Merry Christmas Darling

The Carpenters little Christmas ballad's probably one of America's favorite modern Christmas songs...but most people have no clue how it came to be. It was actually written by a guy to his fiancée, who he was spending Christmas several thousand miles away from. During WW II a soldier who was serving in Germany named Frank Pooler  was sorely missing his girlfriend, so he put his feelings into the lyrics for a song, to tell her just how he felt.

Those lyrics were placed in a drawer, perhaps, and sat just waiting to have something done with them...that something happened in 1966. Frank Pooler was, by then, the choir director at California State University, Long Beach and in that choir were a brother and sister by the name of Richard and Karen Carpenter. One had a knack for writing music, and the other had one of the most beautiful voices he'd ever heard.

So he gave Richard Carpenter the lyrics, asked him if he could put them to music, and one of the best known and loved Christmas love ballads ever sung was born. It wasn't actually released until 1970, and from the first time Karen Carpenter sang 'The Greeting Cards Have All Been Sent...' it was an instant classic.

The song topped the Christmas Singles charts in both '70 and '71, skipped a year, then topped it again in '73, then was re-released  in 1978 with a slightly different arrangement that was included on their Christmas album 'A Christmas Portrait. (The singles were still the original). Richard Carpenter has been quoted in several interviews as saying that 'Merry Christmas Darling' was his sister's best work...and, given Karen Carpenters talent, and that awesome voice ( A voice that was stilled far, far too soon) that's saying something.

The song's still a Christmas favorite, and is played pretty constantly during Christmas on easy listening and Oldies stations. I think everyone has a memory or two that's touched by this one, and everyone's been away from someone they love, and missed them with that deep, hollow ache...'Merry Christmas Darling touches that ache and it's unspoken but implied promise that you'll be back together soon makes it feel a little better...

So enjoy...and this one is for everyone who's missing someone this Christmas. Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters.

 


And the 1978  remix included on 'A Christmas Portrait'.