Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose . . .
From decorating the tree to opening gifts around the fireplace, Christmas is a time full of wonder and delight. When the celebration is shared with family and friends, the feelings of hope and joy become even more meaningful and cherished.
The classic lyrics of "The Christmas Song" have spread the Yuletide spirit since the mid-1940s. Doris Barrette's lush, beautiful illustrations capture the heart of both holiday and home, for all kids from one to ninety-two!

The Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Children's Books

Tormé, Mel

Wells, Robert

Literature & Fiction

Harpercollins

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose . . . From decorating the tree to opening gifts around the fireplace, Christmas is a time full of wonder and delight. When the celebration is shared with family and friends, the feelings of hope and joy become even more meaningful and cherished. The classic lyrics of "The Christmas Song" have spread the Yuletide spirit since the mid-1940s. Doris Barrette's lush, beautiful illustrations capture the heart of both holiday and home, for all kids from one to ninety-two!

Holidays & Celebrations

HarperCollins Children`s Books

Mel Tormé is world renowned as a leading jazz vocalist. He has performed in MGM musicals, co-wrote one of the enduring Christmas classics, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)," and was recently profiled in Life magazine as one of the greatest living jazz singers. But Tormé has also written five books, including The Other Side of the Rainbow, Tormé's account of his year working on the Judy Garland television show--considered the best portrait of Garland ever written. In this book, Tormé writes a brilliant biography of his friend of forty years--the drummer Buddy Rich. Buddy Rich was one of the most famous drummers of the Swing Era, having starred in the Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey bands. After World War II he successfully led several of his own bands. Born into a vaudeville family, Buddy performed on the drums in his parents' act before he was two years old--where he was billed as "Traps, the Drum Wonder"--and became the highest paid child performer in the world by age four. This early fame--and Buddy's abusive father--left psychological scars on Rich, who developed an abrasive personality, and would beat his drums as an outlet for his frustrations. Although a close friend and admirer, Tormé pulls no punches when it comes to describing Rich's occasional outbursts and his sometimes childish pranks. But, as Tormé shows, Buddy could also be charming, affectionate, and funny, as he demonstrated during his frequent appearances as a guest on the Tonight show. (When Rich died, Johnny Carson proclaimed, "The world lost a genius, and I lost a friend.") We also find tales of Buddy's stormy friendship with Frank Sinatra (his first roommate on tour with the Tommy Dorsey band), and his romance with Lana Turner (Buddy's first serious love affair). More than anything, of course, Rich was a brilliant musician, and he earned many tributes from jazz musicians ("What Buddy could do with a couple of pieces of wood was uncanny," remembers drummer Alvin Stoller). Torme shows a deep understanding of the life of a jazzman, and the many challenges and vicissitudes that are involved with it. We learn of the problems of holding a swing band together during an era when bebop ruled, follow Buddy in his search for the perfect snare drum, and observe the many "drum-offs" when Rich proved his unmatchable talent in friendly competition with other talented drummers, such as Gene Krupa. The Buddy Rich story is a fascinating one, as much for what it says about the world of American music and entertainment as for the remarkable life it portrays. Drawing from magazines and many personal reminiscences, Tormé packs this biography with vivid, often funny, anecdotes. His personal touch and his in-depth knowledge of jazz make for a moving, insightful, and often hilarious biography.

Traps, the Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich

Humor & Entertainment

Oxford University Press

"The Judy Garland Show," which aired Sunday nights at nine on CBS twenty-six times between June 1963 and March 1964, was the last glimmer of a fading star. As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz Judy Garland had charmed the world, singing and dancing down a golden path to fame; now she was middle-aged and wracked with personal problems, habitually late for rehearsals, often not showing up at all. When she made what proved to be her final appearance on Stage 43 in Television City (dressed, rather ironically, as a clown), one stagehand, assessing her thin and haggard figure, sighed "no more yellow-brick road." In The Other Side of the Rainbow--now reissued with a new preface--Mel Torme takes us on a Hollywood roller-coaster ride through the triumphs and disasters of this short-lived show, at the same time revealing a personal side of Judy Garland rarely glimpsed. While she was notoriously hard to work with, and her affection for "the Blue Lady" (Blue Nun leibfraumilch), vodka, and pills was well-known even at this time, Torme shows that Judy was still capable of breathtaking performances, that she could still earn the sobriquet "High Priestess of the entertainment world." Torme signed on to "The Judy Garland Show" as its musical director, writing special tunes, putting together medleys, at times even coaching Judy from an off-camera position. He was there from the start, survived an almost total purge of show staff, and left just before the final telecast. Consequently, we see it all from center stage: Mickey Rooney saving a virtually unrehearsed early show from failure, Lena Horne storming over Judy's lack of professionalism, Cary Grant refusing to do his oft-imitated "JU-dy, JU-dy, JU-dy" (insisting he had never said it), daughter Liza Minelli singing a duet with her beaming mother, and Judy herself, alone on the set, belting out a powerfully moving rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" only weeks after the assassination of JFK. (Her desire to do a special program dedicated to Kennedy's memory was nixed by CBS: this was her unexpected and defiant response.) Behind the scenes we witness Judy at her best (Torme remembers of feeling "chills of delight" as Garland sang "Mama's Gone, Goodbye" during their first session together), her funniest (telling dirty stories to the production crew), and her worst, drunk and hysterical, waking her colleagues with early morning telephone calls. Known as The Dawn Patrol, Torme and others would leave their beds and rush to Garland's Brentwood home to offer whatever assistance they could. Brimming with anecdotes, illustrated with rare photographs of Judy on the television stage, and informed by the insights of a fellow performer who saw it all, The Other Side of the Rainbow offers a rare and compassionate look at one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainment icons.

