Mariya Takeuchi -- The Christmas Song

For me, the 1945 Mel Tormé/Bob Wells-penned "The Christmas Song" (aka "Chestnuts Roasting Over An Open Fire") is my favourite Holiday song...just a tad over Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin. And with all due respect to Mel (The Velvet Fog) Tormé, I think the song belongs to Nat King Cole when it comes to the performing of this perennial tune.

However having said that, I think Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）does a wonderful cover of the Torme classic. She and her husband, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, will be popping up a fair bit this month since they seem to have become the First Couple of J-Xmas songs. Takeuchi's version of "The Christmas Song" is very much old-school, almost along the lines of Cole's eternal rendition, thanks to the arrangement by renowned classical composer, Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）. It is a track on Takeuchi's 8th album, "Quiet Life" which was released in October 1992.

Even though Christmas in Japan, especially in the big cities, is celebrated more like New Year's Eve, there's also been an attraction there for the Norman Rockwell-type of Xmas celebration, and I think songs like Takeuchi's cover is a reflection of that, since she's often enjoyed going to the Great American Songbook.

And here's Nat King Cole himself performing "The Christmas Song".