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Away in a Manger
Away in a Manger
is always the first carol that children are taught. It was
originally published in 1885. The publication of Away in a
Manger was in a Lutheran Sunday school book and this created
the misconception that the lyrics were actually written by
Martin Luther himself.
The author is unknown. The music was composed by William J.
Kirkpatrick in 1895.
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“The Chipmunk Song”
Ross
Bagdasarian was a
novelty writer in a non-novelty world. Making a living as a
quirky songwriter during the McCarthy era didn't pay regularly,
but Ross was bent on following his own twisted dream. He had one
major triumph - He had written the hit, "Come Onna my House"
for Rosemary Clooney in 1951. But mostly his recording
career up to that point was “cheesy instrumentals” as he
described them and some weird "drunk at a bar yacking over
stupid piano riffs." He was remanded to the other side of the
recording booth as a recording engineer.
Bagdasarian loved the dials and buttons and little gauges and
lights; getting a kick out of playing with the technology of
recording. Now, back in Ross's day, the one major evil to be
avoided at all costs was recording outside of a non-standard
speed. The drag of a dirty capstan head or an extra revolution
per second due to a power surge would leave a music recording
worthless, changed in speed, key, and register. It became a
waste of tape, unusable. But, that being said, it sure sounded
silly. Naturally, Ross had to play with it.
By deliberately recording on the slowest speed possible on his
reel-to-reel, he found he could sing normally, and sound like a
freak on helium if he sped the recording to normal speed on
playback. Using this novelty voice as the background singers for
the chorus, Bagdasarian recorded 'Witchdoctor,' and hit
the top of the charts in 1958. Ross scattered to find a means of
extending his 15 minutes of fame, and to his great credit he
managed to do so within the very same year. He created the
personas of three obnoxious drunks who sang harmony, sped the
tape up, and voila, the chipmunks were born. Bagdasarian, at
normal speed, played the hapless manager of the Chipmunks, the
fictional David Seville. The chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and
Theodore) were named after the two heads of Liberty Records,
Al Bennett and Si Warnoker, and the session's
engineer Ted Keep.
'The Chipmunk Song', released for the Christmas
season of 1958, sold 5 million copies that year, and it got two
Grammys in 1958, "Best Comedy Performance" and "Best Recording
for Children".
It lead to a weekly television show and numerous albums still
selling to this day.
“The Christmas Song
(Chestnuts Roasting On An
Open Fire)
“The
Christmas Song” was written by a native Chicagoan and made
famous by a singer/songwriter who grew up in Chicago. The writer
was Mel Torme, also known as “The Velvet Fog.” The
singer was Nat King Cole.
Written in 1946 on one of the hottest July days on record in
Los Angeles, Mel and his writing partner, Robert Wells, were
assigned to write title songs for two movies, ironically neither
of which were holiday themed. Wells was trying to fight off the
unbearable heat by writing down everything he could think of
from his childhood winters in New England. Mel saw
the notes Wells had written on a pad of paper – “Chestnuts
roasting…Jack Frost nipping…Yuletide carols…Folks dressed up
like Eskimos” and saw lyrics to a song. Wells dismissed the
notion that it was a song and suggested that they focus on the
task at hand – writing the music for the movies. Mel insisted
they should continue with what Wells had started. Forty minutes
later, “The Christmas Song” was complete.
Mel then took the song across the city to his friend Nat King
Cole’s house. Nat immediately loved it and sensing a hit, he
asked Mel if he could record it before Mel offered the song to
anyone else. Within a week, Nat had gone to the studio and
recorded it. Released October 1946, the song stayed in the top
ten for two months, then hit the charts again in 1947, 1949,
1950, and 1954.
Now considered a holiday classic, “The Christmas Song”
was significant at the time because it was the first holiday
standard that was recorded and introduced by an African
American.
