Did You Know? 5 Mel Torme Facts

by Lara on June 26th, 2008

Melvin Howard Tormé was born in 1925 in Chicago, Illinois to immigrant Russian Jewish parents whose real last name had been Torma.
He composed the music for the classic holiday song “The Christmas Song” (also known as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” popularly sung by Nat King Cole and many other crooners). Noted by some as odd, because he was Jewish, that he wrote a Christmas song, Mel claimed to have written it in under 45 minutes and it was never one of his favorites.
As a teen, Mel Tormé sang, arranged, and played drums in a band led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers.
He was married 4 times, and had 5 children and 2 stepchildren.
Mel lent his voice to Warner Brothers in The Night of the Living Duck (1988) and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1988)

b5media.com