''Christmas Songs by Sinatra'' is the name of the third
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by the American singer
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
. It was released in 1948 as a 78 rpm album set and a 10" LP record (CL 6019) featuring a collection of eight
holiday songs. A compilation album was released in 1994 including the songs released on the 1948 album (three original takes; five previously unreleased alternate takes) along with other Christmas songs from his years recording at
Columbia.
Columbia reissued the album several times in later years with alternate track listings and different artwork. 1957 saw the first 12" release as ''Christmas Dreaming'' (CL 1032) with the addition of "Christmas Dreaming (A Little Early This Year)" and "
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions ...
", though the latter was dropped from later releases when the album was reissued and retitled as ''Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' (
Harmony HS 11200) in October 1966. This version peaked at #42 on ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
s Best Bets For Christmas album chart on December 21, 1968.
A stylized
paper craft
Paper craft is a collection of crafts using paper or card as the primary artistic medium for the creation of two or three-dimensional objects. Paper and card stock lend themselves to a wide range of techniques and can be folded, curved, bent, cut ...
version of the LP album with its original 1948 Christmas tree cover art is prominently featured in the official
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for Sinatra's "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!". However, the 1948 version of the album did not contain the track.
Track listing
1948 78rpm 4-disc
Disc 1 (Columbia)
*A. "Silent Night" (8/27/45)
*B. "Adeste Fideles" "(All Ye Faithful)" (8/8/46)
Disc 2 (Columbia)
*A. "White Christmas" (11/14/44)
*B. "Jingle Bells" (8/8/46)
Disc 3 (Columbia)
*A. "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (12/28/47)
*B. "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (12/28/47)
Disc 4 (Columbia)
*A. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (7/3/47)
*B. "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" (12/28/47)
1948 10" LP record (Columbia)
Side A
#"White Christmas"
#"Jingle Bells"
#"Silent Night"
#"Adeste Fideles"
Side B
#"O Little Town of Bethlehem"
#"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
#"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
#"Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"
1994 compilation album: CD / Track listing
# "
White Christmas" (
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russi ...
) – 3:29+
# "
Silent Night
"Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...
" (
Josef Mohr
Josephus Franciscus Mohr, sometimes spelled Josef (11 December 1792 – 4 December 1848) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer, who wrote the words to the Christmas carol "Silent Night."
Early life and education
Mohr was born in S ...
,
Franz X. Gruber
Franz Xaver Gruber (25 November 1787 – 7 June 1863) was an Austrian primary school teacher, church organist and composer in the village of Arnsdorf, who is best known for composing the music to "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night").
Life
Gruber wa ...
) – 3:16+
# "
Adeste Fideles (O, Come All Ye Faithful)" (
Frederick Oakeley
Frederick Oakeley (5 September 1802 – 30 January 1880) was an English Roman Catholic convert, priest, and author. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1828 and in 1845 converted to the Church of Rome, becoming Canon of the Westminster ...
,
John Francis Wade
John Francis Wade (1 January 1711 – 16 August 1786) was an English hymnist who is sometimes credited with writing and composing the hymn " Adeste Fideles" (which was translated to "O Come All Ye Faithful" in 1841 by Frederick Oakeley), even tho ...
) – 2:36
# "
Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed th ...
" (
James Pierpont) – 2:35+
# "
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis''. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. In ...
" (
Ralph Blane
Ralph Blane (July 26, 1914 – November 13, 1995) was an American composer, lyricist, and performer.
Life and career
Blane was born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He attended Tulsa Central High School. He studied singing with ...
,
Hugh Martin
Hugh Martin (August 11, 1914 – March 11, 2011) was an American musical theater and film composer, arranger, vocal coach, and playwright. He was best known for his score for the 1944 MGM musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis'', in which Judy Garland ...
) – 2:33
# "Christmas Dreaming (A Little Early This Year)" (
Irving Gordon
Irving Gordon (February 14, 1915 – December 1, 1996) was an American songwriter.
