‘The Christmas Song’: Nat ‘King’ Cole’s Enduring Festive Classic
Though synonymous with Yuletide, this much-acclaimed standard was inspired by one of the hottest summers on record.
The song that for many people best encapsulates the spirit of the holiday season, Nat ‘King’ Cole’s “The Christmas Song” is pretty much synonymous with Yuletide. Yet, remarkably, this winter classic was written at the height of the summer – and inspired by a heatwave.
“The Christmas Song” was penned by respected singer-songwriters Mel Torme and Bob Wells, with the latter responding directly to the exceptionally hot summer of 1945. Incredibly, the two musicians wrote it in little more than an hour. Torme went to visit Wells at his home, only to discover he was nowhere to be seen. Wells had, however, jotted down some lyric ideas on a spiral notepad before he left – including the lines about “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and “Jack Frost nipping at your nose,” which are instantly recognizable to anyone who knows and loves “The Christmas Song.”
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On returning, Wells told Torme he had gone out in a bid to escape the all-pervasive heat – spending time in his pool and slugging down cold drinks. Before leaving, he’d written down the wintery images as a form of reverse psychology to overcome the hot weather. As Mel Torme’s son, James, explained in a 2017 interview, this made total sense to Wells’ writing partner. “My dad sort of looked at Bob, looked back at the spiral pad and looked back at Wells and said ‘I think there’s something in that’,” Torme said. “And about 45 minutes later – no more than that – the song was born.”
Despite its quick creation, “The Christmas Song”s journey to prominence took considerably longer. Torme and Wells felt it would be perfect for Nat ‘King’ Cole. The superstar singer loved the song, and ended up recording it in four different settings. Credited to the Nat ‘King’ Cole Trio, the first recording of “The Christmas Song” from June 1946 was relatively sparse and led by Cole’s piano.
Cole soon requested a new version be recorded featuring a small string section in New York just two months later. This second recording became a hit on Billboard’s Pop and R&B charts, but Cole still wasn’t entirely satisfied with the results. He recorded “The Christmas Song” again in 1953, using the same arrangement, but with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, and once more in 1961, in a stereophonic version with another full orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. The 1961 recording is the one that people hear most often these days. It was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the prestigious United States National Recording Registry.
Ultimately, though, all four of Nat ‘King Cole’s sublime recordings of “The Christmas Song” still warm hearts – and inspire today’s iconic artists too. One is John Legend, who recorded “The Christmas Song” for his own Grammy-nominated A Legendary Christmas – and he certainly believes “The Christmas Song” is the greatest festive song of them all. “It’s impossible for me to think about Christmas without thinking about Nat ‘King’ Cole,” he said in a 2018 YouTube interview. “He made some of the most important holiday music – and music of any type in the history of this world.”
