It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (song)

Music by:	George Wyle
Lyrics by:	Eddie Pola
Date:	1963

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Eddie Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams for his first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album. However, the song was not released as a promotional single by Williams's record label (Columbia Records) that year, as they instead opted to promote his cover of "White Christmas" as the official promo single from the album.

Overview

Williams' original version of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" has since become a radio airplay standard, attaining more and more popularity with each passing holiday season since the song's original release. It was also selected as the theme song for Christmas Seals in both 1968 and 1976, and was featured in the movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. In 1986, another popular version was released by Johnny Mathis on his fourth holiday album, Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis.

In 1999, country singer Garth Brooks became the first artist to chart a version of the song in North America, as his country remake reached #56 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. Garth's version was taken from his second holiday album, Garth Brooks and the Magic of Christmas. In 1999, Kathy Troccoli recorded the song as a duet with Williams.

Most recently, a 2008 recording of the song by Harry Connick, Jr. (from his third Christmas album, What a Night! A Christmas Album) hit #9 on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart (the highest charting version of the song to date in the United States).

For years, the song was used in a humorous fashion in the Staples office supply retail chain's annual back to school advertising campaign. In the commercials, the parents joyously shop for school supplies to this song in anticipation of the upcoming school year while their children sullenly follow. ESPN also used it to promote their lineup of college football bowl games for several years, and most recently, G4TV has used the song to promote their "stoner" programming an April 20, 2011, better known as "4/20".