A Holly Jolly Christmas

For the Burl Ives album, see Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.
"A Holly Jolly Christmas"
Single by Burl Ives
from the album Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
B-side "Snow for Johnny"
Released November 1964
Format 7" single
Genre Christmas music
Label Decca
Writer(s) Johnny Marks
Burl Ives singles chronology
"Pearly Shells (Popo O Ewa)"
(1964)
"A Holly Jolly Christmas"
(1964)
"Jealous"
(1965)

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. The song has since become one of the Top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century.[1]

Background

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" was written by Johnny Marks in the early 1960s and featured in the 1964 Rankin-Bass Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which Burl Ives voiced the narrator, Sam the Snowman. Originally to be sung by Larry D. Mann as Yukon Cornelius, the song, as well as "Silver and Gold," was given to Ives due to his singing fame.[2] This version was also included on the soundtrack album for the special and later released as a single.

The song was re-recorded by Ives for his 1965 holiday album, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. This version of the song has a somewhat slower arrangement than the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer version, and has since become the most commonly-heard rendition on radio. The song's enduring popularity is evidenced by its reaching #30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1998, as well as #21 on the US Country Digital Songs chart and #5 on the Holiday 100 chart in 2011.[3][4]

Chart performance

Burl Ives version

Chart (1998) Peak
position
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[3] 30
Chart (2010) Peak
position
US Country Digital Songs (Billboard)[5] 21
Chart (2011–14) Peak
position
US Holiday 100 (Billboard)[4] 5

Alan Jackson version

Chart (1997–98) Peak
position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[6] 51

Lady Antebellum version

Chart (2012–13) Peak
position
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[7] 2
US Country Airplay (Billboard)[8] 37
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[9] 35

Jerrod Niemann version

Chart (2014–15) Peak
position
US Country Airplay (Billboard)[10] 53

References

External links

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