No list of great Christmas songs would be complete without one by the greatest singer of all-time, Nat King Cole, who made his mark on Christmas with a simple song titled "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)":
The song was written in 1944 by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé, as a way to cool down during a hot summer. According to Tormé:
"I saw a spiral pad on his (Wells') piano with four lines written in pencil. They started, 'Chestnuts roasting..., Jack Frost nipping..., Yuletide carols..., Folks dressed up like Eskimos.' Bob didn't think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later that song was written. I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics."Cole first recorded the song in 1946, and again in 1953 and 1961. The 1961 version, shown above, is the most popular version.
While the song has been covered many times, and by many different kinds of artists, nobody has yet topped what Cole did with it. He was a master of being able to hit each note just perfectly, leaving little room for interpretation later.
On the bright side, he left us with this perfect little Christmas gem.
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