<\/p>\n
More than five decades after Karen Carpenter<\/strong> first sang \u201cMerry Christmas, Darling,\u201d rising star Stella Cole<\/strong> has brought the beloved holiday song back to life with her own heartfelt touch and a “charming take.”<\/p>\n Released Oct. 17 via Decca Records US, Cole\u2019s version pays homage to the 1970 classic while giving it a modern, cinematic warmth that\u2019s all her own.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting fifty-five years for a fresh take on what I consider to be one of my better songs, and Ms. Cole knocks it out of the park,\u201d said Richard Carpenter<\/strong>\u2014who co-wrote the tune and famously produced the Carpenters\u2019 version\u2014per a press released shared directly with Parade.<\/p>\n The original tune was a smash hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Christmas chart in the US.<\/p>\n At just 26, Cole has already been hailed a \u201cpowerhouse vocalist<\/a>.\u201d Her rendition of \u201cMerry Christmas, Darling\u201d teams her once again with Grammy-winning producer Matt Pierson<\/strong> (known for work with Samara Joy<\/strong> and Brad Mehldau<\/strong>) and arranger Alan Broadbent<\/strong>, crafting a sound that honors Karen\u2019s lush style but infuses it with new emotion and color.<\/p>\n With more than 1.7 million social media followers across platforms, Cole has become a sensation for her fresh takes on the Great American Songbook\u2014covering icons like Judy Garland<\/strong>, Frank Sinatra<\/strong>, and Nat \u201cKing\u201d Cole <\/strong>with grace and youthful flair. She\u2019s been praised for bringing vintage style to a new era of listeners.<\/p>\n Born and raised in rural Illinois, Cole grew up obsessed with Hollywood musicals like Singin\u2019 in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz, but she admits she never expected this life. Her nostalgic yet fresh sound has earned admiration from industry legends including James Taylor<\/strong>, Michael Bubl\u00e9<\/strong>, David Foster<\/strong>, and Meghan Trainor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n She\u2019s graced national TV shows including the Today show<\/a>, Live with Kelly and Mark, and Tamron Hall<\/a>, performing everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n Next: Iconic Fan-Favorite ’80s Film Heads Back to Theaters for Milestone 40th Anniversary<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than five decades after Karen Carpenter first sang \u201cMerry Christmas, Darling,\u201d rising star Stella Cole has brought the beloved holiday song back to life with her own heartfelt touch and a “charming take.” Released Oct. 17 via Decca Records US, Cole\u2019s version pays homage to the 1970 classic while giving it a modern, cinematic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2106453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[349571,398649,398650,398647,398648,309368,352367],"class_list":["post-2106452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-darling","tag-decca-records","tag-heartfelt-touch","tag-karen-carpenter","tag-merry-christmas","tag-nat-king-cole","tag-stella-cole"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Legendary-70s-Soft-Rock-Duos-Smash-Hit-Gets-Charming-New.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2106452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106454,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106452\/revisions\/2106454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2106453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2106452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2106452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2106452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Timeless Sound with Modern Soul<\/h2>\n
A Voice Bridging Generations<\/h2>\n