Nat King Cole the Christmas Song – Written in the Summer Heat
Nat King Cole the Christmas Song is one of the most famous modern-day Christmas songs and was written on one of the hottest California days on record. The song, which resulted from a collaboration between two of America’s best singer-songwriters, has touched millions and made both men a fixture of every holiday season. In fact, for many, Nat King Cole singing “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” – the opening line of “The Christmas Song” – is one of the greatest moments in the history of music. Yet had it not been for a friend of Cole’s named Mel Torme, who happened to drop by Cole’s house with the song, Cole would never have had the chance to record it.
Nat King Cole the Christmas Song – Mel Torme
Most baby boomers came to know Mel Torme from his appearances on the television series Night Court. Because of the show, “The Velvet Fog” – as he was called by fans – was seen as little more than an old, almost forgotten jazz singer. Torme relished playing up this false image of being a lounge lizard, though nothing could have been farther from the truth. Actually, Torme – a talented singer, songwriter, performer, and author – was one of the most ambitious men ever to walk onto a stage. His incredible catalog of credits continues to inspire people even after his death.
Torme grew up in show business. In the 1930s he was a child radio actor and vaudeville performer. By his teens he was already writing songs. When he was just sixteen, he quit high school to arrange music and play drums for the Marx Orchestra. Soon after, he worked with Frank Sinatra.
In 1944, Torme got together with two other talented musicians, Les Baxter and Henry Mancini, to form the vocal group the Mel-Tones. The trio was among the first of the jazz-influenced vocal groups. Five years later, Mel scored a solo number one hit with “Careless Hands” and quickly gained recognition as one of the top jazz artists in the world. Ethel Waters once said that Torme was “the only white man who sings with the soul of a black man.” Soon, without realizing it, Mel – whose views of life and music were never complicated by racial prejudice – would serve as the key in opening a holiday door previously closed to African Americans.
Over the course of the next fifty years. Torme influenced generations of singers, sold millions of records, acted in dozens of movies and television shows, wrote a couple of best selling booked, arranged music for some of the greatest names in the business, and took a few years off to fly airplanes as a commercial pilot. Yet the one facet of his career that is often overlooked was his ability to write music. If the singer-songwriter hadn’t decided to visit his friend Nat King Cole’s house one hot summer day, “Born to Be Blue” would have probably gone down as his most remembered composition. But a July drive across Los Angeles changed all that forever.
Nat King Cole the Christmas Song – Robert Wells
Robert Wells, a lyricist, was one of Torme’s best friends. They had written together for several years and had just been hired to produce the title songs for two movies, Abie’s Irish Rose and Magic Town.
When Mel arrived, rather than working on the assignments, he found Wells trying to drive off the California heat with fans and positive thinking. The fans were doing little good, and the positive thoughts – which consisted of writing down everything that reminded Wells of cold winters in New England – were only making Wells warmer. Many years later, Torme recalled what happened.
“I saw a spiral pad on his piano with four lines written in pencil. They started, ‘Chestnuts roasting… Jack Frost nipping… he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off.”
It had been chestnuts that started Wells’s strange train of thought. He had seen his mother bring in a bag of them to stuff a turkey for dinner. Wells was thrown back to the days when he saw vendors selling chestnuts on New York City street corners. Yet while Wells was after nothing more than an attempt to “think cold,” Mel caught a glimpse of a song in the phrases he had written.
With the temperature in the nineties and both men sweating through their clothes, they got to work on what was to become a Christmas classic. It took just forty minutes. The assigned movie title songs were pushed aside as Wells and Torme climbed into a car and drove away to show off their latest song.
Torme knew all the great singers who worked in Los Angeles. They all liked and respected Mel’s work and most of them palled around with the singer. So when Wells and Torme dropped by Nat King Cole’s home uninvited, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary. It was just old, friendly Mel being Mel. Yet the results of that visit were monumental After a brief greeting, Torme took a seat at King’s piano. On the hottest day of the year, Mel played the new Christmas number. It might not have cooled anyone off, but Cole was deeply impressed.
Nat King Cole the Christmas Song – More about Nat
Nat King Cole had begun his career as a jazz pianist and was one of the best. Yet by the 1940s, it was his smooth baritone that had mesmerized fans all over the world. Even at a time when some of the greatest balladeers in history ruled the airwaves, Cole stood out. The young black man from Chicago’s voice and styling set him apart; his voice and stage presence earned him the nickname “King.”
Cole’s first huge hit came in 1946 with “I Love You for Sentimental Reasons.” A long list of well-loved songs including “Mona Lisa,” “Nature Boy,” and “Too Young” followed. During an era when America was almost totally segregated, Cole’s music erased the racial barriers, at least in music.
Nat King Cole the Christmas Song – a Smash Hit
From the moment Torme stopped in at Cole’s Los Angeles home and played “The Christmas Song” on his piano, Nat loved it. Sensing the song was a classic, he wanted to record it before Torme could offer it to anyone else. Within days, Cole had rearranged the song to suit his voice and pacing, and cut it for Capitol Records. His instincts about the song’s potential were right.
Released in October of 1946, the song stayed in the Top Ten for almost two months. Nat’s hit charted again in 1947, 1949, 1950, and 1954. Though “The Christmas Song” would ultimately be recorded by more than a hundred other artists – including Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and even Mel Torme himself – none could ever break Cole’s “ownership rights.” The song was instantly a forevermore a Nat King Cole classic.
No one thought about it at the time, but Cole’s cut of Torme’s song becaome the first American Christmas standard introduced by an African American. The success of that cut helped open the door for Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, and Ethel Waters to put their own spins on holiday classics. It gave black audiences a chance to hear their favorite stars sing the carols that they loved as deeply as all other Christians. Thanks to “The Christmas Song,” for the first time in the commercial marketplace, Christmas was not reserved for “whites only.”
Cole died in his forties of cancer, while Torme lived into his seventies. Both men’s careers hit incredible high notes, and their list of honors and accomplishments set them apart from most of their peers. But no moment for either was a memorable as when they were brought together by words that were meant to simply cool off a body on a hot day.
Nat King Cole the Christmas Song Still Inspires Today!
If there is such a thing as inspired magic, it can be found in Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song. When people around the world hear Nat King Cole’s rich baritone singing about cold noses and the wonderful carols that warm hearts at Christmas, they are blessed. The world has lost both Nat King Cole and Mel Torme, but their genius lives on in a song that continues to give millions the special spirit of the season- and the memory of a cool winter’s ever-each and every year.
To Learn More about Nat King Cole the Christmas Song, Follow this link…
The Christmas Song – Wikipedia
