Due to its seasonal lyrics, it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song. Yet despite its cheery, holiday feel, it is a love song that never mentions Christmas.

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, recording artist and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance.

Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin & Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio, television and in films. Following an acrimonious ending of the partnership in 1956, Martin pursued a solo career as a performer and actor.

Martin established himself as a notable singer, recording numerous contemporary songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook. He became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together formed the Rat Pack.

Starting in 1965, Martin was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show, which centered on Martin's singing and comedic talents and was characterized by his relaxed, easy-going demeanor. From 1974 to 1984, he was roastmaster on the popular Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, which drew notable celebrities, comedians and politicians.

Throughout his career, Martin performed in concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings and appeared in 85 film and television productions. His relaxed, warbling, crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles, including his signature songs "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" and "Volare".

Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Man it doesn't show signs of stoppin'
And I brought me some corn for poppin'
The lights are turned way down low
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
When we finally kiss good-night
How I'll hate going out in the storm
But if you really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm
And the fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still good-bye-ing
But as long as you love me so
Let it snow, let it snow, and snow
When we finally kiss good-night
How I'll hate going out in the storm
But if you really grab me tight
All the way home I'll be warm
Oh the fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still good-bye-ing
But as long as you love me so
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Whitney Houston - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Arista Records 2003)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-10 | "The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. She was certified as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced several African-American female artists.

Houston began singing in church as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, she signed to the label at age 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. She is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, from "Saving All My Love for You" in 1985 to "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" in 1988.

Houston's third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles; "I'm Your Baby Tonight", and "All the Man That I Need" and was certified quintuple platinum by RIAA. Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992). She recorded six songs for the film's soundtrack, including "I Will Always Love You", which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling physical single by a female in music history. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the best-selling soundtrack album of all time. Houston starred and recorded soundtracks for two other high-profile films, Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), with the latter's soundtrack being the best-selling gospel album of all time.

Following the critical and commercial success of My Love Is Your Love (1998), Houston renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million. However, her personal struggles began overshadowing her career, and the album Just Whitney (2002) received mixed reviews. Her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage. After a six-year break from recording, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final studio album, I Look to You (2009). On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight, my Lord
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas right now
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, have yourself a merry Christmas now
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on, our troubles will be miles away
Ooh, here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough, ooh, oh
And have yourself, let your heart be light, ooh
Have yourself, put your troubles out of sight, ooh
Just have yourself a merry little Christmas now
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Have yourself a merry Christmas, a merry merry Christmas
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, ooh
Have yourself a merry Christmas, merry little Christmas
Have your self, have yourself, a merry little Christmas
Have your self, have yourself, a merry Christmas now
Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Whitney Houston - The Christmas Song (Arista Records 2003)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-10 | "The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé.

According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. In an effort to "stay cool by thinking cool", the most-performed (according to BMI) Christmas song was born. "I saw a spiral pad on his (Wells') 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. I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics."

The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song early in 1946. At Cole's behest – and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records – a second recording was made later the same year utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole again recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, and once more in 1961, in a stereophonic version with orchestra conducted by Ralph Carmichael. Cole's 1961 version is generally regarded as definitive, and in 2004 was the most-loved seasonal song with women aged 30–49, while the original 1946 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. She was certified as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced several African-American female artists.

Houston began singing in church as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, she signed to the label at age 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. She is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, from "Saving All My Love for You" in 1985 to "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" in 1988.

Houston's third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles; "I'm Your Baby Tonight", and "All the Man That I Need" and was certified quintuple platinum by RIAA. Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992). She recorded six songs for the film's soundtrack, including "I Will Always Love You", which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling physical single by a female in music history. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the best-selling soundtrack album of all time. Houston starred and recorded soundtracks for two other high-profile films, Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), with the latter's soundtrack being the best-selling gospel album of all time.

Following the critical and commercial success of My Love Is Your Love (1998), Houston renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million. However, her personal struggles began overshadowing her career, and the album Just Whitney (2002) received mixed reviews. Her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage. After a six-year break from recording, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final studio album, I Look to You (2009). On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire (well)
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos

Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe (well)
Help to make the season bright
Tiny little tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight

You now that, you know that, you know that Santa's on his way
He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh
Everybody's mother's child is going to spy
To see if reindeer's really know how to fly

And so I'm offering this simple phrase
From kids from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said many times, many ways
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
Merry Christmas to
To all of you
Merry Christmas to everyone

Dean Martin - The Christmas Blues (Capitol Records 1953)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-09 | "The Christmas Blues" is a song by Sammy Cahn and David Heit.

