Merry Christmas (Bing Crosby album)

It has remained in print through the vinyl, CD, and downloadable file eras, currently as the disc and digital album White Christmas on MCA Records, a part of the Universal Music Group, (reissued in June 1995) and currently on vinyl as Merry Christmas on Geffen Records (re-issued in September 2014).

It includes Crosby's signature song "White Christmas", the best-selling single of all time with estimated sales of over 50 million copies worldwide.

This recording of "White Christmas", heard on every subsequent pressing, is actually a re-recording of the song as, in an unprecedented occurrence, the 1942 master had actually worn out and was no longer usable.

Decca and Crosby undertook the remake with the same orchestra and chorus, in an attempt to re-create the original May 1942 recording as closely as possible.

The Andrews Sisters, often Crosby's recording partners in the 1940s, are featured on the tracks "Jingle Bells", "Mele Kalikimaka", and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".

The original 78-rpm album cover (seen above) had a light blue background and showed a large black and white photograph of Crosby's head.

It had the same basic cover with a new yellow background and the same four singles as the 78 rpm album A-550, and the individual records had the same catalog numbers, in this case preceded by the "9-" prefix.

This issue has remained unchanged to present; first pressings of the album were released on Decca's all-black label with the catalog number in the top left corner of the front cover.

The re-channeled stereo mixes are considered by many[3] to be inferior due to the addition of artificial reverb, giving the once intimate-sounding "dry" original masters a "concert-hall" sound.

Universal Music Group (successor to MCA Records) changed the name of the album to White Christmas, keeping the contents and the catalogue number unchanged.

This limited edition mono reissue faithfully reproduces the newly designed 1955 LP, right down to the album jacket artwork (which restores the original "Merry Christmas" title) and the period-appropriate black Decca label on the vinyl record.

A white vinyl version of the above album released in 2014 was re-mastered and re-released in a Walmart-exclusive limited edition format in time for the 2019 Christmas season.

[7][8] Delta Music also released an album in 1992 on the LaserLight label titled White Christmas often confused with the newer Decca imprint.