[citation needed] The original single version of the song can be found on the box sets From the Top and The Essential Collection: 1965–1997.

Twenty years later in 1966, when he was choral director at California State University, Long Beach, two of his aspiring music students, Karen and Richard Carpenter, who were beginning to have success as a local band, asked him if he had any ideas for holiday songs.

Pooler gave them the lyrics of the song he had written from years before, and told them he did not think much of the original melody.

[4] Elvis Presley almost recorded his own version in the early 1970s, but struggled learning the bridge, as he could not read music, and gave up.

In 2020, for the 50th anniversary of the song, Canadian singer Lennon Stella covered "Merry Christmas Darling" for Amazon Music's Originals playlist.