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" 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 [note 1] by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song in June 1946.
Dec 25, 2017 · NPR's Noel King spoke with Mel Tormé's youngest son, James — an accomplished jazz singer himself — to get the story behind the creation of this Christmas classic.
- Phil Harrell
- A Touch of Bitters – Some Minor Chords
- A Stirring Melody
- A Story from The Past
- Finally… Sleigh Bells
But it’s Christmas, the season of joy, we hear you cry. And caramel tastes even better with a sprinkling of salt. The point is, sprinkling minor and diminished chords through a song or piece that’s otherwise in a major key – or even changing key to a minor key for a section – only enhances that warm Christmas fuzzy feeling (to be technical about it...
Let’s go all the way back to Tchaikovskyfor this. Because he is the original and best master of Christmas music. Let’s take his Nutcrackerballet – a work that’s set at Christmas and is performed every winter around the world. We’ll take the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ as our example. (But really you could stick a pin in any part of The Nutcrackerand fin...
Christmas is 90 per cent nostalgia, so if your Christmas tune can hint at past times, broken hearts (oh hi there Wham!) but a determined optimism for the times ahead – all the better. Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’ ticks this box and then some. It was written in the 1940s and become a massive hit in a recording with Bing Crosby. It’s since been ...
This is crucial. In fact, if you don’t include sleigh bells you’ve failed to write a Christmas hit. And for our example we’re returning to Russia. It’s Prokofiev’s Troika. The piece was originally written as music for a film called Lieutenant Kijé. But the key thing here is that this is essentially a concerto for sleigh bells. Listen to this and we...
Dec 21, 2022 · The most obvious aspect of what makes a Christmas song is, of course, its lyrics — and Bennett found that the words used in these songs fit broadly into eight key themes including “home,” “in love,” “party,” “Santa” and “snow.”
Dec 13, 2021 · Analysis: the science behind Christmas songs involves nostalgia, neural pathways, sleigh bells and, yes, Michael Bublé. It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas, everywhere...
- Declan Mckenna
Dec 19, 2023 · Many of the songs played throughout December to spark holiday cheer actually have some depressing origin stories
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Dec 25, 2023 · Yuletide classics by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Paul McCartney… the best Christmas songs of all time are the gifts that keep on giving.
