Mel Tormé / Bob Wells / 3:57
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, electric piano (?)
Phil Upchurch: guitar
David Hidalgo: guitar
Donnie Herron: steel guitar
Patrick Warren: piano, celesta
Tony Garnier: upright bass
George G. Receli: drums
Recording Studio
Groove Masters, Santa Monica, California: May 2009
Technical Team
Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan)
Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Mel Tormé said he wrote this Christmas song on a hot summer day in 1944. Nevertheless, the images of “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and “folks dressed up like Eskimos” guided him in writing the song. The Nat King Cole Trio recorded no less than four versions between 1946 and 1961, while Tormé only recorded the song in 1954. “The Christmas Song” became a holiday standard. The song has been covered by many performers, including Frank Sinatra in 1957, the Jackson Five in 1968, Luther Vandross in 1992, Christina Aguilera in 1999, Sheryl Crow in 2008, and Paul McCartney in 2012, among others. Dylan and his band offer an excellent jazzy version, tinged with nostalgia. Dylan sings the introduction; most artists usually omit it. When he was asked why he brought it back, he told Bill Flanagan in 2009, “I figured the guy who wrote it put it in there deliberately.”167 The high quality of the musicians contributes to this song’s success, as does Dylan’s own excellent interpretation.