Although it has been recorded by more than a hundred other artists,
including Torme himself, the song will be forever linked to the
voice of Cole. In much the same way that the holiday season
isn’t complete without hearing Bing Crosby’s version
of “White Christmas,” millions feel the same way about
“The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole.
“Deck The Halls”
The music to Deck the
Halls is believed to Welsh in origin and was reputed to have
come from a tune called "Nos Galan" dating back to the
sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century Mozart used
the tune to Deck the Halls for a violin and piano duet
J.P. McCaskey is sometimes credited with the lyrics but he
only edited the Franklin Square Song Collection in which the
lyrics were first published. The first publication date of
Deck the Halls is 1881. The author is unknown but the words
are said to originate in America.
“Frosty
The Snowman”
Imitation is the
sincerest form of capitalizing on someone else's idea. So it
went with the writing duo of Jack Nelson and Steve
Rollins in 1949, as Gene Autry's performance of
John Marks' "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" sold 2
million copies in its first season. Three things came to mind:
1) We could write something that stupid.
2) Those guys are making a fortune.
3) We want money, too.
Ipso facto, "Frosty."
Over the course of the winter, the pair had ascribed
anthropomorphic qualities to any number of holiday trappings
before they finally came across the concept of the irrepressible
snowman. They tin-pan alleyed a catchy tune from it, and before
summer was warm they found themselves at the doorstep of Mr.
Autry, promising him they had 'the next big thing' for the
Christmas to come. Autry was an easy sale; he was hoping for a
chance to follow up on last year's triumph, and snatched it up
greedily.
Somehow, it worked. It was another hit - not a Rudolph by a long
shot, but it did manage to burrow down into the public
consciousness enough that Frosty joined the pantheon of
Christmas icons. Nelson and Rollins sold Autry another song at
the same time - just in case. And that's how the Easter ballad "Here
comes Peter Cottontail" was born.
“Hark the
Herald Angels Sing”
“Hark the Herald
Angels Sing” was written by Charles Wesley, brother
of John Wesley founder of the Methodist church, in 1739.
A sombre man, he requested slow and solemn music for his lyrics
and thus “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was sung to a
different tune initially.
Over a hundred years later Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
composed a cantata in 1840 to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's
invention of the printing press. English musician William H.
Cummings adapted Mendelssohn’s music to fit the lyrics of
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” already written by Wesley.
Three hundred and fifty years later, its still going strong. Think the
latest Jessica Simpson hit will last that long?
“Have
Yourself A
Merry Little Christmas”
Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, Hall of Fame writers
who had written music for such movie classics like Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes and Girl Crazy, were contracted by MGM
to write the music for Meet Me In St. Louis, which
starred Mary Astor, June Lockhart, Margaret O’Brien, and
a twenty-two year old who had made her big screen debut five
years earlier as a girl from Kansas with her little dog, Judy
Garland.
The plot in the movie called for Judy’s character,
Esther, to sing a song to her little sister, Tootie, who was
worried that the family’s impending move from New York City to
Missouri would cause Santa Claus from being able to find her.
The scene was set on Christmas Eve night with Esther and Tootie
looking out from an upstairs window onto a snow covered front
lawn.
Martin and Blane felt the movie had taken a sudden tender and
sad turn and that the song Judy was about to sing should reflect
the pain she was feeling. The song’s first lines were “Have
yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last; next
year will be living in the past.” They brought the song to Judy,
who promptly refused to sing the song the way it was written.
She sent the song back and requested that they put a more
uplifting spin on it. The film’s director, and Judy’s future
husband, Vincente Minelli, Liza’s dad, also felt this way
and required the songwriters to recreate the film’s crucial
musical moment.
Judy based this request on the fact that during her time off
from making movies, she had spent countless days entertaining
troops across the world. She knew from her interaction with the
troops that they all just wanted to live through the war and
return home. Her instinct was that “Have Yourself A Merry
Little Christmas” would provide them with hope that they
would return home.
Martin and Blane reworked the song with a more encouraging
opening: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart
be light; from now on our troubles will be out of sight.”
