Christmas in July of July (Canada Day on July 1 in Canada and American Independence Day on July 4 in the United States) and Labor/Labour Day (the first Monday in September for both the US and Canada), leaving a stretch of about two months with no holidays (some Canadian provinces hold a Civic Holiday, but neither Canada nor the United States has ever recognized a national holiday during that month). The late July period provides relatively few opportunities for merchandising, since it is typically after the peak of summer product sales in June and early July, but before the "back to school" shopping
On the First Warm Day discs to 19 cents by early August. Rosemary Clooney recorded "First Warm Day" one month before her 24th birthday. At about the same time, the veteran performer from the previous generation for whom the song was written, 52-year-old Mabel Mercer (who first sang one of Bart Howard's compositions in 1938 and employed him as her piano accompanist during the late 1940s), recorded the song for issue on an Atlantic Records EP. It was also included on her first 10" Atlantic LP album, "Songs by Mabel Mercer, Vol. 1" (1953), and subsequently reappeared on Atlantic's double 12" LP album, "The Art