The song of the day for Thursday, October 29, 2015 is “The Christmas Song.”

About Today

No, you haven’t gone to sleep and woken up during the Annual Twelve Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas, which we will be presenting in December. I committed some weeks ago to advancing through Mr. Bennett’s career year by year and picking a song from that year to present. Today we’re exploring the year 2000 and that year Mr. Bennett recorded Christmas songs and so that is what we have today.

About This Song

Today’s song, The Christmas Song, was written in 1944 by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells. Sometimes known by its first line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” this song was written on a very hot summer day and Tormé and Wells were trying to think cold Christmasy thoughts in an effort to cool off. The entire song was written forty minutes and is one of America’s most classic Christmas songs. The first recording was by Nat King Cole in 1946.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “The Christmas Song” on December 21, 2000 in Vienna, Austria, and released it on the album Our Favorite Things the following year. This album also features performances by Charlotte Church, Vanessa Williams and Placid Domingo. The song was arranged by Jorge Calandrelli.

“The Christmas Song,” as well as Our Favorite Things, is available from iTunes.