Judy approved of the new lyrics and saw it as the perfect anthem
for all those troops who wanted more than anything else to be
home for Christmas..
“Here
Comes Santa Claus”
Gene Autry has
played a pivotal role in three of the best-known Christmas
songs. Two of them, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and
"Frosty the Snowman" were written for him, and his
performances of them made them famous. The first, however -
"Here comes Santa Claus" - he had a hand in writing, as
well.
According to Autry, he was inspired to the lyrics in 1947 while riding
ahead of the Santa float on his horse down Sunset and Hollywood
Boulevards, in the annual Hollywood Christmas parade. At the
time he was at the top of his profession, and was a bit confused
that, as he cantered around on his world-famous horse and waved,
the kids could care less. They just looked past him, and down
the street, screaming at the top of their lungs about their
sighting: "Here comes Santa Claus! Here Comes Santa Claus!!"
So he put it to song with friend Oakley Haldeman.
“I’ll Be
Home For Christmas”
Probably one of the most
simplistic of all holiday songs, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”
was penned by Walter Kent and James "Kim" Gannon.
It contains an introduction, one verse, one chorus, and a
mere twelve lines. Originally from Brooklyn, Gannon called upon
his every day experiences of watching families say good bye to
their sons going off to war; churches filled to the maximum with
parents praying for the safe return of their children; the rush
towards the mailman with the hopes of a letter from an enlisted
family member.
He also saw the fear in people’s eyes when the telegraph
delivery man showed up in the neighborhood; the news reports of
the latest outbreak of war in places that had been mentioned in
the last letter home; the streets filled with holiday
decorations, but the feeling of joy
missing from the air.
With all this in mind, Gannon could have easily tried to incorporate all
these components into a complicated song. Instead, he wrote a
simple, straight forward song about the pain of being away from
home for the holidays.
When he finished his poem, Gannon took the song to composer Walter Kent,
who put the right melody and feel to the words. Kent realized
the song was about two things: a message from the family members
left behind telling the soldiers that they missed them terribly
and a message from the soldiers telling those family members not
to give hope and that the soldiers would return home soon.
In October of 1943, Bing Crosby recorded the song as a
follow up to his enormous hit of 1942, “White Christmas.”
As big as “White Christmas” was, when “I’ll Be Home
For Christmas” was released, it initially received more
airplay and produced more sales than the singer’s hit of the
previous year. More than sixty years after its release, it
remains one of the most requested songs every holiday season by
members of our armed forces.
“It
Came Upon A Midnight Clear”
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear was written by
Edmund Hamilton Sears in 1849. The carol started life as a
poem written by its author who was a minister living in
Massachusetts at the time. The music for It Came Upon A
Midnight Clear was composed by American musician Richard
Storrs Willis in 1859 who was inspired by the words of the
poem. |
“Jingle Bells”
Born in the small town of Medford, Mass., James Pierpont
showed great musical promise as a singer, songwriter, and organ
player throughout his youth and into early adulthood. His
father was the pastor of the town’s Unitarian church and James
was called upon to assist with the choirs and musicians in the
church. James was given the task of writing music to use with a
Thanksgiving service his father would preside over.
As James was working on his musical assignment, he became
distracted by a bunch of young boys who were playing outside his
window. The boys were riding their sleds down a nearby hill.
James decided to take a break and watch the boys and began to
recall times in his youth when he raced sleds and sleighs with
strands of bells attached to them. Bells that would “jingle” as
he raced the sleds and sleighs.
The sled races inspired James and he began to write down a
melody. Unfortunately, James did not have a piano, so he had to
trudge through the snow and walk to the home of Mrs. Waterman,
the only home in Medford with a piano. He explained his story
and Mrs. Waterman let him sit down at the piano and play the
tune.
When he finished, he went home and began to write down words to
go with the melody. Using the images he had seen earlier in the
day and his recollections of his youth, James put the finishing
touches on “One Horse Open Sleigh,” the original name of
the song that would soon become known as “Jingle Bells.”