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, recording artist and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance.

Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin & Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio, television and in films. Following an acrimonious ending of the partnership in 1956, Martin pursued a solo career as a performer and actor.

Martin established himself as a notable singer, recording numerous contemporary songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook. He became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together formed the Rat Pack.

Starting in 1965, Martin was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show, which centered on Martin's singing and comedic talents and was characterized by his relaxed, easy-going demeanor. From 1974 to 1984, he was roastmaster on the popular Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, which drew notable celebrities, comedians and politicians.

Throughout his career, Martin performed in concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings and appeared in 85 film and television productions. His relaxed, warbling, crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles, including his signature songs "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" and "Volare".

The jingle bells are jingling
The streets are white with snow
The happy crowds are mingling
But there's no one that I know

I'm sure that you'll forgive me
If I don't enthuse
I guess I've got the Christmas blues

I've done my window shopping
There's not a store I've missed
But what's the use of stopping
When there's no one on your list
You'll know the way I'm feeling
When you love and you lose
I guess I've got the Christmas blues

When somebody wants you
Somebody needs you
Christmas is a joy of joy
But friends when you're lonely
You'll find that it's only
A thing for little girls and little boys

May all your days be merry
Your seasons full of cheer
But 'til it's January
I'll just go and disappear
Oh Santa may have brought you some stars for your shoes
But Santa only brought me the blues
Those brightly packaged tinsel covered Christmas blues

Oh Santa may have brought you some stars for your shoes
But Santa only brought me the blues
Those brightly packaged tinsel covered Christmas blues

Peggy Lee - Happy Holiday (Capitol Records 1965)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-09 | "Happy Holiday" (sometimes performed as "Happy Holidays") is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1941. The song was first performed by Bing Crosby for the 1942 film Holiday Inn. While it is often regarded as a Christmas song, in the movie it is performed on New Year's Eve, and expresses a wish for the listener to enjoy "happy holidays" throughout the entire year. The titular phrase is now most commonly associated with inclusive holiday greetings for the period around Christmas and the New Year.

Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music.

Happy holiday, happy holiday
While the merry bells keep ringing
May your every wish come true

Happy holiday, happy holiday
May the calendar keep bringing
Happy holidays to you

Seeing old friends, oh, the fun of it all
At holiday time, holiday time
Presents and goodies and everything fine
At holiday time, holiday time

Happy holiday, oh, happy holiday
While the merry bells keep ringing
May your every wish come true

Happy holiday, happy holiday
May the calendar keep bringing
Happy holidays to you

Merry Christmas
Happy holiday, happy holiday

Rosemary Clooney - Snow (Columbia Records 1954)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-09 | "Snow" is a song by Guy Davis, Mark Olsen, & Mike Williamson.

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me", "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There" and "This Ole House". She also had success as a jazz vocalist. Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. She continued recording until her death in 2002.

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski
Through the snow-oh-oh-oh-oh

Those glist'ning houses that seem to be built of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow

What is Christmas with no snow
No white Christmas with no snow
Snow

I'll soon be there with snow
I'll wash my hair with snow
And with a spade of snow
I'll build a man that's made of snow
I'd love to stay up with you but I recommend a little shuteye
Go to sleep
And dream
Of snow

Doris Day - The Christmas Waltz (Columbia Records 1964)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-09 | "The Christmas Waltz" is a Christmas song written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne for Frank Sinatra, who recorded it in 1954 as the B-side of a new recording of "White Christmas", in 1957 for his album A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra, and in 1968 for The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Cahn recalls, "One day during a very hot spell in Los Angeles the phone rang and it was Jule Styne to say, 'Frank wants a Christmas song.'" Cahn resisted. "Jule, we're not going to write any Christmas song. After Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas'? The idea's just ridiculous." Styne was emphatic, however. "'Frank wants a Christmas song.'"

The two met in Styne's apartment to begin work on the project, and Cahn asked the composer, "'Hey, Jule, has there ever been a Christmas waltz?' He said no. I said, 'Play that waltz of yours.' He did so, and Cahn began work on the lyrics of "The Christmas Waltz", which many other artists have also recorded.

Referring to the line that goes, "And this song of mine, in three-quarter time," Cahn writes, "You'll notice there's an impure rhyme in that lyric, 'mine' and 'time'." He notes that another of his collaborators, Jimmy Van Heusen, would not have let him get away with such an imperfection but that Styne was not quite so rigid.

