Only time for a quickie. For the past 50 years Happy Holiday by Andy Williams has been a popular recording during the Christmas season. As with the previous entry, White Christmas, Happy Holiday was written by Irving Berlin and originated in the 1942 film Holiday Inn sung by Bing Crosby with Marjorie Reynolds lip syncing to the recorded vocal by Martha Mears. In this context, the song has nothing to do with Christmas and is featured in a scene that takes place on New Year's Eve. You can watch the clip on youtube by clicking the link below.
With the success of the film, Bing recorded the song in 1942. Despite being a snappy number, it seemed to remain in 1942, most likely due to the fact it was not a Christmas song per se.
A couple years later The Williams Brothers sang with Bing Crosby on his hit Swinging On A Star and a year after that they began working with Kay Thompson at MGM. At Christmas 1945 Kay performed a song she wrote called The Holiday Season. The next year Kay Thompson and The Williams Brothers began a run of about 6 years as the biggest nightclub act between the Pacific and Atlantic. During performances around Christmas time, they often performed The Holiday Season, but they never recorded it. A 50-second snip of the song exists, but that's it. Kay Thompson and The Williams Brothers all went their separate ways in 1953 and 10 years later Andy Williams, then a major star on TV, released his Christmas Album. Although his popular recording is usually called Happy Holiday and is most certainly a Christmas song, it is actually a mix of Irving Berlin's Happy Holiday and Kay Thompson's The Holiday Season with generally the Happy Holiday chorus being used with the verses of The Holiday Season. And 50 years later you still can't get through the Christmas season without hearing it several times.
With the success of the film, Bing recorded the song in 1942. Despite being a snappy number, it seemed to remain in 1942, most likely due to the fact it was not a Christmas song per se.
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