It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Five Things You May Not Know [Video]

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love this melody. It is definitely one of the best and comparatively young compared to some Christmas evergreens. Here are five things you may not know about it.

Composers

Written by Edward Pola and George Wyle. I don’t know any of Pola’s other tunes, but Wyle co-write the theme from Gilligan’s Island! See below for what else Wyle did.

Original Version

It was recorded and released in 1963 by Andy Williams.  It was on his first (of many) Christmas album.

Lyrics Descriptions

Telling scary stories is one of the activities described in the song. You’d think that would be at Halloween but in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol the characters do exactly that at Christmas time.

Song origins

George Wyle wrote all of the choir material, duets and trios on the Andy Williams TV Show. The song was written just for Andy’s show. Surprise! It is now the  No. 4 most played Christmas song.

Special Notations

In 1968 and 1976. The song was the Christmas Seals theme song.