The Christmas Song

Where Bublé's version of this same standard emphasizes intimacy, Sinatra's classic Capitol recording achieves something more timeless — a sense of inevitability, of a performance that has become the very definition of what it describes. The Nelson Riddle orchestration is incomparable: strings that warm without sentimentalizing, woodwinds that add color without distracting, a rhythm section so tastefully subordinated to the melodic material that it functions as pure forward motion. Sinatra's phrasing is the real text — the way he lingers on certain consonants, the almost conversational ease with which he navigates intervals that would challenge lesser singers, the quality of apparent spontaneity over perfect technique. Lyrically the song's accumulated images — yuletide carols, Eskimo kisses, folks dressed up like Eskimos, the distant hope of a white Christmas — create a holiday world that is imaginary and therefore indestructible. This version created a template that every subsequent recording measures itself against, whether it acknowledges this or not.