Mel Tormé (1925–1999)

The words of Mel Tormé and Robert Wells' holiday classic, The Christmas Song, also commonly known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, are paired in this sweet picture book with the artwork of Canadian illustrator Doris Barrette. As the lyrics speak of people bundled up for the winter cold, of children keeping an eye out for Santa and his sleigh, the illustrations colorfully depict all of the traditional wintertime Christmas activities mentioned in the text...

Although I have fond memories show more of listening to this classic song as a child—my parents had the Nat King Cole version—I don't know that I would ever have picked up this picture book presentation, were it not on a list of Christmas carol picture books that I started a while back. Of course, it's not so much a Christmas carol as a Christmas song, but still, I was curious to see what Barrette would do with the task. I'm so glad I gave it a chance, as I found The Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire delightful! The artwork is somewhat flat, but in a very appealing, stylized way. I'm not sure I can correctly describe the medium, and the colophon here doesn't give any helpful information, but I thought these visuals were simply lovely. I recommend this one to fans of the song, and to picture book readers looking for fun Christmas fare. It pairs very nicely with a recording of the song being sung. show less

Torme focuses almost exclusively on Garland's short lived television variety show 'The Judy Garland Show'. If you've never seen footage of it online (i.e. Youtube) it's a fascinating view of Garland as a performer, under tremendous pressure (and medication) to do well as her movie career had ultimately dried up at this point. Life on 'The Judy Garland Show' was never easy for anyone, with little network support from CBS, constant personnel changes behind the scenes, and an erratic Garland show more who did the very best she could (which varied from day to day).

Overall a fascinating read, poignant, personal, and somewhat haunting in the depiction of Garland's final years. show less

this is the original, unexpurgated, unrefined, unedited blather published just one year after garland's death by the egomaniacal torme. his claim to historical bone fides comes from his role as music director/arranger on garland's 1963-1964 CBS television show. the era captured in this book. during the same time, he later admits, torme was socializing with the ladies, in the middle of a marriage that was breaking up, and feeling as though he should have been starring in his own show rather show more than working with another singer ... with this energy, through this lens, he wrote this book, almost 40 years ago in its original edition.

torme rewrote much of this book in a later edition i have not read, that (from all reports) edits out assertions, modifies observations, tempers creativity. it seems disingenuous, this later edition. Those who read only the 1991 version of this book could be as confused as one fellow Garland fan who could not make sense of reports of the earlier version (in conversation with two of us who had read and stopped there) and the later version he had just completed. there will well be confusion with the intense anger provoked in fans by the mere mention of this book (its 1970 edition), the fact that the 1991 version does not annotate the corrections only reinforces my passion to keep the record straight.

reading just the 1991 edition is coming into the story part way through, it appears to me. torme cashed in in 1970, perverted the history of judy's television series and for a time the sense of judy herself for several decades with his published words. then he comes in after other researched and well-regarded works have been published about the same era and the same series (sanders, fricke, others) to reframe his words.

hmm. he's saying: 'pay no attention to that man behind the curtain' .. or ... "pay no attention to my past deeds ... read this now .. really .. this is my truth' ... well, i don't buy it. i am glad that he cleaned up his book for the 1991 edition. but was he intellectually honest enough to annotate the fiction he published as "fact" in 1970 that he corrected in this later edition? no it seems not .. he leaves it for the archivists and fans to compare and contrast and highlight these passages and details. memoirists are writing from their own feelings and sense of their world; historians are held to another standard. torme's work in ON THE DAWN PATROL was promoted as more than personal memoir for years; in 1991 he attempts to reframe this. again i say: this is intellectual dishonesty. show less

I have an aversion to Christmas music, especially too early in the year (before mid December), and even then I'm pretty particular about what I want to hear. This is at the top of the list. Simply the most beautiful voice, singing the best songs of the season. This reissue has a few bonus tracks, including the "duet" with his daughter Natalie, done through the magic of recording technology. Best Christmas music out there, period.