The Other Side of the Rainbow: Behind the Scenes on the Judy Garland Television Series

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Mel Tormé is world renowned as a leading jazz vocalist. He has performed in MGM musicals, co-written one of the enduring Christmas classics, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)," and was recently profiled in Life magazine as one of the greatest living jazz singers. But Tormé has also written five books, including The Other Side of the Rainbow, Tormé's account of his year working on the Judy Garland television show--considered the best portrait of Garland ever written. In this book, Tormé writes a brilliant biography of his friend of forty years--the drummer Buddy Rich. Buddy Rich was one of the most famous drummers of the Swing Era, having starred in the Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey bands. After World War II he successfully led several of his own bands. Born into a vaudeville family, Buddy performed on the drums in his parents' act before he was two years old--where he was billed as "Traps, the Drum Wonder"--and became the highest paid child performer in the world by age four. This early fame--and Buddy's abusive father--left psychological scars on Rich, who developed an abrasive personality, and would beat his drums as an outlet for his frustrations. Although a close friend and admirer, Tormé pulls no punches when it comes to describing Rich's occasional outbursts and his sometimes childish pranks. But, as Tormé shows, Buddy could also be charming, affectionate, and funny, as he demonstrated during his frequent appearances as a guest on the Tonight show. We also find tales of Buddy's stormy friendship with Frank Sinatra, and his romance with Lana Turner (Buddy's first serious love affair). More than anything, of course, Rich was a brilliant musician, and he earned many tributes from jazz musicians. Torme shows a deep understanding of the life of a jazzman, and the many challenges and vicissitudes that are involved with it. We learn of the problems of holding a swing band together during an era when bebop ruled, follow Buddy in his search for the perfect snare drum, and observe the many "drum-offs" when Rich proved his unmatchable talent in friendly competition with other talented drummers, such as Gene Krupa. The Buddy Rich story is a fascinating one, as much for what it says about the world of American music and entertainment as for the remarkable life it portrays. Drawing from magazines and many personal reminiscences, Torme's personal touch and his in-depth knowledge of jazz make for a moving, insightful, and often hilarious biography.

Mel Tormé is one of the world's great jazz vocalists, a veteran of radio, movies, television, recordings, night clubs, and concert halls. He is also a highly respected arranger and composer, the co-author of one of the enduring seasonal classics, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)." And were that not enough, he is also an accomplished writer, having penned, among other books, a moving biography of his close friend, drummer Buddy Rich, Traps, the Drum Wonder; and an unblinking portrait of Judy Garland late in her career, The Other Side of the Rainbow. Now, in My Singing Teachers, Tormé sums up his vast experience in a tour of American music that is spiced with insightful commentary, vivid anecdotes, and Tormé's own take on the art of the song. Here is a pantheon of popular music and jazz, a sweeping look at American song from the perspective of one of its great practitioners. Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer, Ethel Waters and Nat "King" Cole, and many many more--all in one way or another helped Tormé shape his inimitable style. Tormé has drawn inspiration from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, so the book has an enormous range--covering jazz, big band singers (such as Helen Forrest or Bob Eberly), Hollywood musical singers (such as Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin), even cowboy singers (Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, among others), not to mention lyricists, composers, and arrangers. It brims with personal anecdotes and astute observations about the greats of American music, and reveals how they have influenced his craft. For instance, Tormé recounts how, at age five, he first saw Bessie Smith in a one-reeler "The St Louis Blues" and how she still influences his blues singing. He reveals how playing at the Paramount with Ella Fitzgerald converted him from bobby-sox music to jazz. And most surprisingly, he shows how listening to instrumentalists such as Ben Webster on tenor sax and Roy Eldridge on trumpet shaped his scat singing--even more than listening to the great scat singers. Tormé also pays homage to many lesser known figures, such as composer Harry Warren--whose songs include "I Only Have Eyes for You," "The More I See You," "We're in the Money," and "Down Argentine Way"--and singer Connee Boswell, who was an important model for Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Torme himself. Perhaps most important, Tormé concludes with a chapter that captures his thoughts on singing, a section that every singer will find invaluable. American popular music has been graced with many talented men and women whose wit, intellect, ingenuity, and craftsmanship have made this music immortal. My Music Teachers pays homage to these remarkable people as it celebrates the glories of the American song. All fans of pop or jazz, and especially all fans of Mel Tormé, will find this book a treasure.

My Singing Teachers

The Christmas Song Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

scholastic

The acclaimed veteran singer and songwriter recalls the highs and lows of his illustrious career and the more memorable events and relationships of his personal life

It Wasn't All Velvet:

Arts & Photography

Music

VIKING

New York: Stein &amp; Day, 1978. 1st Edition, Hardbound. 8vo.

Wynner

STEIN AND DAY.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tormé, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tormé, Mel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tormé, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

The Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

The Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Traps, the Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich

The Other Side of the Rainbow: Behind the Scenes on the Judy Garland Television Series

Traps, the Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich

My Singing Teachers

The Christmas Song Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

It Wasn't All Velvet:

Wynner