“One Horse Open Sleigh” was debuted on Thanksgiving at the
Medford Unitarian Church’s annual service. At that time,
Thanksgiving was the most significant holiday in New England, so
a large number of people heard the song. So many people heard
it and liked it, that they requested it be performed again the
following month at the church’s Christmas celebration. The
Christmas performance exposed the song to hundreds of out of
town visitors who liked the song so much, they brought it back
to their own home towns.
Because they had heard the song on Christmas Day, they assumed
the song was written about Christmas, not Thanksgiving. Though
it wasn’t published until 1857 following James’ move to
Savannah, Georgia, and wasn’t renamed “Jingle Bells”
until 1859, the song captured the imagery of an ideal rural
Christmas with snow, sleighs, and jingle bells that provided the
inspiration for hundreds of greeting cards, books, movies, and
even other holiday songs, like Bobby Helms’ “Jingle
Bell Rock.”
“Joy To The World”
The words and lyrics of the old carol 'Joy to the World'
were written in 1719 by Isaac Watts (1674-1748). The
father of John Watts was a Non-conformist and so extreme
were his views that he was imprisoned twice. Watts was ordained
as a Pastor of an Independent congregation. He wrote many hymns
and Carols and was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree by the
the University of Edinburgh in 1728. The music to the carol is
by George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
“Let It Snow”
The wonderful Christmas song Let It Snow was created by
lyricist Sammy Cahn and the composer Jule Styne in
1945. The duo wrote a slew of hits including "Three Coins in
a Fountain," "It's Magic," "Time After Time," "I Believe," Call
Me Irresponsible," and "My Kind of Town."
The words and lyrics of Let It Snow reflect the feeling
of warmth and security associated with Christmas and brings in
the more modern customs of popping corn!
The song was reprised in recent years when used in the Bruce
Willis film Die Hard which started with the film's
hero travelling to meet his family at Christmas.
Andy Williams has the most recognizable version of the
song, recorded in the mid-1960’s.
“Little Drummer Boy”
The words and music to the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy
was composed by Katherine K. Davis, Henry Onorati and
Harry Simeone in 1958. The lyrics consist of no less than
21 rum pum pum pum' - a major part of the song and therefore
presenting an apparently easy task for the lyricist! However,
Little Drummer Boy has been a huge hit for several artists.
The most notable rendition was created by the most unlikely
combination of Bing Crosby and David Bowie. This
1976 version of Little Drummer Boy was a massive hit for
the artists and was in fact Bing's most successful recording
since the legendary White Christmas thirty years earlier.
Crosby died shortly after within a week of the death of Elvis
Presley.
“The First Noel”
The First Noel is unknown in origin but is generally
thought to be English dating back to the sixteenth century.
There is a misconception that the First Noel was French
and it is believed that this is because of the French spelling
of Noel as opposed to the olde English Anglo-Saxon spelling of
the word as in Nowell.
After England was captured by the Normans, numerous words were
adopted from the Norman French language and Noel was re-spelled
as Nowell, early printed versions of this carol use the Nowell
spelling. The First Noel was first published in 1833 when it
appeared in "Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern," a
collection of seasonal carols gathered by William B. Sandys.
“O Christmas Tree!”
O Christmas Tree is a traditional German Carol. The
author of the lyrics are unknown as is the composer of the tune.
The tradition of bringing a tree inside and decorating it with
candy, baubles and bells was started in the nineteenth century
and is immortalized in the carol O Christmas Tree lyrics.
The carol, which is also known by it’s German title, O
Tannenbaum, has been performed and recorded by hundreds of
artists over the centuries
”O Come All Ye Faithful!”
The text to the carol O Come All Ye Faithful was
originally written in Latin (Adeste Fideles) and was
intended to be a hymn. It is attributed to John Wade, an
Englishman.
