Still in 1946, we run into a Christmas song that's not exactly a Christmas song.
Frank Sinatra sings it on this Columbia Records release:
The subtitle of "Christmas Dreaming (A Little Early This Year)" gives it away that the singer is not singing this song at Christmastime, plus there's "no sign of snow around" and all.
Is the sheet music at the top of the page implying it's September? "Billboard" reviewed in the September, 20, 1947 issue:
Maybe throw it along with "We Need a Little Christmas" on a not-Christmas-yet playlist?
A nice record with The Voice sounding great and top support from Axel Stordahl.
Anyway, the song didn't really seem to "catch on big" at the time, but the other labels got in on it with Dick Haymes on Decca and Dennis Day on RCA Victor.
But Frank Sinatra's Christmas catalog is always being reissued, so it will still catch the ear of more modern listeners.
I remember thinking it was cool when Harry Connick, Jr. included the song on 1993's "When My Heart Finds Christmas," which I thought (think) was (is) a terrific album.
Hey, let's hear it:
Yikes! Was 1993 really 28 years ago?
Anyway, back in 1947, there was one big band recording of the song, by Blue Barron and his Orchestra with vocalist Clyde Burke on MGM records:
Interesting that they take it an even a slower temp than Frankie!
Blue Barron had been around since the 1930s (he had a Sammy Kaye-ish sound and slogan - "Music of Yesterday and Today Styled the Blue Barron Way" - which took up a lot of room on the record label!), but actually enjoyed his peak on popularity in the late 1940s.
Clyde Burke had also been around as a band singer since the 1930s (including a stunt with Sammy Kaye), so he knew his way around a romantic lyric.
So, early or not, a dreamy song!
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