It might seem a bit early to start referencing Christmas songs, but I figure if the retailers can do it, so can I. And I do sincerely apologize for anything that gets stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
1. White Christmas. Irving Berlin knew he had just written a classic – when he asked his secretary to take down the song he had just written, he said, “I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written. Hell, I just wrote the best song anyone’s ever written!” Bing Crosby sang it on his radio show in 1941 and recorded it in 1942. It was the best-selling single in any music category until Elton John’s version of Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana took over in 1998.
2. The Christmas Song. The words in the song are so evocative of winter, you would assume that they were written over a mug of cocoa sitting by a fireplace or something. But nope – it was written during a heat wave in California. Mel Torme dropped by his friend Robert Wells’ house, where Wells was supposed to be writing songs for a couple of movies. Instead, Mel walked in and Wells had written down “Chestnuts roasting… Jack Frost nipping… Yuletide carols… Folks dressed up like Eskimos,” because he was trying to think cold. Mel thought it was a great idea for a Christmas song, so the two of them knocked the song out in 40 minutes.
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town. The earliest known public airing of this song was in November, 1934 on a radio show. It was an instant hit – it sold 100,000 copies of sheet music the very next day, and more than 400,000 by Christmas.
4. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas first appeared in the Judy Garland musical Meet Me In St. Louis. But the lyrics were kind of depressing: they included, “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, it may be your last,” “Faithful friends who were dear to us will be near to us no more,” and “Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” The lyrics have changed over the years – Dean Martin rewrote that last lyric for Frank Sinatra’s album A Jolly Christmas, and that’s the version we probably know best: “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.”
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by a Montgomery Ward employee in 1939, for the company. Johnny Marks decided to adapt the character to a song, which pretty much made it an instant hit – he was responsible for other Christmas songs like I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and A Holly Jolly Christmas. It was first sung by Harry Brannon, but the 1949 Gene Autry version is probably the one you know and love (or loathe, depending).
6. Like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Silver Bells was originally in a movie too – The Lemon Drop Kid. It was sung by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell. The best part, though, is that the song started out being called Tinkle Bells… until the songwriter was telling his wife about his great new song and she informed him that tinkle was what little kids did when they peed. The song was inspired by Salvation Army workers ringing bells outside in the snow.
7. Frosty the Snowman was pretty much written to capitalize on the success of Gene Autry’s Rudolph rendition (it was released just one season later). I’m partial to the versions Jimmy Durante recorded to go with the 1969 T.V. special, myself.
8. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Husband and wife duo Elmo and Patsy recorded the song in 1978 and it started circulating in the San Francisco area. It only took a couple of years to become a cult hit. However, Elmo and Patsy divorced, so in 1992, Elmo recorded it solo. He also released a sequel in 2002: Grandpa’s Gonna Sue the Pants Offa Santa. I feel like he tried to capitalize on that one about 20 years too late.
9. The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late). Another earworm, I think. I don’t even know all of the words but I can guarantee I’m going to have the tune in my head for the rest of the day. All I know is, “I still want a Hula-Hoop.” Anyway. Recorded in 1958 by David Seville himself, Ross Bagdasarian, the song sold 4.5 million copies. Jason Lee recorded a version when he played David Seville in the 2007 movie Alvin and the Chipmunks.
10. Santa Baby, the song about wanting lots of extravagant items for Christmas, was first recorded in 1953 by Eartha Kitt, AKA Catwoman. Lots of people have covered the song – Madonna, famously, but also RuPaul, LeAnn Rimes, Natalie Merchant, Kylie Minogue and (go figure) The Pussycat Dolls. I have no doubt Eartha Kitt’s is the best. The song was co-written by Joan Javits, the niece of Jacob Javits, a New York Senator.
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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas was actually supposed to include much different lyrics in the film.
The original song lyrics go
“Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York
No good times like the olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us no more”
Judy Garland forced the songwriters to change the lyrics because she thought people would think she was “a monster” if she was singing those words to a sobbing Margaret O’Brien. Thus the song became a little softer and nicer.
posted by Julia on 12-5-2008 at 4:09 pm
On number 6 you wrote “Marry” instead of “Merry”.
Great list! I have all but “Santa Baby” on my Ipod as we speak. I love Christmas.
posted by Tricia on 12-5-2008 at 4:32 pm
The Christmas song I have always wondered about is the little drummer boy one. Specifically, had the people who wrote it ever encountered a newborn??!
Imagine poor Mary, she’s finally gotten the baby to sleep, and suddenly here comes some kid who wants to bang a drum? Honestly, if it were me, I would have thrown that drummer right out of the stable!
posted by Rachel on 12-5-2008 at 5:01 pm
this has been bugging me for years, so here’s a question to the flossy world…
song: it’s the most wonderful time of the year
lyrics: there’ll be scary ghost stories
and tales of the glories
of christmases long long ago
question: other than a few parts of a christmas carol, what scary ghost stories is that song referencing?
posted by m on 12-5-2008 at 5:08 pm
m-
when you read it in context of the rest of the lyrics it seems like telling ghost stories around a fire while roasting marshmellows. It could also be a reference to “A Christmas Carol” by Dickens, Lots of ghosts in that.
But still pretty curious
posted by brit on 12-5-2008 at 5:33 pm
M, my friend Alicia used to ask the same thing. It was actually a bit of a thorn in her side…
Another songstress who famously recorded Santa Baby? Marilyn Monroe.
