“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.

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(Source: Wikipedia)

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