According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. In the very last paragraph it states that “He died from cancer in 1998” and then again he dies from “complications of a stroke in 1999.” The only reason I would ever critique someone else’s work is for validation of my own research as I am a student researching the history and story behind this wonderful song. Happy Holidays everyone. It opened the door for Lou Rawls, Ray Charles and many others to record their own takes on yuletide classics.Tormé and Wells penned over 200 more songs together, including standards “Born to Be Blue” and “Magic Town.” Beyond his songwriting, Wells went on to have a successful career as an Emmy-winning television producer and writer. The opening line alone is one of the most recognizable moments in the huge canon of seasonal music.It wasn’t mentioned at the time, but Cole’s version of “The Christmas Song” was the first holiday standard ever introduced by a black American. The only thing I was confused by in the reading was the actual date of death. Christmas song written and composed by Mel Tormé (music) and Bob Wells (words)This article is about the song by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé. First record issue. According to Tormé, the song was written during a blistering hot summer. One of the bounciest Christmas numbers, Cahn (born Samuel Cohen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Galician Jews Abraham and Elka Cohen), also said he wrote the song … Excitedly, we called Carlos Gastel [manager of Nat Cole and Peggy Lee], sped into Hollywood, played it for him, then for [lyricist] Johnny Burke, and then for Nat Cole, who fell in love with the tune. Capitol Records released it again in December of 1960 as part of Cole's Christmas album The Magic of Christmas. It was the song's first Fourth recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, New York City, March 30, 1961. Cole recorded another version (this time in stereo) in 1961, and this one was issued as a single in 1962, making #65 in the US. Though in later life Tormé was best known for his lounge-lizard character on TV’s If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.The lyrics for the x christmas song was mainly written by Bob Wells the song took 45 minutes to completeJust like so many other folks, my very all time favorite Christmas song. Mel is great!I really enjoyed reading the article that you have put together here. The first of these was said to be by Mel Tormé himself made several recordings of the song, including versions released in 1955 (on his live The 1970 Columbia version of the song adds an opening verse, written in 1963 while Tormé was working as musical arranger for "The Christmas Song" has been covered by numerous artists from a wide variety of genres. I hope to not seem pretentious when pointing what might or might not be a very minor flaw to an otherwise very well done article. Ethel Waters once said that Tormé was “the only white man who sings with the soul of a black man.” And Bing Crosby called him “the most fantastic musical performer I’ve ever seen.” A former child radio actor and vaudeville performer, Tormé had several hits, including “Careless Love” and “Comin’ Home Baby.” But he did much more than sing. Wells grabbed his pad and pen, and the duo was off and running like a bobsled down a snowy hill.As Tormé relates in his autobiography, “Improbable though it may sound, ‘The Christmas Song’ was completed about 45 minutes later. They are all wonderful. “All I could think of was Christmas and cold weather.”The “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” image was a memory from Wells’ childhood in Boston, when there’d be vendors on street corners at Christmas, serving up paper cones full of roasted chestnuts.“I think you might have something here,” Tormé said.Sitting down at the piano, he flashed on a melody idea for the opening lines.
This last version, with his voice at its smokiest, is the one that has become the definitive holiday standard.