Hundreds of artists have recorded Meredith Willson’s classic song, which continues to dominate the holiday charts

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, November 19, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- While another popular Christmas song often signals the beginning of the season, there’s a different tune that tops the annual classic holiday charts. As “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” turns 74 years old, The Music Man Foundation is celebrating by sharing ten fun facts about the beloved, chart-topping holiday standard.

1. Meredith Willson wrote “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” in 1951. The song turns 75 in 2026!
2. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ranked the song #1 on the top 25 most-played ASCAP Holiday Songs of 2024.*
3. Meredith Willson is best known for writing the Broadway musical, “The Music Man.”
4. He also wrote The Beatles’ hit, “Till There Was You.”
5. Willson added “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas,” combined with another song, to another musical he wrote, now known as “Meredith Willson’s Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical.”
6. Today, 100% of profits from licensing royalties for Willson’s work, including “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas,” are donated to community organizations through The Music Man Foundation.
7. Local lore in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, holds that Willson wrote the song while vacationing at Yarmouth’s Grand Hotel.
8. “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” was a hit when it was first recorded by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters.
9. The song has been covered more than 200 times by artists including Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Harry Connick, Jr., V from BTS, Laura Pausini, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Camilo and Evaluna (who performed a Spanish-English version of the song).
10. Michael Bublé’s version has charted in more than 25 countries with almost two billion streams worldwide in 2021, according to Warner Records.

About The Music Man Foundation:
The Music Man Foundation is named after the Tony Award-winning musical written by Meredith Willson. Meredith’s widow, Rosemary, started the Foundation in 1998 as The Meredith and Rosemary Willson Charitable Foundation. Today, the Foundation donates 100% of profits from licensing royalties to organizations using music to catalyze enduring change and to amplify our founders’ musical legacy. Over the last decade, the Foundation has awarded more than $25 million to 85 organizations. In addition to “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” and “The Music Man,” Meredith Willson wrote the music for “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and the University of Iowa fight song. Visit https://musicmanfoundation.org for more information.

* Among songs written, co-written or arranged by ASCAP songwriters and composers and based on an analysis of ASCAP streaming and terrestrial radio data and continued membership in ASCAP.

Nerissa Silao
Haines & Co.
+1 310-874-9230
email us here

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