White Christmas (song)
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"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song, the lyrics of which reminisce about White Christmases. The morning after he wrote the song — Berlin usually stayed up all night writing — the songwriter went to his office and told his musical secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"[1]
Berlin wrote the song in early 1940 while sitting poolside at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona. The original verse pokes fun at a well-off Los Angeleno who, amid orange and palm trees, longs for traditional Christmas "up north." Berlin later dropped the verse but kept the now-famous chorus. The "There's never been a day in old L.A." verse regarding Los Angeles can be heard on the famous album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, also known as the Phil Spector Christmas Album, in a soulful rendition performed by Darlene Love.[1]
"White Christmas" was introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical Holiday Inn. In the film, he sings it in a duet with Marjorie Reynolds. The song went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Though Marjorie Reynolds was the actress playing Linda Mason, her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears for the movie, and in the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, was to sing the song.[2]
The first public performance of the song was also by Crosby, on his top-rated NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941;[2] the recording of that performance is not believed to have survived. He recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942 and it was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm songs from the film.[2] At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song. He just said "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving." The song initially performed poorly and was far overshadowed by the hit song of Holiday Inn, "Be Careful, It's my Heart".[2] By the end of October, "White Christmas" topped the "Your Hit Parade" chart and remained in that position until well into the new year.[2] (It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy — "just like the ones I used to know" — with comforting images of home — "where the treetops glisten" — resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II and the Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for it.[2]) In 1942 alone, the song spent eleven weeks on top of the charts. It returned to the #1 spot again during the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946 (on the chart dated January 4, 1947), thus becoming the only single in history with three separate runs at the top of the U.S. charts. Eventually, Crosby's "White Christmas" single sold more than 50 million copies. The Guinness Book of World Records currently lists the song as a 100-million seller (this encompassing all versions of the song, including on albums).
[edit] History
The most familiar version of "White Christmas" is not, however, the one Crosby originally recorded in 1942. He was called back to the Decca studios on March 18, 1947, to re-record "White Christmas" as a result of damage to the 1942 master due to its frequent use.[citation needed] Every effort was made to reproduce the original Decca recording session, once again backed by the Trotter Orchestra and the Darby Singers. The resulting rerecording is the one that has become most familiar to the public. Crosby himself was dismissive of the achievement, saying later that "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully."
The song was introduced in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, a sizable hit that featured numerous other songs by Irving Berlin, and one of two films to pair Crosby with Fred Astaire. "White Christmas" was also reprised as the title theme for the 1954 musical White Christmas, starring Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. In spite of its similarity to the earlier film, this was the highest-grossing film of 1954.
Crosby's single of "White Christmas" is recognized as the best-selling single in any music category and Crosby's recording has sold millions of additional copies as part of numerous albums, including his best-selling holiday collection Merry Christmas, which was first released as an LP in 1949 and has never been out-of-print since. In fact, the song in all of its permutations, has sold in excess of 400,000,000 copies since 1942, making it the biggest-selling record of any kind ever.[citation needed]
"ItsRanked" has Crosby's version of "White Christmas" as the number one Christmas song on its Top 40 Christmas Songs of all time ranking.[3]
In 1999, National Public Radio included it in the "NPR 100", in which NPR's music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century.
The recording was broadcast on the radio as a pre-arranged signal during the U.S. evacuation of Saigon on April 30, 1975 (see Fall of Saigon).
In 2002, the original 1942 version was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
The Drifters covered "White Christmas" in the early 1950's showcasing the talents of lead singer Clyde McPhatter and the bass of Bill Pinkney. Their recording of the song first hit Billboard’s R&B charts in December 1954, peaking at position #2. It returned to the R&B charts in the next two years. In December 1955 “White Christmas” became The Drifters' first single to be charted in the Hot 100 chart; recharting in both 1960 and 1962.[4] For decades, this version was primarily heard on R & B radio stations, and got little exposure elsewhere. Beginning in the 1970s oldies stations also began playing this version in search for product within their core artists. In the early 1990s, after being prominently featured in the film Home Alone (during a scene in which the lead character Kevin is putting on his father's aftershave while lip syncing the lyrics), radio stations with formats as diverse as Adult Contemporary, Top 40, and Country, began playing this version. The song was featured again on the silver screen in the film The Santa Clause. The popularity of this version over the years has grown as a result. Today this version gets almost as much airplay as Bing Crosby's versions.[citation needed]
[edit] Recording History
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b White Christmas
- ^ a b c d e f Mueller, John (1986). Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films. London: Hamish Hamilton. pp. 204,425. ISBN 0-241-11749-6.
- ^ Top 40 Christmas Songs (Lyrical) - ItsRanked!
- ^ CD sleeve: Billboard Greatest Christmas Hits (1955 - Present), 1989 Rhino Records Inc.
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by "The Last Time I Saw Paris" from Lady Be Good |
Academy Award for Best Original Song 1942 |
Succeeded by "You'll Never Know" from Hello, Frisco, Hello |
