Frank Sinatra Christmas Music: 11 Tracks to Swing You Merrily into the Season!
Ol’ Blue Eyes had a real soft spot for the holiday season’s red and green. “Nobody embraced Christmas as he did,” Nancy Sinatra told Variety about her father, legendary crooner Frank Sinatra. “My dad and his friends would come over late Christmas Eve, after a night of revelry, and they would just throw tinsel at the tree,” she added of his haphazard decorating style. Luckily, his Christmas recordings were traditionally smoother and cooler, just like the rest of the Frank Sinatra Christmas music catalog.
The Chairman of the Board even collaborated with his kids on 1968’s The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas, which featured Nancy, Tina and son Frank Sinatra, Jr. On that album’s reworking of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” they took turns singing about the gifts they were giving their loving dad.
On Christmas morning of ’68, upon Nancy’s insistence, “We had to, one at a time, run around him like little fairies, bestowing him with the gifts we were singing while lip-syncing to the record,” Tina shared of the 11 jars of jelly and 3 golf clubs, for example, in the song. “He was smothered in stuff, including ‘a most lovely lavender tie,’” she added of the song’s first day of Christmas anchor. Upon his twelfth-day verse that covers all the gifts, Sinatra precedes that colorful accessory with a playful, “Oy!” as he closes out the fun tune.
A year earlier, Frank teamed up with his pal Dean Martin for The Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas Show, which included their combined 10 children at the time, plus plenty of songs and laughs.
“Not too much, because I don’t want to drive home and get picked up for driving on too much cinnamon,” Frank quips after Dean offers him an eggnog. There are sentimental moments, too, when Frank reminisces, “Seems like yesterday that we were helping these kids write Santa Claus letters,” or when they announce they were going to distribute $100,000 worth of toys to kids in hospitals and orphanages across the country.
Thankfully, we get to enjoy the gifts of Frank Sinatra Christmas music year after year. “I really think he might be the voice of Christmas,” Nancy has said. “I just think that the sentimentality of my dad’s recordings is what grabs people. He was emotional when he sang them, and people are emotional when they hear them.… We can hope that every child who hears ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ will carry that through life to his or her family.”
Be sure to give these 11 tunes a listen, which will guarantee your Christmas will be merry, bright and full of Frank Sinatra Christmas music.
11 . “Have Yourself a Merry Christmas”
Sinatra first recorded this Judy Garland classic in 1947, which ended with songwriter Hugh Martin’s original lines of “Someday soon we all will be together/If the fates allow/Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.”
A decade later, Sinatra wanted to re-record it for a new holiday collection. He called Martin and asked, “The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?,” Martin once recalled, so he wrote “hang a shining star upon the highest bow” for Sinatra’s 1957 version, which is what we all know and sing to this day.
10. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”
Sinatra sounds bright and bouncy on this Irving Berlin number from the ’30s, which debuted in the film On the Avenue with Dick Powell and Madeleine Carroll. “What do I care if icicles form, I’ve got my love to keep me warm. Off with my overcoat, off with my glove, who needs an overcoat? I’m burning with love,” he croons, and it’ll warm you up faster than a hot toddy!
9. "Silent Night"
“I love the sweetness of ‘Silent Night,’ which is so pure and gentle, and which was one of the last times he was in a recording studio,” recalled daughter Tina of her father’s gorgeous take on this classic. “It’s beyond breathtaking, as his kid, to hear that.… I am one who really loved the more religious Christmas carols. They conjure such images and softness and gentleness.” That’s why Frank Sinatra Christmas music still thrills fans, both old and new, each year.
8. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
Frank jazzes up this weather-centric favorite with deft touches, adding a playful “mmmmmm” to “the fire is mmmmm delightful,” for example, and we’re here for it! (More of that cinnamon heavy eggnog, please!) The fun backing vocals by the B. Swanson Quartet helped Sinatra hit No. 45 on the Billboard holiday charts with this song in 1950, and an animated 2020 video adds some colorful fun to the mix.
7. “Mistletoe and Holly”
Sinatra co-wrote this 1957 charmer himself, along with Dok Stanford and Hank Sanicola. “Oh, by gosh, by golly, it’s time for mistletoe and holly. Fancy ties and granny’s pies, and folks stealin’ a kiss or two as they whisper, ‘Merry Christmas’ to you!” The sweet song about embracing the season helped it get chosen as 1960’s theme song for Christmas Seals.
6. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
“I think my very favorite [of his] is ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’ It’s very sentimental,” daughter Nancy has said of her dad’s many holiday recordings. “He always tried to make it home for Christmas.” Added Tina, to People, “[Dad’s] work was important, but so was home.” And if you’re looking for a restorative snooze before your holiday festivities, Frank’s version of this classic made one recent study’s top top ten list of Christmas songs that “are the best ones to help people fall asleep and get a good night’s rest.”
5. “Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)”
This is another traditional song that the singer recorded multiple versions of for different Christmas albums, including his first, Christmas Songs By Sinatra. You can hear the relative youth in the then-32-year-old’s voice on his 1946 version, which appeared on that 1948 album. His vocals are warm and respectful, and complemented nicely by both the track’s soothing strings and triumphant brass sections.
4. “The Christmas Waltz”
“Santa’s on his way, he’s filled his sleigh with things, things for you and for me,” Sinatra announces, and “this song of mine in three-quarter time” is a great one for the man in red to listen to: Another study found this Sinatra tune to be one of the top 10 holiday songs that are best for productivity. Put it on, and power through the rest of your wrapping!
3. “We Wish You the Merriest”
“King Bing” Crosby, whose “White Christmas” is one of the season’s top tunes, pairs up with Sinatra on this cheerful and buoyant entry that also features Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians. “It’s a really funny song, they improv it, it’s like they’re hanging out in Vegas, you know, doing their thing,” Frozen’s Idina Menzel told Billboard, about duetting on it with Josh Gad for her 2019 holiday album, Christmas: A Season of Love.
2. “The First No?l”
“When you hear Ol’ Blue Eyes wrap his voice around ‘The First Noel’ you know that the holidays are well and truly on their way,” as uDiscoverMusic.com puts it. The Chairman’s reverent version of this traditional tune is so stellar that it’s appeared on three of his holiday collections, including 2013’s Christmas With the Rat Pack, which also features tracks by Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin.
1. “Jingle Bells”
“I love those J-I-N-Geeeee-L-E bells,” coo the background Ken Lane Singers on this true Sinatra gem that spells out exactly what makes him such a legendary artist. One listen to his version, first recorded back in 1946, and it sounds so nostalgic — with his trademark phrasing and styling — but at the same time so fresh, new and exciting all these years later. And this year, it hit the top 20 on Billboard Hot 100 — the only version of "Jingle Bells" to have ever done so.
This is the perfect Frank Sinatra Christmas music selection to get your holiday party really swinging!
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