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Showing posts with label Meredith Wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meredith Wilson. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

By Meredith Wilson
1951

A warm and fuzzy holiday classic from the idyllic '50s, this tune was introduced by Perry Como, joined by the Fontane Sisters and the Mitchell Ayres Orchestra. It's original title was "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas". Legend has it that writer Wilson was inspired to write the song by a stay at the Grand Hotel in Yarmouth, Novia Scotia. The Johnny Mathis version became very popular in more recent years thanks to its inclusion in the 1992 movie Home Alone 2. Today it remains one of the most ubiquitous modern-day secular carols.

Lyrics:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Toys in ev'ry store
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door.

A pair of hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots
Is the wish of Barney and Ben;
Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk
Is the hope of Janice and Jen;
And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well,
The sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas;
Soon the bells will start,
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart.

Recorded By:

Alvin & The Chipmunks
Michael Buble
Johnny Mathis
Bing Crosby
Perry Como

Monday, July 16, 2012

Till There Was You

By Meredith Wilson
1957

Written for the Broadway musical The Music Man, this catchy and melodic tune was sung on stage by Barbara Cook. However, it would actually be introduced on record one month prior to the show's December 1957 opening, when Nelson Riddle's orchestra recorded it with singer Sue Raney. Peggy Lee made the song a hit in the UK in 1961, leading to a bunch of kids known as The Beatles adding it to their early repertoire. It would appear on the Fab Four's 1962 album With the Beatles, and remains the only standard the group ever recorded.

Lyrics:

There were bells on the hill

But I never heard them ringing,
No, I never heard them at all
Till there was you.

There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
Till there was you.

And there was music,
And there were wonderful roses,
They tell me,
In sweet fragrant meadows of dawn, and dew.

There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No, I never heard it at all
Till there was you!

Recorded By:

Shirley Jones
Anita Bryant
Sonny Rollins
Sergio Franchi
Fran Warren

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