For what would become the B-side of "White Christmas", Sinatra first recorded "The Christmas Waltz" with a chorus as well as an arrangement by Nelson Riddle on August 23, 1954. On July 16, 1957, Gordon Jenkins took over the arranging, and The Ralph Brewster Singers provided backing vocal on the recording for A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra. On August 12, 1968, Riddle again provided arrangements, but it was The Jimmy Joyce Singers who lent their voices to the recording for The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas.

In 1992 Mel Tormé made a recording of the song for his first-ever Christmas album, for which the liner notes indicate that "Mr. Cahn wrote a new full set of additional lyrics as a personal gift to Mel."

There was not a version of the song that reached any of the various charts in Billboard magazine, however, until the 2003 holiday season when Harry Connick, Jr. reached number 26 with it on the Adult Contemporary chart during a two-week stay that began in the issue dated January 3, 2004.

Doris Day (born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" with Les Brown & His Band of Renown. She left Brown to embark on a solo career and recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967.

Frosted window panes
Candles gleaming inside
Painted candy canes on the tree
Santa's on his way
He's filled his sleigh
With things, things for you and for me
It's that time of year
When the world falls in love
Every song you hear seems to say
Merry Christmas
May your New Year dreams come true
And this song of mine in three quarter time
Wishes you and yours the same thing too
It's that time of year
When the world falls in love
Every song you hear seems to say
Merry Christmas
May your New Year dreams come true
And this song of mine in three quarter time
Wishes you and yours the same thing too

Lester Lanin - Dance of the Sugar Plum Faries (Epic Records 1959)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-08 | The "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" is a dance for a ballerina. It is the third movement in The Nutcracker pas de deux. This pas de deux is from Act 2 of the 1892 ballet The Nutcracker op.71. It is danced by the principal female dancer. The number was choreographed by Lev Ivanov to music written by Tchaikovsky.

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Stevie Nicks - Silent Night (A&M Records 1987)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-06 | "Silent Night" (German: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht") is a popular Christmas carol. The original lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" were written in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, by the priest Father Joseph Mohr and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz Xaver Gruber. In 1859, John Freeman Young (second Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Florida) published the English translation that is most frequently sung today. The version of the melody that is generally sung today differs slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time, as opposed to the slow, meditative lullaby version generally sung today. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

Stephanie Lynn Nicks is an American singer and songwriter known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. She is known for her distinctive voice, mystical stage persona and poetic, symbolic lyrics.

Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 along with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, was the best-selling album of the year of its release and to date has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. The album remained at number one on the American albums chart for 31 weeks and reached number one in other countries. The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. It produced four U.S. Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles, with Nicks' "Dreams" being the band's only Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit.

In 1981, while remaining a member of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks began her solo career, releasing the studio album Bella Donna, which topped the Billboard 200 and has reached multiplatinum status. She has released eight solo studio albums.

Nicks was named one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone. She is the only woman to have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and as a solo artist in 2019. She has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations and two American Music Award nominations as a solo artist. She has won numerous awards with Fleetwood Mac, including a Grammy Award and five Grammy Award nominations.

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round your Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia
Christ, the Savior is born
Christ, the Savior is born

Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker Suite, Op 71a: No 2a, March of the Toy Soldiers

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-05 | The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King".

Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker. The ballet's score has been used in several film adaptations of Hoffmann's story.

Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. He was honored in 1884 by Tsar Alexander III and awarded a lifetime pension.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching that he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his professional relationship was mixed.

Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From that reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music, which seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. That resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the country's national identity, an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky's career.

Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother's early death; the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein; and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck, who was his patron even though they never actually met each other. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor though some musicologists now downplay its importance.

While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky's music as "lacking in elevated thought" and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles.

On 16/28 October 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. While Tchaikovsky's death has traditionally been attributed to cholera from drinking unboiled water at a local restaurant, there has been much speculation that his death was suicide. In the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Roland John Wiley wrote that "The polemics over [Tchaikovsky's] death have reached an impasse ... Rumors attached to the famous die hard ... As for illness, problems of evidence offer little hope of satisfactory resolution: the state of diagnosis; the confusion of witnesses; disregard of long-term effects of smoking and alcohol. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out".

