Merry Christmas Darling - The Carpenters (1970) 12/24/21

Today and Tomorrow, I will be repeating my salutes to two of my favorite "Great Christmas Songs of the '70s." Both of them have interesting back stories that never grow old. From 12/25/19: Richard Carpenter composed the music for this song in 1966 when he was 19 years old. Frank Pooler wrote the lyrics twenty years earlier, in 1946, when he was also 19 years old. The song Pooler had written was designed to be a Christmas gift for his girlfriend who was out of town for the holidays, but they broke up before he could present it to her.

So...how did one thing lead to the other?

In 1966, Pooler was the choir director at California State University at Long Beach, when both Carpenters were members of the choir. Richard and Karen were performing locally during the Holiday season and were tired of playing the usual Christmas songs. Richard asked Pooler if he had any ideas for different Christmas music. Pooler pulled out his old song and gave it to Richard... with permission to write new music for the lyrics. FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, a Christmas classic was born!.

"Merry Christmas Darling" was originally released in 1970 and went right to the top of Billboard's Special "Holiday 100" for the year. It became a Christmas staple--so much so--it hit #1 again on the same chart in 2003! (In 2021, it sits at #49 on Billboard's "Top 50 Christmas Songs of All Time.") Enjoy! "Merry Christmas Darling:"