If Every Day Was Like Christmas
1966 single by Elvis Presley
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"If Every Day Was Like Christmas" is a song written in 1965 by Red West and popularized by his friend and employer Elvis Presley in 1966 when he recorded and released it as a single.[1][2] Presley released it again in 1970 on his Camden Elvis' Christmas Album.
| "If Every Day Was Like Christmas" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Single by Elvis Presley | ||||
| from the album Elvis' Christmas Album (1970) | ||||
| B-side | "How Would You Like to Be" | |||
| Released | November 15, 1966 | |||
| Recorded | June 10, 1966 | |||
| Studio | RCA Studio B, Nashville | |||
| Genre | Christmas | |||
| Length | 2:51 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriter | Red West | |||
| Elvis Presley singles chronology | ||||
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Background
Around August 1965, Presley's friend and bodyguard Red West wrote the song "in about an hour, and [sic] hour and a half".[1] He recorded it and released it the same year under his own label for the 1965 Christmas season, with little success.[2] The following year, he gave the song to Presley to record, as Presley had been wanting to record a Christmas song.[1] The backing track was recorded on June 10, 1966, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, with background vocals provided by Millie Kirkham, The Jordanaires, and The Imperials Quartet.[3][4] Two days later, on June 12, Presley's vocals were added.[2] According to West, the vocals were sung and recorded in a hotel room after an enthusiastic Presley heard a copy of the just-recorded backing track on a two-track tape recorder.[1][2] The song was released on November 15, 1966, as an RCA Victor 45 single, 47-8950, backed with "How Would You Like To Be" from the movie It Happened at the World's Fair.[3][4]
The song was included on the 1970 RCA Camden reissue of Elvis' Christmas Album collection, which was re-released by Pickwick Records in 1975 and by RCA in 1985. The album was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2011 with sales of over 10 million copies.
Personnel
- Guitar: Harold Bradley, Scotty Moore, Chip Young.
- Bass: Bob Moore.
- Drums: D. J. Fontana.
- Drums & timpani: Buddy Harman.
- Piano: David Briggs.
- Organ: Henry Slaughter.
- Steel guitar: Pete Drake.
- Saxophone: Rufus Long.
- Backing vocals: Millie Kirkham, June Page, Dolores Edgin, The Jordanaires, The Imperials
Charts
The single reached No. 2 on the Billboard "Best Bets For Christmas" survey in 1966, and returned to the chart in 1967, spending a total of eight weeks in the chart. In the United Kingdom, the song reached No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart in December 1966.