''Merry Christmas'' is the first
Christmas album
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of Je ...
by American pop singer
Johnny Mathis
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...
, with accompaniment by arranger/conductor
Percy Faith
Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian–American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of instrumental ballads and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizin ...
and his orchestra. It was released by
on October 6, 1958.
[ The selections are a mix of traditional ]Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a Carol (music), carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas and holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...
s (such as "Silent Night
"Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO
The United Nations Educati ...
", "O Holy Night
"O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a sacred song about the night of the birth of Jesus Christ, described in the first verse as "the dear Saviour", and frequently performed as a Christmas carol. Based on the French-language poem ''Minuit, ch ...
", and "The First Noel
"The First Nowell" (or Nowel), modernised as "The First Noel" (or Noël), is a traditional English Christmas carol with Cornish origins most likely from the early modern period, although possibly earlier.. It is listed as number 682 in the Ro ...
") and 20th-century tunes of the season (including "The Christmas Song
"The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells (songwriter), Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. The Nat K ...
", " White Christmas", and "Silver Bells
"Silver Bells" is a Christmas song composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.
It debuted in the motion picture '' The Lemon Drop Kid'' (1951), where it was started by William Frawley,"The Lemon Drop Kid" in The American Film Institute Catalog of ...
").
The album debuted on ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine's list of the 25 Best-Selling Pop LPs in the US in its December 15, 1958, issue and got as high as number three during its initial four-week run.[.] It made additional appearances there each holiday season from 1959 to 1962 and on the magazine's Christmas Albums and Pop Catalog Albums charts in subsequent years.[ It received Gold certification from the ]Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
for reaching sales of 500,000 copies in the US in December 1960 and in 2013 ranked as one of the top selling Christmas albums of all time with five million copies sold.
Four songs from the album – "Winter Wonderland
"Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himb ...
", " Blue Christmas", " White Christmas", and "Sleigh Ride
"Sleigh Ride" is a Light music, light orchestra Standard (music), standard composed by Leroy Anderson. He formed the idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946, and finished it in February 1948. Its first performance was by the Boston Po ...
" – were also released on the EP ''Merry Christmas, Vol. 1'', which reached number two during the 1958 holiday season and number seven the following year on the magazine's Best-Selling Pop EPs chart.[ "Winter Wonderland" also spent three weeks on the UK singles chart, where his recording peaked at number 17 over the course of three weeks that began on Christmas Day 1958.]Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label that started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. Fontana Distribution, an independent label distributor, takes its name from the label.
History
Fontana began in the 1950s as a subsidi ...
and was later reissued in 1962 with a different cover both there and in the US.[ The original cover was used for compact disc pressings, the first of which was in 1984, and an edition featuring two bonus tracks was released on September 16, 2003.]
Track listing
Side one
#"Winter Wonderland
"Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himb ...
" ( Richard B. Smith, Felix Bernard
Felix William Bernard (April 28, 1897 – October 20, 1944) was an American conductor, pianist and a composer of popular music. His writing credits include the popular songs "Winter Wonderland" (with lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith) and "Dardanel ...
) – 3:19
#"The Christmas Song
"The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells (songwriter), Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. The Nat K ...
" (Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "the Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arrangement, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roa ...
, Robert Wells) – 4:18
#"Sleigh Ride
"Sleigh Ride" is a Light music, light orchestra Standard (music), standard composed by Leroy Anderson. He formed the idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946, and finished it in February 1948. Its first performance was by the Boston Po ...
" (Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson ( ; June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, Light music, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams descri ...
, Mitchell Parish
Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen.
Biography
Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, Russian Empire in July 190 ...
) – 2:58
#" Blue Christmas" (Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson) – 3:02
#"I'll Be Home for Christmas
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed ...
" ( Buck Ram, Kim Gannon
James Kimball "Kim" Gannon (November 18, 1900 – April 29, 1974) was an American songwriter, more commonly a lyricist than a composer.
Biography
Gannon was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Irish-American family from Fort Ann in upstate Ne ...
, Walter Kent
Walter Kent (born Walter Maurice Kaufman, November 29, 1911 – March 2, 1994) was an American composer and conductor. Some notable compositions are: "I'll Be Home for Christmas", "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die" and "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The W ...
) – 4:04
#" White Christmas" from ''Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ...
'' (Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...
) – 3:32
Side two
#"O Holy Night
"O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a sacred song about the night of the birth of Jesus Christ, described in the first verse as "the dear Saviour", and frequently performed as a Christmas carol. Based on the French-language poem ''Minuit, ch ...
" (Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and ''Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas ''Le post ...
