Most Essential Christmas music: The Carpenters Sing Merry Christmas, Darling!

"Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters was written by Richard Carpenter & Frank Pooler and originally recorded in 1970. At the time, it was first available on a 7" single from A&M Records (1236) and later in 1974 reissued as A&M 1648 and in 1977 as A&M 1991. The single went to number one on Billboard's Christmas singles chart in 1970, and did again in 1971 and 1973. In 1978, The Carpenters issued their Christmas Portrait album, which contained a new remix of "Merry Christmas Darling". The original 1970 mix continued to be used for all single releases, however. The major difference between it and the 1978 version is a newly recorded vocal by Karen Carpenter on the latter. Richard Carpenter himself calls the original recording one of his sister's very best. The original single version of the song can be found on the compilation albums From the Top and The Essential Collection: 1965-1997. Billboard magazine did not display Christmas singles on the Hot 100 in 1970. This song just missed the top 40 in Cash Box. The song was sung by actress Lea Michele for the second season Christmas episode of the hit TV series, Glee, entitled "A Very Glee Christmas," in 2010. This version was released as part of the series' Christmas album. The song has also been covered by Glenn Medeiros, Kimberley Locke, Vanessa L. Williams, Amy Grant, Boys II Men, Kyle Vincent, Keali'i Reichel, Chicago and also covered by Filipino rock singer Kitchie Nadal, Filipino pop balladeer Rico J. Puno and ...