Sleigh Ride is my favorite Christmas/Winter song. There's a great version by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormet that was on one of my parents' Great Songs of Christmas albums. The Goodyear Tire Company put out a Christmas Album every year, and my parents had several of them.

Thanks for mentioning the Goodyear albums! Back in the '70's, I always went down to Goodyear and Firestone Stores, (They were a block away from each other) to pick up the latest Christmas album. I still have them and a lot of them had unique songs you rarely heard on the radio! I think I'll get them back on the turntable this year! Good Times!!

My fave vocal version of Sleigh Ride is by the Ronetts, instrumental version is by the Boston Pops.

Same here. To me Leroy Anderson's version is the best to me, but I like the Ronnettes version too. It IS my favorite Christmas song, period.

I thought so!

Thanks for the explanation. I got tripped up on this one. I knew the song was written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells, sometime in the '40's, but I never thought Nat King Cole had an version as well!

Mel Torme and Bob Wells wrote the song, but they pretty much "gave" the song to Nat King Cole after they heard his rendition of it. Of all the covers of this song I've heard down through the years, Mr. Cole's version is the very best (IMHO).

Agreed! A timeless Christmas classic!!

One more thing I forgot:
Any collectors searching for the first printing of "The Little Drummer Boy," it *was indeed* entitled "Sing We Now of Christmas." The label was a blue sky one with "20th Fox" on top of the label in red print.

Unfortunately, those early pressings were only in *mono.* Any vinyl afficionados wishing to hear this classic album in *stereo* (believe me, it sounds *much better* that way) would do well to search for "The Little Drummer Boy" on 20th Century Fox #TFS 4100 or #S 3100 from 1963 and 1966, respectively (both pressings have the black 20th Century Fox label surrounded by a gold band with the logo on top; the latter was distributed by ABC Records). There was also a reissue of "The Little Drummer Boy" from 1978 with a white cover surrounded by a green border; these have the 20th Century Fox tan "movie studio" label with the multicolored searchlights on top and the release number is T-580 (distributed by RCA Records). The Casablanca pressing (422-822 744-1 Q1) is exactly the same as that last 20th Century Fox pressing, again with the white cover surrounded by the green border (explanation: when Marvin Davis became the owner of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation in 1981, he didn't want the record division and sold it to PolyGram, who folded 20th Century's catalogue into Casablanca. Rest assured, though, the Casablanca pressing is *the original* 1958 recording). Both the 20th Century Fox late 70's pressing of "The Little Drummer Boy" and the Casablanca version are *automatically stereo.*

Just so you know.

Love the album. We have multiple copies of it (because they kept changing the cover). We love the "painted cover" of "Sing We Now of Christmas". We also have their other Christmas album from 1962, "The Wonderful Songs of Christmas" on Mercury records.

I remember those Christmas specials, too. I watched some on YouTube last year. My mom had a King Family Christmas album. I think she got it from Mobil. Must've filled her gas tank. Anyway, great memories. I used to play it when I decorated the tree. 🎄

Sweet memories for sure. ❤️