The music to O Come All Ye Faithful was composed by
fellow Englishman John Reading in the early 1700s. The
tune was first published in a collection known as "Cantus
Diversi" in 1751.
In 1841 Rev. Frederick Oakley worked on the familiar
translation of O Come All Ye Faithful which replaced the
older Latin lyrics "Adeste Fideles".
”O Holy Night
The words and lyrics of the old carol 'O Holy Night' were
written by Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure in 1847. Cappeau
was a wine seller by trade but was asked by the parish priest to
write a poem for Christmas. He obliged and wrote the beautiful
words of the hymn. He then realised that it should have music to
accompany the words and he approached his friend Adolphe
Charles Adams (1803-1856). He agreed and the music for the
poem was therefore composed by Adams.
Adolphe had attended the Paris conservatoire and forged a
brilliant career as a composer. It was translated into English
by John Sullivan Dwight (1812-1893).
”O Little Town of Bethlehem !”
Rector Phillips Brooks (1835-1903) of Philadelphia, wrote
the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem in 1868,
following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was inspired by the
view of Bethlehem from the hills of Palestine especially at
night time, hence the lyrics of O Little Town of Bethlehem.
His church organist Lewis Redner (1831-1908) wrote the
melody for the Sunday school children's choir.
”Rocking Around
the Christmas Tree”
His name will come up again with a few other Christmas classics.
Johnny Marks, the fella who wrote "Rudolph, the
Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the rest of the songs from the
Rankin-Bass animated feature shot yet another seasonal hit onto
the airwaves with this sock-hop favorite written in 1942 and
recorded by Georgia native, Brenda Lee ("I'm Sorry,"
"Sweet Nothings"), who was inaugurated into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in March of 2002.
Marks himself is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, based
mainly on the strength of his Christmas offerings.
Oh - By the way...Johnny Marks is Jewish, as are the writers of
8 out of the 10 most popular Christmas songs of all time.
”Rudolph The
Red-Nosed Reindeer”
Bob May’s
family was decimated by the financial struggles that the
Great Depression inflicted on millions of Americans. Though he
had a college degree, Bob took a job at Montgomery Ward’s as an
advertising copywriter to support his family.
Though times were difficult, they Mays were able to stay afloat.
But illness struck Bob’s wife, Evelyn, when she was diagnosed
with cancer in 1936. The family’s savings had to be used to
help battle the disease. After two years of fighting, Evelyn
was getting worse and it became apparent she would not survive.
Bob and Evelyn’s four year old daughter wanted to know what was
wrong with her mother and why she wasn’t like other mothers.
Bob wanted Barbara to understand that there was always hope and
that being different wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Drawing upon his creativity derived from his job, Bob told his
daughter a bed time story about a reindeer with a large, red
nose. He detailed the pain that the reindeer felt by being
different, but also the joy he felt when he realized his
differences could be used to help others.
Barbara loved the story and asked that Bob tell it to her every
night before bed. As the days and weeks went by, the story
became more and more elaborate. Bob even gave the reindeer a
name: Rudolph.
Unable to purchase a gift for Barbara, Bob decided to put his
story onto paper in a homemade book. Using his skills as a
copywriter and artist, Bob drew all the pictures for the book as
well.
Shortly before Christmas arrived, Evelyn lost her battle with
cancer. But Bob insisted on finishing the book and had a
completed copy of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” under
the tree on Christmas morning for Barbara.
At the Montgomery Ward holiday party, co-workers who knew of
Bob’s children’s story asked that he read the story to them.
Reluctantly, Bob read the story. The co-workers were so
impressed by the story that they asked for copies of their own.
And the chairman of the board of Ward’s recognized the reaction
to the story and saw a marketing opportunity. The chairman,
Stewell Avery, purchased all the rights to the story from
Bob and had thousands of copies printed and shipped to stores
across the country in time for Christmas 1939. For the next six
years, any child who visited Santa in a Ward’s store would get a
free copy of “Rudolph.”
