Fifty-five years ago this month, Elvis put out a Christmas record that millions of families have played every December since. It’s called “Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas,” and it came out on Oct 20, 1971.
Here’s the odd part. He didn’t make it anywhere near Christmas.
Elvis cut most of it in the spring, over a few days in May and one more session in June, at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville. Singing about snow and sleigh bells in the warm months takes some imagination. For the most part he rolled with it, and the album went on to sell past three million copies.
But one song got under his skin.
It was a Christmas standard everybody knows, a cheerful little thing about strolling through a winter wonderland. Elvis had had enough of it. During one take he flubbed the words, the whole thing fell apart, and he let the room know exactly how he felt. “I’m getting tired of this… song,” he said. “Tired of it!”
One of the men keeping notes in the studio put it even more plainly. He later wrote that Elvis “finally said flat out that he hated” the song.
Can you guess which carol it was? The audio gives it away in the title, so no peeking if you want to test yourself first.
The Christmas classic Elvis grumbled about, in full
Give it a play and listen for how smooth and easy it sounds. You’d never know he was sick of it.
And the kicker? For all his griping, the song still made the album. It landed at track four, right there with the carols he actually liked.
That tells you something about how these records got made. The schedule said Christmas, so Christmas it was, mood or no mood. A big star, a room full of patient musicians and a few songs he’d rather not have sung one more time.
It’s a small, human moment from a man we mostly remember in gold suits and spotlights. Even the King had days when he just wanted to go home.