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[[Category:Songs]]
 
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Christmas Songs]]
 

Revision as of 05:00, 10 December 2014

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a classic Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas", and has been recorded by many artists, but was a hit by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra on September 10, 1951 and released on RCA Victor as 47-4314 (45 rpm) and 20-4314 (78 rpm). Bing Crosby recorded a version on October 1, 1951 which was also widely played.

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Rumor

A popular but unproven belief in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia holds that Willson wrote the song while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel.[1] The song makes reference to a "tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well..."; the park being Frost Park, directly across the road from the Grand Hotel which still operates in Yarmouth. However Grand Hotel was a popular name used by many hotels in numerous towns and cities.

Here's Love

The song was later incorporated into the pre-Broadway version of the score of Willson's 1963 musical Here's Love and can be heard on that show's original cast recording, where it is sung in counterpoint to a new melody and lyric, "Pinecones and Holly Berries."

In 1986, Johnny Mathis recorded the song for his album Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis; this version gained popularity after its inclusion in the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Gradually, Mathis' recording began to receive wide radio airplay, and for the past several years this version has been a popular Christmas hit.

Lyrics

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere 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 every 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
Everywhere 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

References