By 1946, Ward’s had given away more than six million copies of
Rudolph. With requests for a new version to be printed, in one
of the most generous moves ever made by the chairman of a major
corporation, Stewell gave all rights back to Bob May. A year
later, the release of the newly published and printed version
made Bob a wealthy man.
A year later, Bob’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks (there’s
that name again) suggested the story be turned into a song.
Marks, who also wrote “Have A Holly, Jolly Christmas” and
“Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” created the lyrics
and the music for “Rudolph,” and then offered it to a
variety of artists, including Bing Crosby and Dinah
Shore, who both passed on the song.
As a last effort, Marks offered the song to country star Gene
Autry, who Marks thought might be looking for a follow up to
the hit “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Gene initially also passed on
the song, but Marks asked for him to give it another chance.
Gene took the song home and played it for his wife Ina. When
Ina heard the line “…they wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any
reindeer games,” she insisted that Gene record the song.
A few weeks later, Gene performed the song for the first time at
a Madison Square Garden rodeo. The song was such a hit, the
record label rushed it into the stores for the 1949 holiday
season. “Rudolph” soon became the second best-selling
Christmas song of all time, behind only “White Christmas.”
The song and the story of the unique reindeer were turned into a
television special – which in its own right became a holiday
classic – in 1964. A gift that was designed to comfort a child
who had recently lost her mother to illness ended up giving the
world one of the most beloved characters of all time.
“Santa Claus
is Coming to Town”
"Santa
Claus is Coming to Town," was written in 1932 by Haven
Gillespie and J. Fred Coots. After countless versions
by stars as varied as Bruce Springsteen and Perry
Como, it's hard to believe that Gillespie and Coots' song
was turned down all over town because it was "a kid's song."
Even though Coots was a writer on the Eddie Cantor radio
show, Cantor at first passed on the song. But just like
“Rudolph,” it was at the urging of the singer’s wife that he
agreed to do it. Again, good advice. |
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“Silent
Night!”
The origin of the Christmas carol we know as Silent Night
was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called
Joseph Mohr.
On Christmas Eve in 1818 in the small alpine village called
Oberndorf it is reputed that the organ at St. Nicholas Church
had broken. Mohr gave the poem of Silent Night (Stille Nacht)
to his friend Franz Xavier Gruber and the melody was
composed with this in mind. The music to Silent Night was
therefore intended for a guitar and the simple score was
finished in time for Midnight Mass.
Silent Night is the most famous Christmas carol of all
time!.
“Silver
Bells”
Jay Livingston and Ray Evans met while both were
students at the University of Pennsylvania. Following their
graduation in 1937, both moved to New York City where they took
up residence in the famed Tin Pan Alley – a hotbed of musical
creativity. The duo moved to Hollywood in 1945, where they
began to work for Paramount Pictures. It was at Paramount that
the duo enjoyed their biggest successes, including Best Song
Oscars for “Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be)” and
“Mona Lisa.”
Bob Hope was one of the biggest stars of the 20th
Century. He was a comic, radio performer, actor, and television
star. He garnered additional notoriety beginning in 1942 for
spending every holiday season with the men and women in uniform
of the US Armed Forces. Because of his work with the Armed
Forces during his lifetime, he became the most honored private
citizen in history, as well as becoming known as “Mr. Christmas”
to the troops, even though he had never had a successful
Christmas movie or recorded a successful Christmas song. That
would change in 1951 with the release of The Lemon Drop Kid.
The movie was set in the city, which was a new setting for a
holiday movie. Most of the era’s holiday movies were set in the
country. With a city as the backdrop, Livingston and Evans were
asked to create songs that were designed for urban life. While
playing with a small silver bell and discussing holiday scenes
in the city, the two began to visualize the way streets and
display windows were decorated, happy shoppers, blinking red and
green stoplights (yellow lights had not yet been added), and
children waiting in line to meet Santa. The elements of the
song quickly came together.
