UMe and Edible Offer Music This Holiday Season Through Edible.com
Edible®, the world’s largest franchisor of fresh fruit arrangements and other treats, is partnering with UMe, a division of Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company, to expand gifting options for this year’s holiday season by adding a music category with the launch of Edible Music™. Customers will have access to several digital music bundles including Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song album with the cherished song “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire),” staples in many homes around the world, across all ages and demographics. Nat King Cole’s songs are incomparable but the warmth of Cole’s voice in his evergreen rendition of “The Christmas Song” is only one of the reasons why the song was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame and the album is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s.
“Christmas was always my favorite holiday. Our house was filled to the brim with decorations, tinsel, ornaments, bows, the smell of food, and of course, the Christmas songs my dad had recorded,” remarked Timolin Cole, twin-daughter of Nat King Cole. “We would all sit around the piano and sing along with him or sit in the living room and listen to him sing and play. These are the magical moments I remember with such fondness. Those songs of my dad still fill my house now,” adds Casey Cole, twin-daughter of Nat King Cole.
The Christmas Song album contains 19 holiday classics, the original album plus five additional songs that includes a duet with Natalie Cole.
Tracklisting:
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)
Deck The Hall; Adeste Fideles
O Tannenbaum
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
I Saw Three Ships; O Holy Night
Hark ! The Herald Angels Sing
A Cradle In Bethlehem; Away In A Manger
Joy To The World
The First Noel
Caroling, Caroling
Silent Night.
Additional Bonus Tracks include: Buon Natale (Means Merry Christmas To You); God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen; O Come All Ye Faithful; The Happiest Christmas Tree; The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) Featuring – Natalie Cole.
Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nat King Cole, widely acknowledged as one of the most honored and iconic performing and recording artists of all time. Cole recorded more than 700 jazz and pop songs for Capitol Records, including 150 singles that appeared on the R&B, Pop, and/or Country charts. A few of Cole’s classic hits include: “L-O-V-E,” “Mona Lisa,” “Unforgettable,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Nature Boy” and the holiday staple, “The Christmas Song.” Nat King Cole’s story continues to grow as each new generation discovers his music, as well as his trailblazing, catalytic role in several important cultural and sociopolitical advancements, including the U.S. civil rights movement. The arc of Cole’s life is a study in success despite adversity, and the triumph of civility, respect, and talent married with political, cultural, and business savvy.
Nat King Cole’s twin daughters Timolin and Casey Cole, work to honor their father’s legacy and his music. They established the Nat King Cole Generation Hope in 2008 to build sustainable music programs for schools across the United States. Following his path of grace and tenacity, they raise funds and help enact change.
Edible Music holiday albums from UMe are available now through December 31, 2020. Albums can be purchased as part of a bundle or as an add-on to any order. Customers receive a website and unique code to download the album.
- Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song
- Gwen Stefani’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas
- Now That’s What I Call a Merry Christmas – A compilation of holiday songs with classics like Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” plus modern takes on Christmas gems with Kelly Clarkson, Bruce Springsteen and Sam Smith.
During the holidays this year when many people may be apart, music serves as a way for family and friends to connect and continue sharing including favorite songs, experiencing it with each other, and maintaining musical traditions or creating new ones for generations to come.
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About NAT KING COLE
Born March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama, the masterful pianist and vocalist’s initial focus was the jazz idiom, having formed the Nat King Cole Trio while in his 20s. The group was an almost immediate sensation and proved influential to the extent that no less an authority than Count Basie marveled, “Those cats used to read each other’s mind — it was unbelievable.” Ray Charles inducted Cole into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and readily admitted to Cole’s monumental influence on him.
Cole was signed to Capitol Records in 1943 and The King Cole Trio, his initial album released in 1945 at the dawn of the LP format, topped Billboard‘s inaugural album chart. He went on to record nearly 700 songs for Capitol, including 150 singles that charted on Billboard‘s Pop, R&B and/or Country charts. That phenomenal success led to Capitol’s iconic round building on Vine Street in Hollywood to be informally known as “The House That Nat Built.”
Along with his trailblazing musical career, Cole is recognized for his contributions to the struggle for civil rights and racial equality. His efforts were done in his own unique style. In 1946, Cole broadcast a 15-minute national radio program, “King Cole Trio Time,” the first of its kind to be hosted by an African American musician. In 1956, he also became the first major African American entertainer to host his own national network TV show. NBC’s “Nat King Cole Show” aired weekly from November 1956 to December 1957, the cancelation of which was caused by a paucity of sponsors since marketers were afraid to offend white viewers with a program hosted by an African American. Cole also appeared in several films, including his top-billed portrayal of W.C. Handy in 1958’s St. Louis Blues and his final big-screen star turn as Shouter / Sunrise Kid in 1965’s Cat Ballou.
In 1948, Cole purchased a house for his family in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on the family’s front lawn, and members of the neighborhood’s property owners association told Cole they did not want any “undesirables” moving into the neighborhood. Cole responded, “Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I’ll be the first to complain.” He helped overturn the 1920s Los Angeles statute that had kept the neighborhood segregated. The KKK targeted Cole and struck again in 1956 when Klansmen rushed the stage and beat Cole at a concert performance in Birmingham, Alabama. He would never perform in the south again.
In 1959, Cole won the GRAMMY Award for Best Performance by a “Top 40” Artist for “Midnight Flyer.” In 1963, he was honored with a Special Achievement Award from the Golden Globes.
Cole’s final album, L-O-V-E, was recorded in December 1964 and released in January 1965, just before his untimely death on February 15 at the age of 45. The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard albums chart. At the time, it was reported that Capitol Records had sold more than nine million Nat King Cole records. From “Mona Lisa” to “Unforgettable,”
In 1990, Cole was posthumously awarded the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He has four recordings in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame: “The Christmas Song” (1946), “Nature Boy” (1948), “Mona Lisa” (1950), and “Unforgettable” (1951). Cole’s 1944 hit, “Straighten Up And Fly Right,” and the Jazz at the Philharmonic album series in which he is a featured artist have been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, which honors “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” American recordings.
In 1991, Cole’s daughter Natalie Cole released Unforgettable: With Love, featuring her virtual duet of “Unforgettable” with her father. The album topped charts around the world and won the coveted Album Of The Year GRAMMY Award. Just three years thereafter, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Nat King Cole commemorative stamp in its “Legends of American Music” series. In 2000, Nat King Cole was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
About Edible Brands®
Edible Brands is the parent company of Edible, the world’s largest franchisor of stores offering all-natural fruit snacks, dipped treats and fresh fruit arrangements with more than 1,000 locations worldwide. Since its founding in 1999, the company has been recognized as an industry leader, ranking first in its category in Entrepreneur magazine’s annual “Franchise 500,” Entrepreneur’s Top 40 of “Fastest Growing Franchises” and “America’s Top Global Franchises” as well as being included among the “Inc. 5000” list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies. Edible fresh fruit arrangements, chocolate Dipped Fruit™, fresh fruit smoothies, fresh produce boxes, FruitFlowers, Bakeshop goods and other treats can be ordered through any local Edible store or online at edible.com. Edible has franchise opportunities available in a number of key markets in the United States and Canada. For more information about owning an Edible please visit ediblefranchise.com.
About UMe
Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) is the centralized U.S. catalog and special markets entity for UMG. Working in tandem with all of the company’s record labels, UMe provides a frontline approach to catalog management, a concentration of resources, opportunities in new technologies and an emphasis on strategic marketing initiatives to engage all types of consumers across multiple entry points and platforms.
