Growing up, I probably heard The Andy Williams Christmas Album seven or eight hundred times. A well-worn vinyl copy, complete with scratches, cracks and pops, was a holiday mainstay on my dad’s record player. For all its camp and saccharine sincerity, to this day, those first xylophone tinklings of “White Christmas” signify the opening notes of a season that was absolutely magical to me as a kid.
Released in 1963 by Columbia Records, The Andy Williams Christmas Album was the first of eight Christmas albums recorded by Andy Williams. Up until then, Williams’ signature song was Henry Mancini’s “Moon River,” which was the theme song from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. But the Christmas album brought another signature to his identity. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” was a song Williams performed on his popular NBC Christmas specials that featured the whole Williams clan. The show and his performance of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” became so popular that he was nicknamed “Mr. Christmas.”
Though the Christmas album was built around “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Columbia chose William’s velvety cover of “White Christmas” as the album’s promotional single. From November 30, 1963 through December 28, 1963, The Andy Williams Christmas Album was the number one selling Christmas album, and his cover of “White Christmas” was the number one selling Christmas single. To this day, it remains one of the most popular Christmas albums ever recorded.
Opening with “White Christmas,” the first side of the record included delicious arrangements of other traditional holiday fare like “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” “Happy Holiday / The Holiday Season” and a ripping arrangement of “Jingle Bells.” One of the biggest surprises on side one was his re-working of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” which was renamed “A Song and a Christmas Tree” with new lyrics:
On the first day of Christmas,
My good friends brought to me
A song and a Christmas tree.On the second day of Christmas,
My good friends brought to me
Two candy canes
And a song for the Christmas tree.
On side two, Williams pulled from the more religious selections like “The First Noël,” “Away In a Manger” and a wonderfully over-the-top version of “O Holy Night” where he abandons all restraint and just goes for it.
Then there is that album cover. Against an eye-catching backdrop of bright holiday red, in a classic black velvet dinner jacket with peak lapels and a crisp white shirt and bow tie, Andy Williams smiles at us with snow white gleamers and a California Christmas tan, assuring us that everything is going to be alright this Christmas, almost as if he’s saying, “It’s okay. I got this…”
For many reasons, The Andy Williams Christmas Album will always remain one of my favorite albums of all time. Sure, it’s campy, saccharine and white as hell, but I just can’t seem to get sick of it. I’ve even privately listened to it from time to time between the months of January and November. It’s like an old blanket – a guilty comfort that conjures up joyful memories of the wonderful Christmas seasons of my childhood.
When I woke up this morning to emails from my brother Mike and my sister Megan telling me that Andy Williams had died, I went online to get the full story. He died at age 84 at his home in Branson, MO after a battle with bladder cancer. After reading the full story, I forewent my usual tune in to NPR and had my 803rd listen to the campiest, whitest, most saccharine and most wonderful Christmas album ever made.
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Andy Williams performs “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” on The Andy Williams Show in 1963…
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