Columbia 1205
Producer: Mitch Miller
Track listing: Joy to the World / Hark! The Herald Angles Sing / What Childs Is This / We Three Kings of Orient Are / It Came Upon the Midnight Clear / Silent Night, Holy Night / Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly / God Rest Ye Marry, Gentlemen / O Come, All Ye Faithful / The First Noel / The Coventry Carol / Away in a Manger / O Little Town of Bethlehem
December 29, 1958
2 weeks
Not one to miss an opportunity, Mitch Miller jumped on the “sing- along” craze and attempted to milk it for everything it was worth. Following the success of Sing Along With Mitch, Columbia rush-released More Sing Along with Mitch. It debuted on the Best Selling LP’s chart a mere five weeks after the first Sing Along album hit the summit. With Christmas on the horizon, Miller and Columbia knew they would have another winner with a seasonal sing-along album. After all, such chart- toppers as Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby had demonstrated the sales power of star appeal mixed with holiday fare only a year before. Thus, Christmas Sing-Along with Mitch was born.
Miller stuck to the classics, but he did mix up the sound a bit. “I figured with the Christmas album, we would add women’s voices with the guys,” he says. “I wanted to make an album for all the people to join in and sing with, or just enjoy listening to. But the songs had to be played at the right tempo for singing along with the record.”
By December 1958, Mitch Miller mania was sweeping the country. More Sing Along with Mitch had peaked at number four and was still holding at number eight when Christmas Sing-Along hit the summit. “I remember I went to a department store in Cleveland where a radio station was broadcasting from, and I signed 8,000 albums in one day. I had blisters on my fingers,” Miller says.
Miller wasn’t the only one who gained notoriety from Christmas Sing-Along. The album cover photo featured Miller and his family — his son Mitchell Jr., daughter Margaret, and wife Fran — posing festively in front of candles and holiday decorations. “I wanted the feeling of warmth and family for my Christmas album,” he recalls. “I the thought, ‘Why not put my own family on the cover?'” Miller got the idea for the family photo from Christmas cards he and his wife sent out every year.
In only its second week on the chart, Christmas Sing-Along knocked Miller’s first album, Sing Along With Mitch, from the top of the album chart. Miller had scored his second Number One in less than three months, giving him plenty to sing about.
Christmas Sing-Along with Mitch became something of an annual favorite for the next several years and made numerous return visits to the top 10, reaching number eight in 1959, number six in 1960, and number nine in 1961.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 29, 1958
- Christmas Sing-Along with Mitch, Mitch Miller and the Gang
- Sing Along with Mitch, Mitch Miller and the Gang
- Christmas Carols, Mantovani
- Johnny’s Greatest Hits, Johnny Mathis
- Merry Christmas, Bing Crosby