Merry Christmas, Darling

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Merry Christmas, Darling is an original song for the The Carpenters, sung by the late Karen Carpenter. It was originally released as a 45 rpm single in 1970, but became a holiday classic with the release of The Carpenters' "Christmas Portrait" Album in 1978, with new vocals by Karen (from the 1978 Carpenters Christmas special).

I never knew the story behind the song:

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 also was only 19 years old. The song Pooler had written was to be a Christmas gift for his girl friend whom he was missing while being away from her during a visit with his parents at Christmas time. Sadly, their relationship ended before he could present it to her.

Twenty years later, Pooler was the choir director at California State University in Long Beach, when both Karen and Richard Carpenter were part of the choir. Richard and Karen were playing local gigs and had tired of playing the usual Christmas fare. Richard asked Pooler, their favorite professor, if he had any ideas for different songs.

Pooler remembered the Christmas song he had written many years before and mentioned it to Richard, adding that he didn't think much of the melody anymore. Richard said he would try his hand at writing new music for the lyrics. Within about 15 minutes he was finished creating a song, that was written by two teenagers who were a generation apart, that was destined to become a Christmas classic.

So this was a song that had to wait more than 20 years for the right singer to come along before it was heard. I wonder if Mr. Pooler's old girlfriend ever knew she was the inspiration? And what a tragic loss of a golden singing voice in Karen Carpenter. (Video plays in YouTube).