Unable to perform the song for Bob, the duo decided to sing it
to Ray’s wife. Upon hearing the song, she began laughing.
Confused, Jay and Ray asked her why she was laughing. She told
them to listen to the lyrics they had written: “Tinker bell,
tinker bell, it’s Christmastime in the city,” was what was
originally written, with “Tinker Bells” being the name of
the song. Seeing the error in their choice of words, they
replaced the word tinker with silver and a holiday favorite was
born.
Though The Lemon Drop Kid starring Bob Hope was a
moderate success, the song was a huge hit. Bob was the first
one to sing it and he continued to do so during all his holiday
USO tours. But, the song didn’t find mass public appeal until
Bob’s close friend, Bing Crosby, recorded the song. It
gained even greater popularity when Kate Smith, recorded
her version of the seasonal favorite.
A favorite for the millions of those who had moved to urban
areas following World War II – including President John F.
Kennedy who named the song his favorite Christmas tune – the
song reflected what a new generation of Americans was
experiencing: Christmas in the city.
“Sleigh Ride”
Best remembered for "The Syncopated Clock" and this
holiday classic Leroy Anderson was one of America's most
popular composers of light, melodic orchestral music. A talented
conductor and arranger, he had a particular knack for creating
humorous sound effects with standard orchestral instruments and
percussion.
In the middle of a hot 1947 summer Anderson was living in
Woodbury, Connecticut. He began work on the piece that would
become "Sleigh Ride"; completed the following year, the
tune would become a Christmas classic, thanks to Anderson's
imaginative sound effects (sleigh bells, clopping hooves,
cracking whips, and neighing trumpets.
Words were added by Mitchell Parish in 1950, who added
words to six other Anderson works after they became popular.
“The Twelve
Days of Christmas”
To most , "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a delightful
nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose
when it was written. It is a good deal more than just a
repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange
gifts.
Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when
Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were
prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR
public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the
"catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of
their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in
writing indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not
only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened
by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar
and ghastly punishment I'm not aware was ever practiced anywhere
else. Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person
by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to
death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and
disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were
still lying on the street, where the executioners stomped all
over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and
literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the
remaining torso.
The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the
faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an
earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives
the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a
pear tree is Jesus. In the song, Christ is symbolically
presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy
predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the
expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem:
"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee
under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not
have it so..."
The other symbols mean the following:
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the 4 Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first 5 Books of the Old Testament, the
"Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the 6 days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven
sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the 8 beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the 9 Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the 10commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the 11 faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the 12 points of doctrine in the
Apostle's Creed
“We Wish You
A Merry Christmas!”
The author
and composer of We Wish You a Merry Christmas
cannot be traced, however it is believed to date back to England
in the sixteenth century. The tradition of carollers being given
Christmas treats for singing to wealthy members of the community
is reflected in this Christmas song - We Wish You a Merry
Christmas!
Over the years the fashion for figgy puddings mentioned in the
carol has faded. But for the curious, the recipe consisted of
the most important ingredient, which was, of course, figs
together with butter, sugar, eggs ,milk, rum, apple, lemon and
orange peel, nuts, cinnamon, cloves and ginger!
Not dissimilar to the modern day Christmas Puddings!
“We Three
Kings of Orient Are ”
The famous
American carol We Three Kings of Orient Are was written
in 1857 by Rev. John Henry Hopkins. The minister
assembled an elaborate Christmas pageant, for which he wrote
both words and music, for the General Theological Seminary in
New York City, where he was instructor in church music.
One of the selections dealt with the Wise Men who came from the
East, and for this part of the pageant, Hopkins created one of
America’s most beloved carols.
The three kings, Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, brought: gold,
traditionally the metal of royalty; frankincense, an aromatic
bark whose smoke was though t to reach the gates of heaven; and
myrrh, am unguent used in the preparation of bodies for burial.
The gifts thus signified Jesus' kingship, His oneness with God,
and His eventual death on the cross.