Percy Faith & His Orchestra - We Need A Little Christmas (Columbia Records 1966)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-04 | "We Need a Little Christmas" is a popular Christmas song originating from Jerry Herman's Broadway musical, Mame, and first performed by Angela Lansbury in that 1966 production. In the musical, the song is performed after Mame has lost her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and decides that she, her young nephew Patrick, and her two household servants "need a little Christmas now" to cheer them up. The original lyrics include the line, "But, Auntie Mame, it's one week past Thanksgiving Day now!" Since the time the song was written the phenomenon of Christmas creep has led to the normal holiday season beginning much earlier than it once did, which has led to more recent recordings changing the line to, "But, Auntie Mame, it's one week from Thanksgiving Day now!"

Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizing the "easy listening" or "mood music" format. Faith became a staple of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into the 1960s. Though his professional orchestra-leading career began at the height of the swing era, Faith refined and rethought orchestration techniques, including use of large string sections, to soften and fill out the brass-dominated popular music of the 1940s.

Haul out the holly
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again
Fill up the stocking
We may be rushing things but deck the halls again now
For we need a little Christmas right this very minute
Candles in the window, carols at the spinet

Yes we need a little Christmas right this very minute
It hasn't snowed a single flurry; oh, Santa dear, we're in a hurry
Climb down the chimney
Hang up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen
Slice up the fruit cake
It's time we hung some tinsel on the evergreen bough
For we need a little music, need a little laughter
Need a little singing ringing in the rafters
And we need a little something, happy ever after

We need a little Christmas now
Oh, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute
Candles in the window, carols at the spinet
Yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute
We need a little Christmas now

Gayla Peevey - I Want A Hippopatamus For Christmas (Columbia Records 1953)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-03 | "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" is a Christmas novelty song written by John Rox (1902–1957) and performed by Gayla Peevey (10 years old at the time) in 1953. The song peaked at number 24 on Billboard magazine's pop chart in December 1953.

Gayla Rienette Peevey is a former singer and child star from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, in 1948. She is best known for her recording, under her maiden name Gayla Peevey, of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (Columbia 4-40106, 1953). Peevey recorded the novelty song when she was 10 years old.

In 1960, under the name Jamie Horton, she had a minor hit with the song "Robot Man", a Connie Francis cover. Peevey graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Education degree. She eventually left teaching and owned her own advertising firm for 15 years. She is married to Cliff Henderson. They have a daughter, Sydney Forest, and 3 grandchildren.

The Oklahoma City Zoo capitalized upon the popularity of "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" with a fundraising campaign to "buy a hippo for Gayla". The fund raised $3,000 (equivalent to US$28,668 in 2019), and a baby hippopotamus named Matilda was purchased and given to Peevey which she then donated to the zoo in 1953. Matilda spent 45 years in the Oklahoma City Zoo, and then died at age 47 from a heart attack in 1998 while being transferred to the Walt Disney World's Disney's Animal Kingdom, in Orlando, Florida.

Alternative-rock band Ween released a reworking of "Are My Ears On Straight" titled "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight" on their 1997 album The Mollusk.

In addition to being a singer, Henderson is also a songwriter, penning several of her Joy Records (New York) singles, including My Little Marine, Just Say So, We're Through – We're Finished, When It Comes To Love, Yes, I'll Be Your Girl and Dear Jane.

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
Don't want a doll, no dinky tinkertoy
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won't have to use our dirty chimney flue
Just bring him through the front door
That's the easy thing to do

I can see me now on Christmas morning
Creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise
When I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too

Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then
Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian

There's lots of room for him in our two-car garage
I'd feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage

I can see me now on Christmas morning
Creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise
When I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too

Perry Como - Do You Hear What I Hear? (RCA Victor Records 1968)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-02 | "Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker. The pair were married at the time, and wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists.

Noel Regney wrote the lyrics for the song, while Gloria Shayne composed the Christmas carol's music in October 1962. This was an unusual arrangement for the two writers. Usually it was Shayne who wrote the lyrics for their songs while Regney composed the music, as they did when they wrote a song based on the classic children's song "Rain Rain Go Away".

Regney was inspired to write the lyrics "Said the night wind to the little lamb, 'Do you see what I see?'" and "Pray for peace, people everywhere", after watching babies being pushed in strollers on the sidewalks of New York City. Shayne stated in an interview years later that neither could personally perform the entire song at the time they wrote it because of the emotions surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. "Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time."

