Merry Christmas Darling • Karen Carpenter
Christmas Song of the Day: Merry Christmas Darling, by Karen Carpenter. (Today is Christmas Songs Day 6.
Day 5 (yesterday) was Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, performed by Brenda Lee.
Today, Day 6, we travel back to 1970. 51 years ago this month, The Carpenters released their first Christmas song, which was destined to become a favorite from the very beginning. I was in school in those days, and can remember Merry Christmas Darling playing on the radio continually during that Christmas season. Typical of Carpenters songs (and they were fairly new that year), the song was melancholy and romantic and had that unparalleled Karen Carpenter voice that charmed you into listening to anything she recorded.
Merry Christmas Darling is a Christmas song, music composed by Richard Carpenter, and lyrics written by Frank Pooler. It was originally recorded in 1970, later re-issued in 1974, and once again in 1977 (A&M Records). The single went to number one on Billboard’s Christmas singles chart in 1970 (and did so again in 1971 and 1973) and peaked at number 41 in Cashbox.
Harry, a Writer for A&M Corner, writes about the Carpenters, “1970 was an important time for the Carpenters. Ticket To Ride had gotten some airplay but had faded off of radio by the start of the year. It wouldn't be until May that we'd start hearing (They Long To Be) Close To You on the radio, and then it was relentless - seemingly on every station and nearly every hour. The song was everywhere. And it continued until late August, when We've Only Just Begun was released as the next single.
That gave the earlier song a rest, as the second single shot up the charts, and got the same treatment from radio. It was everywhere - just about all pop music stations played it as it zoomed up the charts to the # 2 position on Billboard. When you listened to the radio a good deal, it was real easy to get to know every nuance of those hit singles, especially with as often as they played. For variety, Carpenters fans would now have the CLOSE TO YOU album to play, with all sorts of goodies alongside these two big hits.
Then in late November, the next Carpenters single was Merry Christmas Darling. I don't recall that in those days it was thought of as a "Christmas" record - it really was just their next big hit that replaced We've Only Just Begun in the radio rotations, and it happened to be themed for the upcoming Christmas holiday. It just seemed like these Carpenter kids were really on top of things.
And just as radio stopped playing Christmas music, the duo had For All We Know waiting in the wings to take over as the hourly Carpenters song on your favorite radio station.
It was quite a run indeed, and it wasn't over yet, as 1971 continued the trend with Rainy Days..., Superstar, and on into the A SONG FOR YOU days. Basically the timing was such that there was nearly always a Carpenters song moving up the charts as one fell down the charts.”
In 1978, the Carpenters issued their Christmas Portrait album, which contained a new version of Merry Christmas Darling. The original 1970 mix continued to be used for all single releases, however. The major difference between the 1970 and 1978 versions is a newly recorded vocal by Karen Carpenter on the latter, which was done at her request. Richard Carpenter himself calls the original recording one of his sister's very best. The original single version of the song can be found on the compilation albums From the Top and The Essential Collection: 1965–1997.
In the 1970s, Karen Carpenter was considered ‘The Queen of Christmas.’ For her millions of fans, her voice and her TV Christmas specials will always be the highlights of the Christmas Season.
The lyrics of Merry Christmas Darling were written in 1944 by an 18 year old Frank Pooler, which, according to him, were about a love interest he had at the time. 22 years later in 1966, when he was choral director at California State University, Long Beach, two of his aspiring music students, Karen and Richard Carpenter, who were beginning to have success as a local band, asked him (their favorite professor) if he had any ideas for holiday songs.
According to Pooler, they had become tired of the standard holiday songs they were singing. Pooler gave them the lyrics of the song he had written from years before, and told them he didn't think much of the original melody. According to Pooler, Richard wrote a new tune for the lyrics—the tune currently used—in 15 minutes. Four years later, in 1970, the Carpenters first recorded and released it as a single.
Maybe it’s just me. But I never get tired of hearing Karen Carpenter sing this wonderful song. Definitely one of my all-time favorites. I’m guessing it’s probably one of yours too.
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Enjoy listening to Karen Carpenter below.
Here are some favorite tracks from Spotify, as well as a classic video:
Join us tomorrow for Christmas Songs Day 7.
First, here is Karen Carpenter on Spotify:
Merry Christmas Darling
Christmas Portrait (1978)
A video is worth a thousand words: :
Here is Merry Christmas Darling performed by Karen in a live television Christmas special:
