The christmas song

The Christmas Song (also known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire ) is Mel Tormé's Christmas song written by Bob Wells in July 1945.

The song begins with a description of a typical season of winter holidays - chestnuts , turkey, Christmas mistletoe , frost pinching in the nose, warmly dressed people and Christmas carols performed by the choir. The text then focuses on the upcoming arrival of Santa Claus and wishes Merry Christmas "to children from one year to ninety-two."

According to Tormé, the song was written in record time (45 minutes) in terrible heat, and they wrote it with Wells to distract from this heat. The source of inspiration was a few lines sketched in Wells's notebook ^[1] . The song was first recorded in 1946 by the Nat King Cole trio with the Capitol label. In November of that year, it became one of the leaders in the charts and lasted for seven weeks in the top ^[2] . Subsequently, Cole recorded three more versions, both with his trio and in solo performance. The version, released in 1961, remains the most famous to date. The Christmas Song became the first holiday standard performed by a black singer ^[1] . At the end of 2018, the Christmas download allowed the song to first enter the top twenty “Billboards” ^{[3] [4]} .

The song was also repeatedly recorded by Mel Torme himself, who called it his " rent ", and many other singers ^[5] . In 1974, the song was included in the Grammy Hall of Fame ^[6] , and in 2006 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers reported that it was the most popular holiday hit of the beginning of the 21st century (by the number of radio performances) ^[7] .