Merry Christmas is an album of
grammophone records by
Bing Crosby, released in
1945 on
Decca Records, catalogue
A-403. It has remained in print through the
vinyl and
compact disc eras, currently as the disc
White Christmas on
MCA Records, a part of the
Universal Music Group, reissued in June of
1995. It includes Crosby's
signature song "
White Christmas", the best-selling single ever, with sales of over 50 million copies worldwide. The album itself has sold over 15 million copies, and is the best-selling
Christmas album of all-time.
Content
The original album consisted of ten songs on five
78 records, all of which had been previously released. Each one had a holiday theme with the exception of "
Danny Boy," paired with "
I'll Be Home for Christmas" on its original record. Prior to the
long-playing album era, such assemblies were not common for
popular music,
Merry Christmas instigated by the enormous popularity of the "White Christmas" record. Decca issued a second edition in this format in
1947, catalogue
Decca A-550, consisting of four 78s, omitting recordings of "Danny Boy" and "
Let's Start the New Year Right" from the previous release, and including new recordings of "White Christmas" and "
Silent Night" from
March 19, 1947. This recording of "White Christmas," heard on every subsequent pressing, is actually a re-recording of the song as, in an unprecedented occurrence, the
1942 master had actually worn out and was no longer usable. Decca and Crosby undertook the remake with the same orchestra and chorus, in an attempt to re-create the original May 1942 recording as closely as possible.
The
1955 vinyl LP configuration is the one extant to date, consisting of the entirety of Decca A-550 plus four additional tracks. The
Andrews Sisters, often Crosby's recording partners in the
1940s, are featured on the tracks "
Jingle Bells," "
Mele Kalikimaka," and "
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." It has been continually in-print longer than any other album in the history of the
United States, after the
original cast recording to
Oklahoma!, also from Decca Records, released in
1943.
Release history
After the introduction of the LP by
Columbia Records in
1948, its competitors in the music industry began switching over to the new format. Decca reissued the eight song
Merry Christmas album in the form of a
10-inch LP in 1949, catalogue
Decca DL-5019 with its standard brown label. The original 78 album cover had a light blue background and showed a large
black and white photograph of Crosby's head. This was the same cover design that had been used on all issues of the 78 rpm album. Copies released after 1951 featured a newly-designed red and green cover.
Merry Christmas was also issued as a
45 rpm box set in 1950, catalogue
Decca 9-65. It had the same basic cover and the same four singles as the 78 rpm album A-550, and the individual records had the same catalog numbers, in this case preceded by the "9-" prefix. Several years later, the 45 box was discontinued, replaced by a
2-EP set, catalogue
Decca ED 547. This had the same cover as the second version of the 10-inch LP; each 7-inch single had two songs per side, and the sides were numbered 91123 and 91124, respectively.
When Decca (and the rest of the industry) abandoned the 10-inch LP format in
1955, it created a 12-inch LP version of
Merry Christmas, catalogue
Decca DL-8128, with four additional songs and the now familiar cover with Crosby in his
Father Christmas stocking cap as pictured above. The new songs were "
Silver Bells" and "
Mele Kalikimaka," both recorded in September of
1950, and "
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and "
Christmas in Killarney," both recorded on
October 1,
1951. The album's track listing was also adjusted slightly, with "Faith of Our Fathers" now preceding "I'll Be Home for Christmas." This issue has remained unchanged to present; first pressings of the album were released on Decca's all-black label with the catalog number in the top left corner of the front cover.
In
1963 the album was made available in electronically re-channeled stereo,
Decca DL-78128. Mono copies made after the introduction of stereo have "DL-8128" in the bottom left corner of the front cover. All copies from the
1960s feature the Decca rainbow label. The mono version was deleted in
1968.
In
1973, after Decca had been purchased by the
Music Corporation of America, the album received a new catalogue number,
MCA 167. This version was only available for a short time. Eventually, MCA chose to create a new numbering series for its reissued Christmas albums, and Merry Christmas was assigned
MCA 15024. This exists on the black with rainbow, tan, and blue with rainbow labels. All were rechanneled.
In
1986 Merry Christmas was transferred to compact disc,
MCAD-31143 and included these same twelve songs. A new
remaster was made in
1992 and reissued in
1995, which is the one available at present. The entirety of the album, minus the song "
Faith of Our Fathers," can be found on the
1998 double-disc
Bing Crosby: The Voice of Christmas, a compendium of all of Crosby's Christmas recordings for Decca from
1935 to
1954. After purchasing MCA, Universal changed the name of the album to
White Christmas, keeping the contents and the catalogue number unchanged.
On August 29, 2008, the "White Christmas" album was re-issued as a "Collector's Edition" by Madacy Special Products. This issue featured the original album's 12 tracks in a slightly different order and added two additional tracks ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Here Comes Santa Claus"). The album was packaged in a collectible tin along with the Special Edition DVD of the 1942 film "Holiday Inn." This version of the album, unfortunately, has noticeably inferior sound quality as opposed to the 12-track MCA CD release of the same name- possibly due ot the fact that Madacy used the rechanneled stereo mixes for many of the tracks instead of the more contained, and intimate sounding mono originals.
The 1945 album issue
Decca A-403 consisted of these previously issued 78 rpm records:
- “Silent Night” / “Adeste Fideles” (Decca 18510)
- “White Christmas” / “Let’s Start the New Year Right” (Decca 18429)
- “I'll Be Home for Christmas” / “Danny Boy” (Decca 18570)
- “Faith of Our Fathers” / “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (Decca 18511)
- “Jingle Bells” / “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (Decca 23281)
The 1947 album issue
Decca A-550 consisted of these 78 rpm records, and with the exception of the two remakes, all were reissues of the earlier recordings:
- “Silent Night” (1947 remake) / “Adeste Fideles” (Decca 23777),
- “White Christmas” (1947 remake) / “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (23778)
- “I'll Be Home for Christmas” / “Faith of Our Fathers” (Decca 23779),
- “Jingle Bells” / “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (Decca 23281).
The additional tracks were issued as 78 rpm and 45 rpm singles in 1950 and 1951 respectively:
- "Mele Kalikimaka" (Decca 27228) (Decca L-5830)
- "Silver Bells" (Decca 27229) (Decca L-5832)
- "Christmas in Killarney" / "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (Decca 27831) (Decca L-6462 and L-6463)
Track listing
- "Adeste Fideles," recorded June 8, 1942 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr's Mixed Chorus.
- "White Christmas," recorded March 19, 1947 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.
- "Faith of Our Fathers," recorded June 8, 1942 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr's Mixed Chorus.
- "Jingle Bells," recorded September 27, 1943 with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and His Orchestra.
- "Silver Bells," recorded September 8, 1950 with Carole Richards and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.
- "Christmas in Killarney," recorded October 1, 1951 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires.
- "Mele Kalikimaka," recorded September 7, 1950 with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and His Orchestra.
See also
White Christmas (soundtrack)Category:Bing Crosby albumsCategory:Christmas albumsno:Merry Christmassv:White Christmas (musikalbum)
