All it takes is hearing the piccolo at the beginning of today’s song to make some people crave the cold to celebrate a part of the season where everyone is getting cozy indoors when the weather outside is frightful.
This is another Christmas classic that doesn’t contain any references to Christmas. Fire, popcorn, and winter weather are all mentioned, none of which are unique to Christmas, so we COULD play this year round, which seems appropriate because the song was written back in 1945 on one of the hottest days on record in Southern California.
Singer Vaughn Monroe was the first person to record this song in 1945. His version was a hit, climbing to No. 1 on the Billboard charts but today’s version was released more than 20 years after the original and is regarded by many as the definitive version.
But that doesn’t mean it was an instant hit! In fact, today’s version of the song took 50 years to enter the Billboard Charts! After playing on radio stations through decades worth of Christmases, it finally entered the Billboard Top 100 in 2018.
After writing today’s song, one of the most popular winter songs of all time, the writers joined forces again to write a tune about nostalgia for warmer weather.
It was called “the things we did last summer” and it was a Top 10 hit when it was released in 1946. It has since been covered by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and The Beach Boys. (CLIP)
The song relies on happy summer memories to get through the winter months, a reversal of the situation that inspired today’s song, which is, of course, Let it Snow...Dean Martin...on K103’s I Know That Song