How could a Sinatra song be a forgotten oldie?

Sad but true unless you’re a Sinatra-holic, if I can use (create) that term.

The year was 1957, and the voice was young and superb and perfect. Frank Sinatra released the most tender of Christmas ballads in a style that was clearly his very own.

I could be wrong. But I’m not.

I grew up in a household filled with TV Christmas specials and radio stations that always played Christmas songs. And I got older. And I watched even more TV Christmas specials and listened to more Christmas songs on the radio.

Where was “My Christmas Dreaming”?  Why wasn’t it played on the radio? Why didn’t stars or guests on Andy Williams or Perry Como or Dean Martin Christmas specials sing that beautiful song?

I have no idea. Did radio stations only play records released as singles? Did this song get rejected as a result?

I do know this. Few if any other artists dared to cover that song. Maybe it was because it was a Sinatra original, and therefore considered untouchable. If anyone did record the song they did so in an obscure manner, making no commercial success.

Then in 1993 Harry Connick Jr. included his version on a Christmas album that had a little  more razzmatazz than Sinatra gave it more than 35 years before. And Connick’s recording is wonderful. But like the Chairman of the Board, Connick unfortunately had a take that today gets no radio airplay.

Fine. What do those radio programmers know. It’s still first-rate.