The song describes how word of the birth of the baby Jesus is relayed to higher upon ever, higher authority. The message originates with the Night Wind, which whispers it to a small lamb. The lamb reports the message to his shepherd boy, who in turn conveys the news to the king. The king eventually spreads the message to the "people everywhere". In each verse, the message is slightly modified, in a similar fashion to the game of Telephone.

The song diverges from the Biblical account in one particular. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great (king at the time), far from welcoming news of the child's birth, ordered Jesus killed, forcing Jesus, his mother Mary, and Joseph to flee. At the same time, it is never specified in the lyrics that Herod is meant to be the king in question, nor that the events are necessarily taking place in Judea. Also, it is never stated that the shepherds saw a star, only the magi.

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" was released shortly after Thanksgiving in 1962. The song was originally recorded by the Harry Simeone Chorale, a group which had also popularized "The Little Drummer Boy". It went on to sell more than a quarter-million copies during the 1962 Christmas holiday season.

Bing Crosby made the song into a hit when he recorded his own version of it on October 21, 1963, with the record being released as a single on October 26. Crosby also performed the song on a Bob Hope Christmas television special on December 13 of that year. Over the years, Crosby's recording of the song has been widely played on the radio. It is perhaps the most often-heard version of the song.

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como ( May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943.

He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multi-media star Bing Crosby.

"Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all."

Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see? (do you see what I see?)
Way up in the sky, little lamb
Do you see what I see (do you see what I see?)
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite!
Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear? (do you hear what I hear?)
Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,
Do you hear what I hear? (do you hear what I hear?)
A song, a song, high above the tree
With a voice as big as the sea
With a voice as big as the sea!
Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king
Do you know what I know? (do you know what I know?)
In your palace warm, mighty king
Do you know what I know? (do you know what I know?)
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold
Let us bring Him silver and gold
Let us bring Him silver and gold!
Said the king to the people everywhere (said the king to the people everywhere!)
Listen to what I say (listen to what I say!)
Pray for peace, people everywhere (pray for peace, people everywhere!)
Listen to what I say (listen to what I say!)
The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light!
Do you hear what I hear? (do you hear what I hear?)
Do you hear what I hear? (do you hear what I hear?)
Do you hear what I hear? (do you hear what I hear?)

Peggy Lee - Its Christmas Time Again (Decca Records 1953)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-12-01 | "It's Christmas Time Again" is a song written by Sonny Burke, Jack Elliott, and James Harwood. It was first recorded by Peggy Lee.

Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music.

Snowflakes fallin', church bells callin'
It's Christmas time again
Fires lighted, kids excited
It's Christmas time again

Now Santa's sleigh is on its way, with candy canes and toys
And wonderful things that Santa Claus brings
To good little girls and boys

Candle glow and mistletoe
It's Christmas time again
Stockings hung and carols sung
It's Christmas time again
There's the tree to trim
Our glasses brim with love and joy and cheer
To all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year

There's the tree to trim
Our glasses brim with love and joy and cheer
To all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year
To all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year

Harry Belafonte - I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (RCA Victor 1958)

ChristmasTimeTV 2020-11-30 | "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator's despair, upon hearing Christmas bells during the American Civil War, that "hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men". The carol concludes with the bells carrying renewed hope for peace among men.

In 1861, two years before writing this poem, Longfellow's personal peace was shaken when his second wife of 18 years, to whom he was very devoted, was fatally burned in an accidental fire. Then in 1863, during the American Civil War, Longfellow's oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, joined the Union Army without his father's blessing. Longfellow was informed by a letter dated March 14, 1863, after Charles had left. "I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer", he wrote. "I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good." Charles was soon appointed as a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded in the Battle of Mine Run. Charles eventually recovered, but his time as a soldier was finished.

Longfellow wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1863. "Christmas Bells" was first published in February 1865, in Our Young Folks, a juvenile magazine published by Ticknor and Fields. References to the Civil War are prevalent in some of the verses that are not commonly sung. The refrain "peace on Earth, goodwill to men" is a reference to the King James Version of Luke 2:14.

It was not until 1872 that the poem is known to have been set to music. The English organist, John Baptiste Calkin, used the poem in a processional accompanied with a melody "Waltham" that he previously used as early as 1848. The Calkin version of the carol was long the standard. Less commonly, the poem has also been set to Joseph Mainzer's 1845 composition "Mainzer". Since at least the middle of the 20th century, the poem has been set to other musical arrangements, most notably in 1956 by Johnny Marks.

