About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

The folks at Capitol have been busy little elves when it comes to repackaging Nat King Cole's Christmas music. If you're out shopping around the holidays, chances are you couldn't swing a stuffed stocking without hitting a display containing Capitol Special Markets' handiwork: reduced-price compact discs and cassettes that deliver their siren's call to unwary shoppers caught in the holiday spirit. It's not as bad as all that, really, but a glimpse at the titles of Nat King Cole's Christmas albums -- including Christmas with Nat King Cole, Christmas with Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, and Christmas with Nat King Cole and Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians -- reveals the tip of an ugly little iceberg that Capitol is helping keep afloat. Still, Cole's a natch for the holidays, and if you don't own these songs and can't wait for them to come on the radio, shelling out six bucks or so for Christmas Song isn't likely to be the one holiday purchase you regret. Available as a cassette or compact disc (and no, the audio quality doesn't warrant it), this is an abridged version of Nat King Cole's 1963 album, The Christmas Song. Because the 1963 original didn't contain the definitive version of the title track -- it's an earlier, more solemn version that most listeners are familiar with -- "The Christmas Song" swings a little more than you might remember, but it's still terrific. What is on this cut is wonderful; Cole's voice assuages the inner child in us, reminds us in warm paternal tones of the importance of Christmas, and (although you'll have to look elsewhere for this) could just as easily coax us into coming out and playing in the snow. The Christmas Song in its original form (and thus here as well) was an album of serious Christmas music; the lighter side of the holidays have since been released and compiled on various Nat King Cole discs in the '90s and on. Lovers of Christmas music will likely be unsatisfied with this abridged version of the 1963 recording -- it's over before you know it -- but if you just want something to get you in the mood (the holiday mood, that is), Capitol Special Markets' Christmas Song will work its little spell. ~ Dave Connolly, All Music Guide All Music Guide

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