Merry Christmas Darling
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He was also consis-
tently supportive of and
enamored with Richard’s
musical achievements, so
much so that in 1966, he
asked him to pen the
music for “Merry Christ-
mas Darling’s” romantic
lyrics, words that had
been sitting around with-
out a satisfactory setting
since the Second World
War. “In 1966, Frank Pooler asked me to set music to a lyric
that he had written twenty years earlier,” remembers Rich-
ard in the 1991 liner notes for Carpenters — From The Top.
“We were all pleased with the result, and for the next several
years Karen and I would perform the song at different Christ-
mas parties for which we were hired.”
Right before the decade closed, with the Vietnam War vio-
lently raging, the smooth-sounding Carpenters were signed
to A&M Records, and the sweet innocence of their majestic
choral harmonies provided a soothing balm for a country
broken in half.
The following year, on November 16, 1970, four months
after they landed their first number-one record with “Close
To You,” they completed the final mixdown of “Merry Christ-
mas Darling,” and it was officially released as a single four
days later with the non-holiday “Mr. Guder” as its B-side.
Production credit for Richard and Karen’s holiday classic
would be given to Jack Daugherty, once a trumpeter for Woody
Herman’s band, who helped bring the duo to the attention of
Herb Alpert, co-owner of A&M. According to some sources
however, Richard played a major role in that production, as
well as all of the Carpenters’ early work, even though
Daugherty was given top billing for it.
Weeks after its debut, “Darling” shot to number one on
Billboard’s Christmas Singles chart, and returned to that po-
sition in 1971 and 1973.
Now knowing there was a tremendous Christmas market
out there for them, the Carpenters began sowing the seeds
for their first seasonal set — 1978’s Christmas Portrait. The
rock invasion of the 60’s and 70’s, however, suddenly made
their plan seem old-fashioned to many in the music industry