Bing Crosby recorded the song on October 3, 1956, using Marks's melody. It was released as a single and reached No. 55 in the Music Vendor survey. The record was praised by both Billboard and Variety. "Bing Crosby's workover of 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' looks like a big one for the '56 Yule and a hit potential of enduring value." "At deadline time, not many of this year's Christmas issues had shown much action. This new Crosby record, however, was off to a promising start. As fast as it is catching on early in the month, it is easy to project the impressive volume it will rack up the last half of December." Marks's tune has since received more than 60 commercial recordings, with total sales exceeding 5 million copies.

To Wish You a Merry Christmas is an album by Harry Belafonte Recorded May 27, 31, June 1, 3 and 8 of 1958 in Hollywood. Conducted by Bob Corman. Millard Thomas and Laurindo Almeida, guitarists. Produced and directed by Ed Welker.

Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is a Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Trinidadian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is known for his recording of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, including Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar Carols play
And wide and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth good will to man

I thought as now this day had come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rung so long the unbroken song
Of peace on earth good will to man

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and marks the song
Of peace on earth good will to man

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead nor does he sleep
The wrong shall fail the right prevail
With peace on earth good will to man

The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride (Philles Records 1963)

ChristmasTimeTV 2019-12-18 | "Sleigh Ride" is a popular light orchestra standard composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946 and finished the work in February 1948. The original recordings were instrumental versions. The lyrics, about riding in a sleigh and other fun wintertime activities, were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950.

The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. "Sleigh Ride" was a hit record on RCA Victor Red Seal 49-0515 (45 rpm) / 10-1484 (78 rpm), and has become one of the orchestra's signature songs. The 45 rpm version was originally issued on red vinyl. The Pops have also recorded the song with John Williams, their conductor from 1979 to 1995, and Keith Lockhart, their current conductor.

All three Ronettes, along with every other artist who was signed with Phil Spector in 1963, were featured on the Christmas LP A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. For this album, the Ronettes recorded three songs: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Sleigh Ride". All artists sang on the album's finale, "Silent Night", which opened with a spoken message from Phil Spector, wishing a Merry Christmas and thanking everyone for supporting the cooperative artists.

In his desire for absolute perfection on the album, Spector pushed his artists to belt out their lyrics as powerfully as they could. "The Christmas album was the one where I'd thought I'd lost it mentally." Nedra later said. "I heard the parts. I swore I'd put them down, but they said it wasn't on the tape."

The album was released on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. It was not a success upon its initial release but has since become considerably more popular. It was re-released by Apple Records in 1972 and reached No. 6 on Billboard′s list of Christmas Albums that year.

The Ronettes were an American girl group from New York City. One of the most popular groups of the 1960s, they placed nine songs on the Billboard Hot 100, five of which became Top 40 hits. The trio from Spanish Harlem, New York, consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. Among the Ronettes' most famous songs are "Be My Baby", "Baby, I Love You", "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up", and "Walking in the Rain", all of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. "Walking in the Rain" won a Grammy Award in 1965, and "Be My Baby" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

The girls had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as "The Darling Sisters". Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector's Philles Records in March 1963 and changed their name to "The Ronettes". In late 1964, the group released their only studio album, Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica, which entered the Billboard charts at number 96. Rolling Stone ranked it number 422 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.

Leroy Anderson's own 1950 recording of "Sleigh Ride" on Decca 9-16000 (45 rpm) and 16000 (78 rpm) reached Cashbox magazine's bestsellers chart when re-released in 1952. The main melody of "Sleigh Ride" was used (with no credit for Anderson) as the main theme of Victor Young's score for the 1949 western Streets of Laredo. Mitchell Parish worked with Young around this time, writing the lyrics for Young's version of Hoagy Carmichael's previously instrumental "Stardust". In 1950, The Andrews Sisters recorded the first vocal version of "Sleigh Ride", using the lyrics written by Parish.

Although "Sleigh Ride" is often associated with Christmas and appears on Christmas compilation albums, its lyrics mention no holiday.

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) review of Christmas music, "Sleigh Ride" consistently ranks as one of the top 10 most-performed songs written by ASCAP members. ASCAP named "Sleigh Ride" the most popular piece of Christmas music in the U.S. in 2009–2012, based on performance data from over 2,500 radio stations.