) – 4:35
#" What Child Is This? (Greensleeves
"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationers' Company in September 1580,Frank Kidson, ''English F ...
)" (William Chatterton Dix
William Chatterton Dix (14 June 1837 – 9 September 1898) was an English writer of hymns and Carol (music), carols. He was born in Bristol, the son of John Ross Dix, John Dix, a local surgeon, who wrote ''The Life of Chatterton'' the poet, a boo ...
) – 3:58
#"The First Noel
"The First Nowell" (or Nowel), modernised as "The First Noel" (or Noël), is a traditional English Christmas carol with Cornish origins most likely from the early modern period, although possibly earlier.. It is listed as number 682 in the Ro ...
" (Traditional) – 3:49
#"Silver Bells
"Silver Bells" is a Christmas song composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.
It debuted in the motion picture '' The Lemon Drop Kid'' (1951), where it was started by William Frawley,"The Lemon Drop Kid" in The American Film Institute Catalog of ...
" from '' The Lemon Drop Kid'' (Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston (born Jacob Harold Levison; March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer best known as half of a composing-songwriting duo with Ray Evans, with whom he specialized in composing film scores and original soundtrack ...
, Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter best known for being a half of a composing-songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, specializing himself in writing lyrics for film songs. On music Livingston ...
) – 3:34
#"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", sometimes rendered as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", is an 1849 poem and Christmas Carol (music), carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the American Unitarian Association, Unitarian Church in Wayland, M ...
" (Richard Storrs Willis
Richard Storrs Willis (February 10, 1819 – May 10, 1900) was an American composer, mainly of hymn music.
His best known melody is probably the one called, simply, '' Carol''. This is the standard tune, in the United States, though not in Great B ...
, Edmund Sears
Edmund Hamilton Sears (April 6, 1810 – January 14, 1876) was an American Unitarian parish minister and author who wrote a number of theological works influencing 19th-century liberal Protestants. Today, Sears is primarily known as the man ...
) – 3:08
#"Silent Night, Holy Night
"Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. The song was first recorde ...
" ( Franz Xaver Gruber, Joseph Mohr
Josephus Franciscus Mohr, sometimes spelled Josef (11 December 1792 – 4 December 1848) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer, who wrote the words to the Christmas carol "Silent Night."
Early life and education
Mohr was born in S ...
) – 3:51
2003 CD bonus tracks
# "Christmas Eve" (Allyn Ferguson
Allyn Malcolm Ferguson Jr. (October 18, 1924 – June 23, 2010) was an American composer, whose works include the themes for 1970s television programs ''Barney Miller'' and ''Charlie's Angels'' (1976-1981), which he co-wrote with Jack Elliott ( ...
, Sidney Shaw) – 2:56
# " My Kind of Christmas" (Jerry Livingston, Paul Francis Webster) – 3:02
#* above two released as a single on 11/17/61[ ]
Recording dates
Original album
From the liner notes for the 2003 CD release:[
*June 16, 1958– "The Christmas Song", "I'll Be Home for Christmas", "Silver Bells", "White Christmas"
*June 18, 1958– "Blue Christmas", "O Holy Night", "Sleigh Ride", "Winter Wonderland"
*June 20, 1958– "The First Noel", "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", "Silent Night, Holy Night", "What Child Is This? (Greensleeves)"
]
2003 CD bonus tracks
From the liner notes for '' The Complete Christmas Collection 1958-2010'':[(2015) ''The Complete Christmas Collection 1958-2010'' by Johnny Mathis D booklet New York: Sony Music Entertainment RGM-0400.]
*September 11, 1961 – "Christmas Eve", "My Kind of Christmas"
''Billboard'' album chart positions
Personnel
Original album
*Johnny Mathis – vocals; liner notes
*Mitch Miller
Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...
– producer[
*]Al Ham
Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in Malden, Massachusetts — October 4, 2001 in Spring Hill, Florida) was an American composer and jingle writer. He was notable as the composer of the '' Move Closer to Your World'' music package used since the ...
– producer[
*]Percy Faith
Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian–American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of instrumental ballads and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizin ...
– arranger and conductor[(1958) ''Merry Christmas'' by Johnny Mathis lbum jacket New York: Columbia Records CL 1195.]
*Friedman Abeles – photography[
]
2003 CD bonus tracks
* Irving Townsend – producer[
*Percy Faith – arranger and conductor][
]
References
Bibliography
*
{{Authority control
1958 Christmas albums
Christmas albums by American artists
Johnny Mathis albums
Columbia Records Christmas albums
Albums arranged by Percy Faith
Albums conducted by Percy Faith
Albums produced by Al Ham
Albums produced by Mitch Miller
Pop Christmas albums
Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio