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In 1963, Nat Cole’s 1960 album The Magic of Christmas was re-issued under the title The Christmas Song, with that recording added to the track in place of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, with new cover art added. Music arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.
Album recording audio remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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In 1963, Nat Cole’s 1960 album The Magic of Christmas was re-issued under the title The Christmas Song, with that recording added to the track in place of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, with new cover art added. Music arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.
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Album recording audio remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
‘THE CHRISTMAS SONG NAT KING COLE‘
— ABOUT THIS LP —
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‘The Magic of Christmas’ is a 1960 album by Nat King Cole, arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. This was Cole’s only complete album of Christmas songs, although he had recorded several holiday singles earlier in his career. One of these, “The Christmas Song”, originally recorded in 1946, was re-recorded for the 1961 album The Nat King Cole Story. In 1963 The Magic of Christmas was reissued under the title The Christmas Song, with that recording added to the track list in place of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, and with new cover art. It is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s, and was certified by the RIAA for shipments of 6 million copies in the U.S. The 1963 version reached number 1 on Billboard’s Christmas Albums chart and remained for two weeks.
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(Source: WiKipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
Click on (COMPLETE LP) for the complete track listing on this album.
THE CHRISTMAS SONG NAT KING COLE (COMPLETE LP) * 1963
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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 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song in June 1946. At Cole’s behest – and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records – a second recording was made in August utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole again recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement 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. Cole’s 1961 version is generally regarded as definitive. Fourth recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, New York City, March 30, 1961. This rendition, the first recorded in stereo, is widely played on radio stations during the Christmas season, and has become the most popular/familiar version of this song. Label credit: Nat King Cole (Nat King Cole, vocals; Ralph Carmichael, orchestra conductor). The instrumental arrangement is nearly identical to the 1953 version, but Cole’s vocals are deeper-sounding and more focused. Originally done for The Nat King Cole Story (a 1961 LP devoted to stereo re-recordings of Cole’s earlier hits), this recording was later included in a reissue of Cole’s 1960 holiday album The Magic of Christmas replacing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Retitled The Christmas Song, the album was issued in 1963 as Capitol W-1967 (mono) / SW-1967 (stereo) and today is in print on compact disc.
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(Source: Wikipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
DECEMBER 24 * 02 * NAT KING COLE
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From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1965
Family, Friends, Industry Bids Farewell to a Music Giant
LOS ANGELES – Some 400 friends and relatives of Nat King Cole attended funeral services at St. James Church here (Thursday) (18) in a final tribute to the artist who died of lung cancer Monday (15) at St. John’s Hospital, Santa Monica. Another 3,000 persons waited outside the Episcopal church.
A caravan of limousines brought such celebrities as Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Edie Adams, Gene Barry, Jose Ferrer, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Thomas, Vic Ramone, Sammy Davis, Eddie Rochester) Anderson, Frankie Laine and George Jessel to the church.
When the silver hearse pulled up to the church, pallbearers of the bronze coffin included James Conkling, former president of Warner Bros. Records; Glenn Wallichs, chairman of the board of Capitol Records; Harold Plant, the artist’s business manager, and Henry Miller, his agent.
Jack Benny, who delivered the eulogy, called Cole “a great professional who gave so much and had so much to give.” He added: “Here I stand, a man granted so many years of life, good health, a measure of contentment, delivering a eulogy for a man whose span of life was so short. Nat Cole was an institution, a tremendous success as an entertainer, but an even greater success as a man, husband, father and friend.”
After the funeral services, the procession proceeded to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale for brief interment ceremonies.
Honorary pallbearers included Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Jack Benny, Ricardo Montalban, George Burns, Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Peter Lawford, Edward G. Robinson, Gov. Edmund G. Brown of California, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York and Count Basie. Cole leaves his widow, Mrs.
Maria Cole; a son, Kelly, and four daughters, Timolin and Casey (twins), and Carol and Natalie. He also leaves two brothers, Edward and Fred, and a sister, Evelyn. END
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Information and news source: Billboard; February 27, 1965
THE CHRISTMAS SONG NAT KING COLE (COMPLETE LP) * 1963
—THE CHRISTMAS SONG NAT KING COLE—
The Magic of Christmas is a 1960 album by Nat King Cole, arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. This was Cole’s only complete album of Christmas songs, although he had recorded several holiday singles earlier in his career. One of these, “The Christmas Song”, originally recorded in 1946, was re-recorded for the 1961 album The Nat King Cole Story. In 1963 The Magic of Christmas was reissued under the title The Christmas Song, with that recording added to the track list in place of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, and with new cover art. It is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s, and was certified by the RIAA for shipments of 6 million copies in the U.S. The 1963 version reached number 1 on Billboard’s Christmas Albums chart and remained for two weeks.
(Source: WiKipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
Click on (COMPLETE LP) for the complete track listing on this album.
—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 classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song in June 1946. At Cole’s behest – and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records – a second recording was made in August utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole again recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement 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. Cole’s 1961 version is generally regarded as definitive. Fourth recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, New York City, March 30, 1961. This rendition, the first recorded in stereo, is widely played on radio stations during the Christmas season, and has become the most popular/familiar version of this song. Label credit: Nat King Cole (Nat King Cole, vocals; Ralph Carmichael, orchestra conductor).The instrumental arrangement is nearly identical to the 1953 version, but Cole’s vocals are deeper-sounding and more focused. Originally done for The Nat King Cole Story (a 1961 LP devoted to stereo re-recordings of Cole’s earlier hits), this recording was later included in a reissue of Cole’s 1960 holiday album The Magic of Christmas replacing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Retitled The Christmas Song, the album was issued in 1963 as Capitol W-1967 (mono) / SW-1967 (stereo) and today is in print on compact disc.
(Source: WiKipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
NAT KING COLE * 02 * DECEMBER 24
NAT KING COLE * THE CHRISTMAS SONG ALBUM (COMPLETE LP) * 1963
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
Click on (COMPLETE LP) for the complete track listing on this album