“What Child
Is This? ”
If the 15th
century marked the first Golden Age of the Carols, the 19th
century was clearly the second. Occasionally their creation was
an unusual amalgam of melodies (at least in the eyes of the
contemporaries). The carol, What Child Is This? is based on the
anonymous Tudor tune, Greensleeves, which is thought to
have originally been a love song written for a prostitute. (They
wore green sleeves in medieval England.)
Its haunting lyrics were filled with everything but holiday and
saintly imagery and even Shakespeare mentioned the song
in his play, The Merry Wives of Windsor.
In 1865, an Englishman named William Dix, wrote The
Manger Throne, of which three verses evolved into What
Child Is This using the Greensleeves melody.
“White Christmas”
Born in 1901,
Bing Crosby had a long and versatile career in
entertainment, including radio, television, stage, and screen.
His successes in all these forms of entertainment made him one
of the most popular and profitable stars of all time.
In fact, he was the one of the original teen idols for kids in
the 1930s before Frank Sinatra took it to new levels in
the next decade.
But it will forever be Christmas and the songs surrounding the
holiday that put Bing on a first name basis with millions of
people the world over. Because of his success and power within
Hollywood, the very best songwriters were always available to
Bing and were always trying to get him to sing one of their
songs.
One of the best – if not the premier songwriter of the 20th
Century – was Irving Berlin. Born in Russia in 1888 as
Israel Baline, Irving grew up in New York City. In 1911, Irving
wrote “Alexander’s Rag Time Band,” which put him on the
path to stardom. During his 101 years, he also penned such
songs as “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and
“God Bless America.” But it was his work for a motion
picture score in 1941 that placed Irving into legendary status.
The movie, Holiday Inn, was to star Bing and Fred
Astaire. The story line revolved around the holiday season,
and thus, the music needed to reflect the plot of the movie.
The one song that was giving him difficulty was one about
Christmas itself. Since Irving was Jewish, being asked to write
a song about a holiday he had never celebrated and didn’t fully
have insight on was a daunting challenge.
Irving decided to focus on what he did know of Christmas. As a
native New Yorker, when he thought of the season, he remembered
snow, ice, cold, etc. But his surroundings while writing the
song – sunny and warm Los Angeles – made him realize that many
people didn’t have those experiences. He recognized that one
thing that made the holiday special was the idea of a perfect
Christmas – one with pure white snow, glistening treetops, and
children waiting for Santa’s arrival.
When Irving had finished writing the song, he was not convinced
the song was good. He was so unsure about the song he thought
about scrapping it entirely and starting over. But before he
did that, he brought it to Bing and sang it for him. Bing told
Irving the song was perfect and not to change a thing.
Bing first performed the song on his Christmas Day radio show in
1941, just three weeks after the United States had entered World
War II. The song would not be recorded for six more months,
just prior to Holiday Inn’s release in theatres.
When the song was released following the movie’s premiere, it
went to the top of the charts and stayed there for twelve
straight weeks. It went on to win the Oscar for best song of
1942.
Over the course of the next twenty years, “White Christmas”
charted fifteen more times, hitting number on in 1945 and 1946.
The single sold more than 30 million records and eventually
spawned the 1954 movie of the same name, White Christmas,
starring Bing himself, along with Danny Kaye and
Rosemary Clooney.
It is not only the biggest selling Christmas song of all time,
but the biggest selling song...period!
“Winter Wonderland!”
The famous
Christmas song Winter Wonderland was first published in
1934. The composer was Felix Bernard (1897-1944) and the
lyricist was Richard B. Smith
(1901-1935).
The most popular versions of this classic Christmas song were
recorded to high acclaim by the Andrews Sisters, Johnny
Mathis and Perry Como, and more recently, Amy
Grant.
The lyrics of Winter Wonderland have undoubtedly contributed to
the magical vision of snow at Christmas together with the
tradition of building snowmen and therefore turning fantasy into
reality by creating a real Winter Wonderland. |
