78 RPM 311 Nat King Cole Trio The Christmas Song Cool Evening 1946
$
45
$ 45
Sold For
Jul 27, 2026
Sold Date
Jun 28, 2026
Start Date
1
Number Of Bids
USA
Country Of Seller
eBay
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Description
78 RPM 311 Nat King Cole Trio The Christmas Song Cool Evening 1946 one of the most historically significant holiday records of all time: a 10-inch, 78 RPM shellac single by the King Cole Trio, released in November 1946 on Capitol Records under the catalog number 311. Record Details
- Side A: "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" — Written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells, this pristine 1946 recording was the world's very first introduction to a song that became an immortal holiday standard. The performance features Nat King Cole on vocals and piano, Oscar Moore on guitar, and Johnny Miller on bass. It is uniquely stripped down compared to the lush, heavily orchestrated 1961 version that dominates modern radio.
- Side B: "In the Cool of the Evening" (often abbreviated as "Cool Evening") — A smooth, mid-tempo vocal jazz track featuring the trio's signature swing arrangements.
- The "Reindeer" Mistake: The very first 1946 pressings of Capitol 311 contain a famous grammatical blunder. Cole accidentally sang the plural of reindeer as "reindeers" during the bridge ("To see if reindeers really know how to fly"), which drove him to re-record the song later that same year with a string choir to correct it. Early shellac discs with the "reindeers" error are highly prized by collectors
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