Search

Home > Fresh Air > The Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Songs
Podcast: Fresh Air
Episode:

The Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Songs

Category: Arts
Duration: 00:43:51
Publish Date: 2025-12-21 08:00:01
Description: To celebrate the holidays, we’re looking back at four archive Fresh Air interviews discussing popular Christmas songs: First, jazz singer Mel Torme tells Terry Gross about co-writing “The Christmas Song” on a hot summer day, in an interview from 1977. Then we hear from songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane in 1989 about making “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and then Martin drops in again in 2006 to discuss the song’s long impact. Finally, musician Jon Batiste sits at the piano with Terry in 2024 to play some other favorite holiday tunes live.

Listen to an episode of NPR's All Songs Considered podcast on the origin and impact of “The Christmas Song.”

Listen to 40+ years of Fresh Air's archives at FreshAirArchive.org. To access bonus episodes, sponsor-free listening and to support public radio, become a Fresh Air+ supporter at plus.npr.org/freshair.


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
Total Play: 0

Users also like

1K+ Episodes
How I Built .. 1K+     100+
500+ Episodes
Selected Sho .. 5K+     300+
2K+ Episodes
Pop Culture .. 300+     30+
1K+ Episodes
Hidden Brain 2K+     200+
200+ Episodes
Invisibilia 1K+     100+

Some more Podcasts by NPR

900+ Episodes
TED Radio Ho .. 3K+     300+
2K+ Episodes
Pop Culture .. 300+     30+
300+ Episodes
Wait Wait... .. 2     200+
2K+ Episodes
NPR Politics .. 1K+     200+
2K+ Episodes
Up First 2K+     100+
1K+ Episodes
It's Been a .. 40+     7
1K+ Episodes
All Songs Co .. 70+     20+
1K+ Episodes
NPR News Now 2K+     2K+