The Magic of Christmas (Nat King Cole album)
| The Magic of Christmas | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Nat King Cole | ||||
| Released | 1960 | |||
| Recorded | 5–7 July 1960 at Capitol Studios, Hollywood | |||
| Genre |
Vocal jazz Christmas music | |||
| Length | 31 minutes | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Lee Gillette | |||
| Nat King Cole chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
The Magic of Christmas is a 1960 album by Nat King Cole, arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.[2]
This was Cole's only full album of Christmas songs, although he had recorded several holiday singles earlier in his career. One of these, 1946's "The Christmas Song", was re-recorded for the 1961 album The Nat King Cole Story, and in 1963 The Magic of Christmas was re-issued with that recording added to the track list in place of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", and the album given new cover art and retitled The Christmas Song.[3]
It is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s, and was certified by the RIAA for shipments of 6 million copies in the U.S.[4] The 1963 version reached #1 on Billboard's Christmas Albums chart and remained for two weeks.
Track listing
- Side One
- "Deck the Halls" (Traditional)
- "Adeste Fideles (O, Come All Ye Faithful)" (John Francis Wade)
- "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" (Traditional)
- "O Tannenbaum" (Traditional)
- "O, Little Town of Bethlehem" (Phillip Brooks, Lewis Redner)
- "I Saw Three Ships" (Traditional)
- "O Holy Night" (Adolphe Adam, John Sullivan Dwight)
- Side Two
- "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" (Felix Mendelssohn, Charles Wesley)
- "A Cradle in Bethlehem" (Alfred Bryan, Larry Stock)
- "Away in a Manger" (Traditional)
- "Joy to the World" (Lowell Mason, Isaac Watts)
- "The First Noël" (William B. Sandys)
- "Caroling, Caroling" (Alfred Burt, Wilha Hutson)
- "Silent Night" (Franz Gruber, Josef Mohr)
- All tracks, save for "A Cradle in Bethlehem" and "Caroling, Caroling", are credited on the LP label as being adapted by Nat King Cole and Edith Bergdahl.
- As mentioned, the album was reissued in 1963 as The Christmas Song, with the title track added as the leadoff to Side 1 and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" omitted.
- An alternate, all-English performance of "O, Come All Ye Faithful" was recorded during the album sessions, and first released in 1990 as part of the Cole, Christmas, & Kids compilation CD.
Personnel
Performance
References
- ↑ Allmusic review
- ↑ The Magic of Christmas at AllMusic
- ↑ "A Pile o' Cole's Nat King Cole website - The Magic Of Christmas". Apileocole.alongthehall.com. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
- ↑ Grein, Paul (December 19, 2012). "Chart Watch Extra: Christmas Albums, From Bing To Buble". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved December 19, 2012.