And how about Joy to the World? I seem to remember that was written by a 15 year old, which makes sense when you consider it’s mostly basic scales.
posted by Chelsea on 12-5-2008 at 5:52 pm
One of my favorite holiday tunes is “Baby it’s Cold Outside” which is funny because I don’t think they mention Christmas in it at all.
posted by Nick on 12-5-2008 at 6:28 pm
My old boss calls “Baby it’s Cold Outside” the date-rape song. Think about it.
posted by Kristen on 12-5-2008 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for ruining that for me, Kristen. :)
I would like to sue the pants off of Elmo for that terrible Grandma and Reindeer song.
Now, I think I’ll imagine Silver Bells with Tinkle Bells…that’s too funny.
posted by kate on 12-5-2008 at 8:00 pm
After 15 years in various retail jobs, I don’t run screaming when I hear the usual Christmas songs. I do, however, have in my own collection holiday cds that don’t tend to get radio/store muzak play (world music, folk, Hanukkah songs, etc.) so that probably saved my sanity. (The song “Los Peces En El Rio” by the Gipsy Kings is great to dance to while baking, as is the entire album “Tis The Season For Los Straitjackets” by Los Straitjackets.)
posted by steph on 12-5-2008 at 8:57 pm
Steph-
I love “Los Peces en el Rio”! Lhasa de Sela does a great version. I like some of her other work too. Im always looking for unconventional holiday music, so I’ll have to look up Los Straitjackets.
posted by Tessa on 12-5-2008 at 9:48 pm
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is from MGM’s Neptune’s Daughter and in the movie has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. Or even with the cold. In the movie, it’s a warm summer night and the playboy lead (Ricardo Montalban) is trying to convince the engaged-to-another female lead (Esther Williams) to stay. Then, the secondary couple sings it again with the roles reversed (Betty Garrett, the boy-crazy girl trying to convince Red Skelton, the shy boy, to stay). It also won the best original song Oscar in 1950.
posted by DB on 12-6-2008 at 1:04 am
Longtime fan and collector of Marilyn Monroe here, trust me, she never recorded “Santa Baby”. According to IMDB, it was “recorded by jazz singer Cynthia Basinet for Jack Nicholson as a Christmas gift.” Can’t vouch for that part, but it’s not Marilyn.
posted by Tiny Dancer on 12-6-2008 at 3:13 am
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was actually written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1864. Johnny Marks (the Montgomery Ward employee) adapted it for music in the 50′s. I’m not sure if that constitutes being responsible for the song…
posted by Dave on 12-6-2008 at 9:26 am
Here are some other odd lyrics. When Karen Carpenter sings “The logs on the fire / fill me with desire,” I just can’t help but wonder what Freud would have done with that.
Also, in “Do You Hear What I Hear,” there’s the line, “A child, a child, shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold.” A blanket might have been more appropriate.
But one of the strangest is “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Throughout, it’s a bizarre hybrid of secular and sacred, with lines such as “Let’s give thanks to the Lord above, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight.”
posted by Randy on 12-6-2008 at 9:28 am
What? No authorship on “Santa Claus is Coming to Town?” I used to think it was some ancient public domain folk song (this was in the era back when I didn’t realize Santa Claus was largely a promotional icon promoted by Coca-Cola in the 30s, but then I also initially thought “Blowin’ in the Wind” was a Civil War protest song before I figured out who this Bob Dylan guy was) – then I found out it was written by a guy who was living at our (Westchester CC) country club in Rye, NY! J. Fred Coots, old and eccentric (but what a great name!) and who also wrote “Love Letters in the Sand” back in the 50s. I think he wrote it with Haven Gillespie, and they made enough money from it for him to be living in a country club!
posted by Doug on 12-6-2008 at 3:56 pm
Where’s “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”?
posted by Jeremy on 12-6-2008 at 4:07 pm
I remember as a child I used to sing ‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth’. :D
But the best Christmas song for me is John Lennon’s ‘So This Is Christmas’.
posted by Jason on 12-6-2008 at 9:49 pm
Silver bells has always been one of my favorite xmas songs.
I now love the xmas cd by BareNaked Ladies! Some of the songs are classics sung in a new way.
posted by Dawn on 12-7-2008 at 1:56 am
I read somewhere that “Jingle Bells” is not a Xmas song at all? It was originally a Thanks Giving song and is from about the same time as “Rudolf”. anyone able to confirm this?
posted by Kiwi John on 12-7-2008 at 3:14 pm
The Marilyn Monroe “Santa Baby” myth is due to illegal file sharing.
This is the link to the singer, CYNTHIA BASINET.
Find her on iTunes.
posted by bmwm399 on 12-7-2008 at 11:33 pm
Where’s “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”
I dislike it immensely.
recapt is “Western man” but I’m in the east.
posted by Tdave on 12-8-2008 at 2:19 am
My Ipod says have Marilyn Monroe’s “Santa Baby”
My Ipod always lies to me…it does sound like her though.
posted by Caitlin on 12-8-2008 at 9:51 am
I agree with Jason on Lennon’s “So This is Christmas”, that song still makes me misty-eyed every Christmas. And what really gets me in the Christmas spirit is the soundtrack from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. I can listen to that CD year-round … and usually do.
posted by Nathan on 12-8-2008 at 11:05 am
More on “Santa Baby”—the following year Eartha Kitt recorded a follow-up, “This Year’s Santa Baby.” All her fabulous presents are now worn out or no longer acceptable. Not satisfied with her yacht, she sings, “Now hold your breath … I need the Queen Elizabeth!”
And did you know Mae West recorded “Santa Baby” in 1966? It’s one cut on a Christmas album she did.
posted by JMC on 12-8-2008 at 11:46 am