Song:O Come All Ye Faithful
Album:The Christmas Song
One of the most successful Christmas records of all time was Nat King Cole's 1946 recording of The Christmas Song. For one thing, it was the first time Cole recorded with strings. So he was able to move farther from his jazz roots to pop stardom. Of course back then, there were no albums. So now you want to know if Cole ever recorded a Christmas album. The album The Magic Of Christmas was released in 1960. The songs including O Come All Ye Faithful are traditional Chistmas classics arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. But for some reason, Capitol did not include The Christmas Song. I guess they underestimated the demand for Cole's version of that song. So in 1962, Capitol re-released The Magic of Christmas as The Christmas Song. The version on this album is not the original 1946 version but a 1961 version that Cole recorded for The Nat King Cole Story. And that 1961 recording is the one usually played on the radio. The Christmas Song was first released on CD in 1986. But it underwent a major overhaul in 2003 that included some bonus tracks. In 2009, Capitol did another overhaul including a new cover. It also includes the 1946 and 1961 versions of The Christmas Song. This is the version that is currently available on CD. I guess the bottom line is if you need a Christmas album by a major league crooner, you can't go wrong with Nat King Cole. Here's a video of O Come All Ye Faithful by Nat King Cole.
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