kuda | Merry Christmas, Darling

Merry Christmas to my flist. May your holidays be safe, joyful
and filled with moments your will remember forever.

One of the sweetest voices I've ever heard was Karen Carpenter's.
She was a huge talent who's life ended far too early.
This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Richard Carpenter composed the music for this song in 1966 when he was 19 years old.
Frank Pooler wrote the lyrics twenty years earlier, in 1946, when he also was only 19 years
old. The song Pooler had written was to be a Christmas gift for his girl friend whom he was
missing while being away from her during a visit with his parents at Christmas time. Sadly,
their relationship ended before he could present it to her.

Twenty years later, Pooler was the choir director at California State University in Long Beach,
when both Karen and Richard Carpenter were part of the choir. Richard and Karen were playing
local gigs and had tired of playing the usual Christmas fare. Richard asked Pooler, their favorite
professor, if he had any ideas for different songs.

Pooler remembered the Christmas song he had written many years before and mentioned it to
Richard, adding that he didn't think much of the melody anymore. Richard said he would try his
hand at writing new music for the lyrics. Within about 15 minutes he was finished creating a song,
that was written by two teenagers who were a generation apart, that was destined to become a
Christmas classic.

The song was first released as a single (yes, a 45) on November 20,1970, and earned gold record
status. This song sparked the idea of a Christmas album by The Carpenters, and on October 13, 1978,
"Christmas Portrait" was released with this newly recorded version of the song. Karen wanted to re-record
her vocals as she felt that she could give the vocals a more mature treatment. This newly recorded version
was presented on their TV Christmas special in 1978, as seen here, and became a hit all over again.

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