It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year • Andy Williams
Christmas Song of the Day: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams
Yesterday: Jingle Bell Rock, by Bobby Helms
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Andy Williams
I think most people share the joyful feeling associated with this song, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Not everyone. That’s why Dickens wrote about Ebenezer Scrooge. And as we discussed with the song Blue Christmas, it is not uncommon to have a bad year. Or to be lonely and longing for that special companion, as in a hundred popular Christmas songs. And when people have to be away, as for example during wartime, sad songs like I’ll Be Home For Christmas, become important. I think most people love the wonder of the Christmas season with all it’s joy and fun, at least they hopefully remember a Christmas like that from their past.
If you’ve ever read the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, you may recall in the first volume, before the coming of Aslan, that an evil witch reigned and had cast a dark spell over all the land. The primary result of the spell was that it was always Winter in Narnia, but never Christmas. Even the residents of Narnia understood the special place of Christmas in the lives of most. They were not allowed to celebrate it. Thankfully, we are. Hence, great songs like this one!
Father Christmas in the Narnia Story
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year is a popular Christmas song written in triple time in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams for his first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album. However, the song was not released as a promotional single by Williams' record label (Columbia Records) that year, as they instead opted to promote his cover of White Christmas as the official promo single from the album.
The song is a celebration and description of activities associated with the Christmas season, focusing primarily on get-togethers between friends and families. Among the activities included in the song is the telling of "scary ghost stories," a Victorian Christmas tradition that has mostly fallen into disuse, but survives in the seasonal popularity of numerous adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Other activities mentioned include hosting parties, spontaneous visits from friends, universal social gaiety, spending time with loved ones, sledding for children, roasting marshmallows, sharing stories about previous Christmases, and singing Christmas carols in winter weather.
In a 2005 interview, Williams discussed how The Andy Williams Show figured into his recording of the song, first introduced in the 1962 Christmas episode: “George Wyle, who is a vocal director, who wrote all of the choir stuff and all of the duets and trios and things that I did with all the guests, he wrote a song just for the show — I think the second Christmas show we did — called ‘Most Wonderful Time of the Year.’ So I did that, you know, every Christmas, and then other people started doing it. And then suddenly it’s become — not suddenly but over 30 years — it’s become a big standby. I think it’s one of the top 10 Christmas songs of all time now.”
Although Williams recorded multiple other versions throughout his life, the original 1963 version remains the most popular and well-known.
Since 1995, as you may recall, the song has been used humorously in the Staples Office Supply retail chain's annual back to school advertising campaign. In the commercials, the parents joyously shop for school supplies to this song in anticipation of the upcoming school year while their children sullenly follow. I guess even the marketing world knows good music when they hear it.
Well, I hope this Christmas will be one in which you might taste some of the wonder of the season, the simple fun, the childlike joy experienced by so many for nearly two thousand years. Maybe that is just what the doctor ordered during these trying times.
May this song be true for you.
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. 🎄
Enjoy listening to Andy Williams below.
Here are some favorite tracks from Spotify, as well as a classic video:
First, Andy Williams on Spotify:
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
The Andy Williams Christmas Album
A classic Andy Williams video:
Here is a video of It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year performed by Andy Williams on his own Andy Williams Show:
Here is It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year performed by Amy Grant, a favorite Christmas music artist of mine:
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Full Lyrics
(It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year)
It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you be of good cheer
It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It's the hap-happiest season of all
There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistltoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When loved ones are near
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistltoeing
And hearts will be glowing
When loved ones are near
It's the most wonderful time
Yes the most wonderful time
Oh the most wonderful time
Of the year
