B-side "Snow for Johnny" Format 7" single Label Decca | Released November 1964 Genre Christmas music | |
Recorded Columbia Studios Nashville,TN | ||
"A Holly Jolly Christmas" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and most famously performed by Burl Ives. The song has since become one of the Top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century.
Background
"A Holly Jolly Christmas" was written by Johnny Marks in 1962. It was the title song of the Quinto Sisters' first album Holly Jolly Christmas, recorded in June 1964 by Columbia Records, featuring guitarist Al Caiola with arrangements by Frank Hunter and Marty Manning.
The song was featured in the 1964 Rankin-Bass Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which Burl Ives voiced the narrator, Sam the Snowman. Originally to be sung by Larry D. Mann as Yukon Cornelius, the song, as well as "Silver and Gold," was given to Burl Ives due to his singing fame. This version was also included on the soundtrack album for the special and later released as a single.
The song was re-recorded by Ives for his 1965 holiday album, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. This version of the song has a somewhat slower arrangement than the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer version and features an acoustic guitar solo introduction; it is this version that has since become the more commonly heard rendition on radio. The song's enduring popularity is evidenced by its reaching #30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1998, as well as #21 on the US Country Digital Songs chart and #5 on the Holiday 100 chart in 2011.