Biography
Irving Gordon was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family, and later lived on Coney Island. He was named Israel Goldener but later changed his na ...
, Lester Lee) – 2:57
# "
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", sometimes rendered as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", is an 1849 poem and Christmas carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts. In 1850, Sears' lyrics were set ...
" (
Edmund Sears
Edmund Hamilton Sears (April 6, 1810 – January 14, 1876) was an American Unitarian parish minister and author who wrote a number of theological works influencing 19th-century liberal Protestants. Today, Sears is primarily known as the man w ...
,
Richard Storrs Willis
Richard Storrs Willis (February 10, 1819 – May 10, 1900) was an American composer, mainly of hymn music.
His best known melody is probably the one called, simply, '' Carol''. This is the standard tune, in the United States, though not in Great B ...
) – 3:31+
# "
O Little Town of Bethlehem
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a Christmas carol. Based on an 1868 text written by Phillips Brooks, the carol is popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but to different tunes: in The United States, to "St. Louis" by Brooks' collaborator, Lewis R ...
" (
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835January 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts. He wrote the lyrics of the Christmas hymn, "O Little Town of ...
,
Lewis Redner
Lewis Henry Redner (December 15, 1831, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – August 29, 1908, Hotel Marlborough, Atlantic City, New Jersey) was an American musician, best known as the composer of the popular Christmas carol "St. Louis", better known as " ...
) – 3:03
# "
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song featuring Santa Claus written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934. It was then ...
" (
J. Fred Coots
John Frederick Coots (May 2, 1897 – April 8, 1985) was an American songwriter. He composed over 700 popular songs and over a dozen Broadway shows. In 1934, Coots wrote the melody with his then chief collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, for t ...
,
Haven Gillespie
James Lamont Gillespie (February 6, 1888 – March 14, 1975) pen name Haven Gillespie, was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist. He was the writer of "You Go to My Head", "Honey", "By the Sycamore Tree", "That Lucky Old Sun", " Breez ...
) – 2:33+
# "
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", also known as simply "Let It Snow", is a song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 in Hollywood, California, during a heat wave as Cahn and Styne imagined cooler conditions ...
" (
Sammy Cahn
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premier ...
,
Jule Styne
Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became s ...
) – 2:35
# Introduction by General Reynolds, Chief of Special Services – 0:59
# Medley: "O, Little Town of Bethlehem"/"
Joy to the World
"Joy to the World" is an English Christmas carol. The carol was written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnwriter Isaac Watts, and its lyrics are an interpretation of Psalm 98 celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Today, the carol is usua ...
"/"White Christmas" (Brooks, Redner)/(
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the ...
,
Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason (January 8, 1792 – August 11, 1872) was an American music director and banker who was a leading figure in 19th-century American church music. Lowell composed over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His best-known ...
)/(Berlin) – 5:15
# "
Ave Maria
The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's s ...
" (
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
) – 3:28^
# "
Winter Wonderland
"Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himber, ...
" (
Felix Bernard
Felix William Bernard (April 28, 1897 – October 20, 1944) was an American conductor, pianist and a composer of popular music. His writing credits include the popular songs "Winter Wonderland" (with lyricist Richard B. Smith) and "Dardanella".
B ...
,
Richard B. Smith) – 2:03^
# "
The Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
" (
Albert Hay Malotte
Albert Hay Malotte (May 19, 1895 – November 16, 1964) was an American pianist, organist, composer and educator, best known for his musical setting of "The Lord's Prayer".
Biography and career
Malotte was the son of Charles and Katherine (Donav ...
) – 3:34^
+ previously unreleased alternate take
^ previously unreleased
Charts
References
External links
*
Christmas Songs by Sinatra' on Discogs
{{Authority control
1948 albums
Christmas albums by American artists
Pop Christmas albums
Christmas compilation albums
Columbia Records Christmas albums
Frank Sinatra compilation albums