Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of Jesus Christ, traditions such as gift-giving and merrymaking, cultural figures such as Santa Claus, or other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987.
"Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, which is based on the Ukrainian New Year's song "Shchedryk". The music for the carol comes from the song written by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914; the English-language lyrics were written in 1936 by American composer Peter Wilhousky.
Alfred Shaddick Burt was an American jazz musician who is best known for composing the music for fifteen Christmas carols between 1942 and 1954. Only one of the carols was performed in public outside his immediate family circle during his lifetime.
The Perry Como Christmas Album is Perry Como's 15th RCA Victor 12" long-play album.
Perry Como Live On Tour was Perry Como's 27th 12" long-play album for RCA Records and his second live album. In 2015, RCA reissued the album for the first time on compact disc.
"Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral " is a classic American song that was written in 1913 by composer James Royce Shannon (1881–1946) for the Tin Pan Alley musical Shameen Dhu. The original recording of the song, by Chauncey Olcott, peaked at #1 on the music charts. The song was brought back to prominence by Bing Crosby's performance in 1944's Going My Way. Crosby's single sold over a million copies and peaked at #4 on the Billboard music charts.
"Happy Holiday" is a popular song composed by Irving Berlin in 1942 and published the following year.
Nowell Sing We Clear is a previously four-member musical group that performs an annual yuletide concert series. They have also released a series of related albums and a songbook of their repertoire.
Christmas with Chet Atkins is the sixteenth studio album recorded by Chet Atkins. It is his first Christmas album.
Season's Greetings from Perry Como, originally released in 1959, was Perry Como's sixth RCA Victor 12-inch long-play album and the fourth recorded in stereophonic sound, as well as his first major full-length Christmas album.
Sounds of Christmas is the second holiday-themed album by vocalist Johnny Mathis and the first of his 11 studio projects for Mercury Records. His first yuletide effort, 1958's Merry Christmas, relied heavily on popular holiday carols and standards, but this 1963 release also included two new songs as well as covers of some lesser-known recordings by Andy Williams and Bing Crosby.
The Bells of Dublin is a 1991 album of Christmas songs and traditional carols by the Irish band The Chieftains. The album features guest performances by various artists, including Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Marianne Faithfull, Nanci Griffith, Rickie Lee Jones and the actor Burgess Meredith.
Candles, Snow & Mistletoe is the 13th album by popular children's entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram, originally released in 1993. This holiday album is one of Sharon, Lois & Bram's biggest productions and recordings they worked on during their career. The album is produced by Glen Roven, an Emmy-Award winning producer who has worked with Liza Minnelli. Lyrics were written by Mark Saltzman who also worked with Sesame Street. This album, unlike previous Sharon, Lois & Bram albums, has a Broadway sound to the album. It featured a complete orchestra and was recorded using the same microphones as The Manhattan Transfer.
Perry Como was a prolific American recording artist for RCA Victor Records from 1943 until 1987, and is credited with numerous gold records. Como had so many recordings achieve gold-record status that he refused to have many of them certified. Over the decades, Como is reported to have sold millions of records, including at least fifteen of his singles selling over a million copies, but he commonly suppressed these figures.
We Need a Little Christmas is the fifth Christmas album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released by Unison Music in 1995. It gives an adult contemporary treatment to songs that Williams had previously recorded for 1963's The Andy Williams Christmas Album, 1965's Merry Christmas, 1974's Christmas Present, and 1990's I Still Believe in Santa Claus and includes three songs that Williams had not recorded before. In a brief note on the back of the jewel case Williams writes, "These all-new recordings feature fresh, innovative arrangements of some of my favorite carols. I felt like I was singing them for the very first time."
A Merry Mancini Christmas is a 1966 album by Henry Mancini of orchestral and choral arrangements of Christmas music. In addition to traditional Christmas songs, it also contains the original Mancini composition "Carol for Another Christmas", the theme of the 1964 television film of the same name.
The Complete Christmas Collection 1958–2010 is a three-disc box set by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 2015 by Real Gone Music under license from Columbia Records. The set includes Mathis's five holiday albums from the period in their entirety: Merry Christmas, Sounds of Christmas, Give Me Your Love for Christmas, Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis, and The Christmas Album. It also compiles all of Mathis's holiday songs that were only released as singles, as well as thematically-appropriate tracks from his non-holiday albums: "When a Child Is Born" from I Only Have Eyes for You, the holiday version of "What a Wonderful World" from Let It Be Me, and his two recordings of "Ave Maria" from Good Night, Dear Lord, which bookend the set.
Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music was Perry Como's first Christmas album, originally issued by RCA Victor as a 78 RPM album set in 1946. The original release included "O Little Town of Bethlehem" which was replaced in 1947 by Irving Berlin's famous song "White Christmas". This album, along with Como's later stereophonic Christmas collections, Season's Greetings from Perry Como (1959) and The Perry Como Christmas Album (1968), are among the all time best-selling Christmas albums. RCA has reissued Merry Christmas Music on LP, tape and compact disc several times.
Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas is a 1977 Christmas television special starring Bing Crosby and his family with special guests Twiggy, David Bowie, Ron Moody, Stanley Baxter and Trinity Boys Choir. It includes a duet by the unusual pairing of Crosby and Bowie on "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy".
