Burl Ives ft Owen Bradley & Orchestra - A Holly Jolly Christmas (MCA Records 1965)

"A Holly Jolly Christmas" is a popular song written by Johnny Marks. Although he was Jewish, he specialized in Christmas songs and wrote many standards including "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, and "Run Rudolph Run." This song was first recorded by the Quinto Sisters and later by Burl Ives.

The guitarist is Harold Ray Bradley, the brother of the musical director Owen Bradley.

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American singer and actor of stage, screen, radio and television.

He began as an itinerant singer and banjoist, and launched his own radio show, The Wayfaring Stranger, which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942 he appeared in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army, and then became a major star of CBS radio. In the 1960s he successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way of Laughing". A popular film actor through the late 1940s and 1950s, Ives's best-known roles in that medium included parts in So Dear to My Heart and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, as well as Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Ives is often remembered for his starring role in the 1964 Christmas stop-motion television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which continues to air on CBS every Christmas season, as the voice of "Sam the Snowman", the special's host and narrator.

Have a holly, jolly Christmas;
It's the best time of the year
I don't know if there'll be snow
but have a cup of cheer
Have a holly, jolly Christmas;
And when you walk down the street
Say Hello to friends you know
and everyone you meet

Oh ho
the mistletoe
hung where you can see;
Somebody waits for you;
Kiss her once for me
Have a holly jolly Christmas
and in case you didn't hear
Oh by golly
have a holly
jolly Christmas this year