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring tingle tingling too
Come on, its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you,
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling Yoo hoo,
Come on, its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy and cozy are we
Were snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be
Lets take the road before us and sing a chorus or two
Come on, its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy and cozy are we
Were snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be
Lets take the road before us and sing a chorus or two
Come on, its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) Philles Records 1963

ChristmasTimeTV 2019-12-17 | "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is a rock song originally sung by Darlene Love and included on the 1963 seasonal compilation album, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. The song was written by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry (Phil Spector also is co-credited) and Love was given a demo of it over phone performed by them. She went on to record the song in studio, which became a big success over time and one of her signature tunes. Love's later song, "All Alone on Christmas", which was used in the 1992 Christmas movie, Home Alone 2, referenced the song.

The song as recorded by Love was released as a single in 1963 (Philles 119) and in 1964 (Philles X-125). But the records did not chart in both years.

In December 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" first on its list of The Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs, noting that "nobody can match Love's emotion and sheer vocal power."

As an example of the track's staying power, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" reached No. 45 on the U.S. Billboard Holiday Airplay chart in 2016. On the week ending 29 December 2018, the track entered the main Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time at No. 50. It then reached its chart peak of No. 43 on the week ending 5 January 2019. On the official UK Singles Chart, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" made its first appearance on the week of 5 January 2017 at No. 74. It entered the same chart again one year later at No. 77, and again on the week of 20 December 2018 at No. 80, eventually reaching its overall chart peak to date of No. 22 two weeks later.

Darlene Wright known by her stage name, Darlene Love, is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a No. 1 American single in 1962, and was one of the artists who performed on the celebrated Christmas album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, produced by Phil Spector in 1963. She is ranked number 84 among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers.

As a minister's daughter, she grew up listening to gospel music and was a dedicated member of her church. She began singing in her church choir at age ten. During choir practice she caught the attention of choir director Cora Martin-Moore. After singing for Martin she was asked to go to the Music Mart where she sang and did some broadcasts; Love's career began there. As it was her first musical experience, it was also the main influence for her to pursue a music career. Those who knew her described her vocals as "a voice of a nightingale." She claimed, "(singing in) the choir was a big influence on my life. I call it my learning ground. Singing in the choir, I learned harmony.

Beginning in 1986 and continuing for 29 years, Darlene Love performed the song annually on the final new episode before Christmas of Late Night with David Letterman (NBC, 1986–92) and Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 1993–2014), 28 times in all. The exception was in 2007, when Love was unable to perform due to the Writers' Strike; a repeat of her 2006 performance was shown instead.

Beginning in 2015, the tradition of Love's annual performance of the song moved to The View (ABC, 2015–present), where it has continued during its last edition before Christmas in the years since. The song has been used in several movies – including during the main titles of Gremlins, in a scene in GoodFellas in which some of the characters spend money from the Lufthansa Heist on lavish gifts, in Christmas with the Kranks, in the 2012 ABC Family TV movie The Mistle-Tones, and most recently in the 2017 Hallmark Channel TV movie Christmas Getaway. On the December 17, 2011 holiday episode of Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon sang a version of the song with lyrics reflecting upon his past experiences with the show.

The snow's coming down
(Christmas)
I'm watching it fall
(Christmas)
Lots of people around
(Christmas)
Baby please come home
The church bells in town
(Christmas)
All ringing in song
(Christmas)
Full of happy sounds
(Christmas)
Baby please come home
They're singing "Deck The Halls"
But it's not like Christmas at all
'Cause I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year
Pretty lights on the tree
(Christmas)
I'm watching them shine
(Christmas)
You should be here with me
(Christmas)
Baby please come home
They're singing "Deck The Halls"
But it's not like Christmas at all
'Cause I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year
If there was a way
(Christmas)
I'd hold back this tear
(Christmas)
But it's Christmas day
Please, please, please, please
Please, please, please, please
Please, please, please, please
Please, please
Baby, please come home
(Christmas)
Baby, please come home
(Christmas)
Baby, please come home
(Christmas)
Baby, please come home
(Christmas)
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
(Christmas)
(Christmas)
Please come home
(Christmas)

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Tamla Records 1970)

ChristmasTimeTV 2019-12-09 | God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (also known as God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen) is an English traditional Christmas carol. The melody is in Aeolian mode. It was published by William B. Sandys in 1833, although the author is unknown. Like so many early Christmas songs, this carol was written as a direct reaction to the music of the fifteenth century church, in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas. However, in the as-yet earliest known publication of the carol on a circa 1760 broadsheet, it is described as a "new Christmas carol," suggesting its origin is actually in the mid-18th century. It appeared again among "new carols for Christmas" in another 18th-century source, a chapbook believed to be printed between 1780-1800.

