It’s time to play the Andy Williams Christmas songs

One of America’s most popular LP recordings of holiday music – “The Andy Williams Christmas Album” – “went gold” in 1964. 

Sixty years have passed, but in many homes, it’s still one of the first 10-inch vinyl disks to go on the family turntable to celebrate the arrival of the Christmas season.

Released by Columbia Records, Andy Williams’ first collection of holiday songs contains six secular Christmas songs on Side One. Featured among them is the original recording of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” written by Edward Pola and George Wyle in 1963.

 

Andy Williams introduces a new seasonal gerund in the tune when he sings about “there’ll be much mistletoe-ing.” (That activity, of course, can be defined as kissing one’s true love under a sprig or bouquet of mistletoe. The tradition is believed to have originated in Scandinavia and was popularized in Victorian England in the 18th century.)

 

Billboard ranks “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” as No. 7 among the “Greatest of All Time Holiday Songs.” 

 Music critics make special mention of two other Side One tracks that were contributed by Kay Thompson (shown below), an early entertainment industry mentor to Andy Williams.

 

First, she created “Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season,” as a medley based on “Happy Holiday” (composed by Irving Berlin in 1942). 

Second, Thompson converted the 1857 classic by James Lord Pierpont, “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” into an upbeat song known as “Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells.” (Thompson first performed these two holiday songs in 1945, but she basically put the tunes on a shelf until the Andy Williams Christmas album came along.)

 The late Aaron Latham of AllMusic said Andy Williams was “at his playful best on the irresistibly raucous ‘Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells.’ He also wrapped his voice around chestnuts like ‘White Christmas’ and ‘The Christmas Song’ with all the warmth of a favorite blanket.”

Also on Side One is “A Song and a Christmas Tree” (to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”), in which good friends bring the vocalist a “reasonable collection” of items to display about the Christmas tree...including candy canes, silver bells and a guardian angel.

 

Side Two of the original Andy Williams Christmas album is made up of six traditional spirituals and carols.

Latham was especially attracted to Andy Williams’ soaring version of ‘O Holy Night,’ which he said “was both enchanting and moving. His tender reading of the lesser known ‘Sweet Little Jesus Boy’ is as beautiful and serene as a crystal-clear winter’s night.” (American composter Robert Hunter MacGimsey wrote “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” in 1934 in the style of an African-American spiritual.)

Other traditional songs on Side Two are: “The First Noël,” “Away in a Manger,” “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

Over the course of his career, Andy Williams released eight Christmas albums. Of his 42 studio albums, 18 were certified gold, giving him the fourth highest number of gold albums, behind only Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and Elvis Presley, respectively.

 

U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who served from 1981-89, said Andy Williams’ “voice is a national treasure” – and millions of fans agreed. Andy Williams left an indelible mark on the television industry as well, with his Emmy Award-winning variety show “The Andy Williams Show.”

 

In 1992, Andy Williams fulfilled an entrepreneurial dream by opening a $12-million theater in Branson, Mo., which became The Andy Williams Moon River Theatre, the first non-country act to hit Branson. Andy Williams performed there up until 2011, when he bowed out of show business due to a cancer diagnosis. He died in 2012 at age 84.