According to legend, Christmas in July was first celebrated at a girls’ summer camp in 1933. Not too long after that (1940), the movie Christmas in July was released. In the movie, a man is tricked into thinking he has won $25,000, and goes on a spending spree. Now, Christmas in July sales are a big phenomenon with retailers. As the month of July ends, it seems appropriate to revisit the story behind one of the most popular Christmas songs that has been recorded in recent history.
Feliz Navidad
Words and Music
Singer-songwriter Jose Feliciano came up with “Feliz Navidad” within minutes, after a producer asked him to write an original Christmas song for a 1970 holiday album. He wasn’t sure he could compete with famous musicians like Irving Berlin and Brenda Lee, and “Feliz Navidad” seemed too simple, but his producer liked it, and the rest is history.
Jose Feliciano
Jose Feliciano was born in Lares, Puerto Rico in 1945. Despite being born blind, he started playing the ukulele when he was only three years old. His family later moved to Spanish Harlem in New York when he was five. He learned to play classical guitar and played in coffee houses and music clubs in Greenwich Village as a teenager, but his career actually started at the age of nine when he played the accordion at a radio show in New York. His mother got him his first radio gig and eventually took him to the radio station every day.
Feliciano was a hero among his fellow “Nuyoricans (New York Puerto Ricans), but his music didn’t have universal appeal from the onset. RCA was initially reluctant to sign him on, so he ended up going to Argentina and performing jazz and R and B (rhythm and blues) there. When he returned to New York, RCA told him he should go back to Argentina, since he was popular there.
Feliciano did eventually get signed on by RCA, winning a Grammy for the best new artist in 1968, the same year in which he performed the national anthem at the World Series. “Feliz Navidad” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010.
A bilingual landmark
Feliciano wanted a song that would unite people, so he wrote “Feliz Navidad” in both English and Spanish. Working in a Los Angeles studio, he missed his family in New York and channeled those feelings into the new song. In the original version, Feliciano played the guitar and the cuatro, a 10 stringed instrument his uncle had taught him to play in Puerto Rico. The song expressed the joy he felt at Christmas and the fact that he missed his family (which included eleven brothers) and their Christmas traditions.
“Feliz Navidad” was released in 1970 but didn’t catch on immediately. It didn’t enter the any of the US Billboard popularity charts until two and a half decades later, eventually reaching the top ten in 2020.
“Feliz Navidad” has been performed by many artists, including Celine Dion and Michael Buble, and it is one of the most played and recorded Christmas songs in the world.
Feliciano collaborated with Jools Holland to release a ska version of “Feliz Navidad” in 2017. Ska is a genre of music that combines elements of Caribbean music with American jazz and rhythm and blues.
To mark its 50th anniversary, a new version of “Feliz Navidad” was recorded in 2020, in which Feliciano sang with 30 of his friends, including Jason Mraz and Gloria Gaynor.
“Feliz Navidad” has been recognized as one of the top 25 most played and recorded Christmas songs
world-wide by the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers.
“I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas. And I think it’s wonderful.”
– Jose Feliciano
Author’s note: Stay tuned for my upcoming book on the stories behind our favorite Christmas songs! Feliz Navidad!
Sources
https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-feliz-navidad-by-jose-feliciano/. Accessed July 24, 2024
https://www.grammy.com/awards/hall-of-fame-award#f. Accessed July 22, 2024
https://www.billboard.com/pro/jose-feliciano-feliz-navidad-hot-100-top-10/. Accessed July 24, 2024
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