The Miracles (also known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American rhythm and blues vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and influential groups in pop, rock and roll, and R&B music history. Formed in 1955 by Smokey Robinson, Warren "Pete" Moore, and Ronnie White, the group started off as the Five Chimes, changing their name to the Matadors two years later. The group then settled on the Miracles after the inclusion of Claudette Robinson in 1958. The most notable Miracles line-up included the Robinsons, Moore, White, Bobby Rogers and Marv Tarplin. After a failed audition with Brunswick Records, the group began working with songwriter Berry Gordy, who helped to produce their first records for the End and Chess labels before establishing Tamla Records in 1959 and signing the Miracles as its first act. The group eventually scored the label's first million-selling hit record with the 1960 Grammy Hall of Fame smash, "Shop Around", and further established themselves as one of Motown's top acts with the hit singles "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", "What's So Good About Goodbye", "Way Over There", "I'll Try Something New", "Mickey's Monkey", "Going to a Go-Go", "(Come 'Round Here) I'm the One You Need", "Just A Mirage", "If You Can Want", "More Love", "I Don't Blame You at All", "Ooo Baby Baby", the multi-award-winning "The Tracks of My Tears","My Girl Has Gone' "Special Occasion", "I Second That Emotion", "Baby Baby Don't Cry", the number-one Pop smashes "The Tears of a Clown" and "Love Machine", "Do It Baby", and "That's What Love Is Made Of", among numerous other hits.

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
From God our heavenly father
A blessed angel came
And unto certain shepherds
Brought tidings of the same
How that in Bethlehem was born
The son of God by name
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
How light in Bethlehem was born
A blessed baby boy
O tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
On Christmas day

Eartha Kitt - (This Years) Santa Baby (RCA Victor Records 1954)

ChristmasTimeTV 2019-08-04 | "Santa Baby" is a 1953 Christmas song written by Joan Javits (the niece of Senator Jacob K. Javits) and Philip Springer. Although Tony Springer is listed as co-writer, he was a legal fiction created for purposes of membership in the performing rights organization BMI. The song is a tongue-in-cheek look at a Christmas list sung by a woman who wants extravagant gifts such as sables, yachts, and decorations from Tiffany's. "Santa Baby" was originally recorded by Eartha Kitt with Henri René and his orchestra in New York City on October 6, 1953. The song was a huge hit for Kitt, and she later said that it was one of her favorite songs to record; she reprised it in the 1954 film New Faces. Kitt also reprised the original song in a 1963 re-recording for Kapp Records. In 1954, Eartha Kitt recorded a new version of the song with new lyrics titled "This Year's Santa Baby", to no commercial success. Writers listed did not change. The song was featured in the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy.

Santa Baby, I must admit that you were a dear last year
But December is here
Santa Baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight
Santa Baby, that Cadillac is falling apart, won't start
A private plane would be smart
Santa Baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Though the yacht was rather sheik
Now it's really shot
Last week it sprang a leak
And so please, now, hold your breath
Buy me the Queen Elizabeth

Santa Baby, that sable's really not in the pink
Just think, how I'd look in white mink
Santa Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight
Santa Darlin, I need some land so please be my host
To most of the Florida coast
Santa Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa Cutie, and please help out my pet charity
You see, Naturally that's me
Santa Cutie, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Bring a nice big Christmas box
Filled with plain old ordinary common stocks
And please trim up my tree this Yule
With one large pear shaped swimming pool

Santa Baby, for every little trinket you give
I live, be appreciative
Santa Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight
There's only 365 days till Christmas...

Johnny Mathis - White Christmas (Columbia Records 1958)

ChristmasTimeTV 2018-12-18 | "White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time. Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, poolside at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"

Merry Christmas is the seventh album and first Christmas album by Johnny Mathis. Released in 1958 by Columbia Records (CL 1195/CS 8021), it was also the sixth original studio album by Mathis.

The album ranks highly among the many holiday albums released throughout the years due to its skillful blend of traditional Christmas carols ("Silent Night, Holy Night", "O Holy Night" and "The First Noel") with popular Christmas songs ("The Christmas Song", "White Christmas" and "Silver Bells"). As with a number of Mathis's previous albums, Percy Faith provided the album's musical direction.

In the first flush of his success, Mathis offered a safe popular music alternative to rock 'n' roll rebelliousness of Elvis Presley, also in the first flush of his success and born in the same year as Mathis. On this album, Mathis tries his hand at a Christmas song associated with Presley, "Blue Christmas".

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white