Here's another installment of Christmas music history. Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" while sitting beside a pool in the heat of Arizona in 1940. He walked into his studio/office the next day and told his secretary he had written the best song that anyone had ever written. I don't think he was far off the mark on that!
The original version of the song had a verse that poked fun at all the people living in Los Angeles, wishing for a home-type Christmas with a treetop glistening and children listening for Santa. Berlin changed it to the version we all know and love because he felt it might be a little overkill. Aren't we glad he did so!
In 1942, the movie Holiday Inn premiered with Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds, and Fred Astaire. The song- hinted at throughout the movie and finally sung at the end, by Crosby's character even though it was supposed to be sung by Marjorie Reynolds's character- won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. At first, Crosby didn't see anything special about the song, and only did the recording as a favor to Irving Berlin. The recording session for that single took only 18 minutes. It was released at the end of June 1942, and by October it was topping the charts. It stayed number one through the New Year. The song had a revival during the 1945 and 1946 Christmas seasons, and is the only song in history to be top of the charts for three separate runs. Crosby had to re-record the song in 1949 because the original recording had been damaged by all the copies that had been created from it. It has been re-recorded by hundreds of artists, but it continues to belong to Bing Crosby.
The movie, White Christmas, was released in 1954, and starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. This movie always makes it Christmas for me. If you get a chance, check it out. It will be on TV a lot over the next few weeks, so take a couple hours out of your day and kick back to watch a classic. I never feel it's Christmas until I watch White Christmas!
Here's a clip of Bing Crosby and the cast from the movie singing White Christmas.
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