Have you ever wondered what the best-selling Christmas song is? Unexpectedly, it’s Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’ sung by Bing Crosby. Written in 1940-41 when sheet music sales were much more numerous than record sales it has, to date, sold more than 150 million. It has even surpassed Elton John’s ‘Candle in the Wind” a song written in 1983 to commemorate Marilyn Monroe and later re-recorded, in 1997, to commemorate Princess Diana’s death. Crosby first aired ‘White Christmas’ on Christmas Day 1941 on his Kraft Music Hall show. His interpretation soon became a favourite, especially with the troops overseas. It received millions of requests on the Armed Forces Radio. The troops, most on their first overseas posting, obviously identified with the nostalgia in the lyrics and the song has since been covered by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter and Lady Gaga.
Other Christmas songs that have rattled the hit parade can be classified in 3 different categories – Popular, Religious (or Christmas Carols) and Country-inspired…no Western in this…..hope it was an amicable divorce! Trouble is that depending on what publication you research disagreements tend to occur. Here then are the favourites in each category.
Favourite popular songs
Songs selected by The Independent newspaper in 2018
10. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole……composed by Mel Torme with the assistance of Bob Wells it was composed to ‘keep cool’ on a stiflingly-hot day in 1945
9. I believe in Father Christmas – Greg Lake…..Greg was a British musician who died in 2016. He denied it was a Christmas song, as such, because he composed it as a protest song against the commercialisation of Christmas.
8.It’s the most wonderful time of the year – Andy Williams. …. it has echoes of the brash commercialisation of Christmas and brings to mind the importance of presents and spending time with loved ones.
7.Stop The Cavalry – Jona Lewie…just like you, I’ve never heard of either the song or the singer but I’m told it became a Christmas hit (selling 4 million on release) because it includes the words “I wish I was at home for Christmas” accompanied by a Salvation Army brass band and the addition of tubular bells.
6. Driving home for Christmas – Chris Rea….oddly enough this has a story attached to its writing. Chris Rea was broke and his recording company wouldn’t pay for his ticket from London to Middlesbrough. So his wife drove all the way from Middlesbrough in their old Austin Mini and it started snowing on the drive back. Despite the delays Rea tried to keep positive by continually muttering ‘We’re driving home for Christmas’ Much later Max Middleton set it to music and it had its debut in a gig on 21 December.
5. Have yourself a merry little Christmas – Frank Sinatra…. originally sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 musical ‘Meet me in St Louis’, she refused to sing it until the morbid opening words were changed. After a bit of to-and-froing Garland had her way and the words ‘May it be your last/Next year we may all be living in the past’ were substituted to what Sinatra now swings to ‘Make the Yuletide gay/From now on your troubles will be miles away.’ Much better!
4. All I want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey…..Carey reportedly receives over $780,000 each year in royalties, testament to its popularity and longevity in its popularity.
3. Last Christmas – Wham …… George Michael performed, produced and played every single instrument in this song. The narrator looks back in sadness at a broken relationship.
2. Fairytale of New York –The Pogues…another group and song that means nothing to me but it tells of an old man who is stuck in a drunk tank to sleep off his Christmas Eve celebrations
- Winter Wonderland – Bing Crosby….you can’t keep Bing out of’Christmas. The lyrics were written by Dick Smith (no not THAT Dick Smith) who was recovering from tuberculosis. Inspired by the people enjoying themselves outside his window he jotted down a few words on what he’d like to do when he was well again. He took his lyrics to a pianist friend, Felix Bernard. Joey Nash recorded it in1934, followed by Guy Lombardo, then Ted Weems and eventually it became a hit all over again with Bing Crosby.
Favourite Christmas Carols
Most of the carols (as you would imagine) are religiously-based. Some are not. For example:
I Saw Three Ships and The Holly and The Ivy which have more pagan antecedents. The current devotion for Christmas carols really stems back to the 1880s. They’d been banned in England following the Reformation because of their ‘frivolity’. They were hardly sung in church and it wasn’t until 1880 (Queen Victoria probably had a hand in this) when EW Benson, then Bishop of Truro (and later Archbishop of Canterbury) introduced a format of Nine Lessons and Carols service, which has remained in use to this day.
Silent Night was first composed in 1818. It started life as a German poem by an Austrian Catholic priest, Father Josef Mohr in 1816 and put to music by organist Franz Xavier Huber. It is said that the organ had been run over by mice, so the first performance was at midnight mass on Christmas Eve 1818 and performed by 2 voices and a guitar with Mohr and Gruber themselves singing the solo parts. It was also featured during the unofficial truce in the trenches in 1914 by the opposing forces of Germany and Britain because it was the only carol both sets of soldiers knew.
Good King Wenceslas composed roughly in 1853 was based on a Scandinavian tune. Reverend Doctor Neale (an Anglican priest who was suspected of having Catholic leanings) wrote the lyrics. The town of Wenceslas was really based on Vaclav in Czechoslovakia and named after Wenceslas (907-935) who was the Duke of Bohemia, a pious Christian murdered by his pagan brother Boleslav. Hardly the virtues imbued by Christmas!!
Once in Royal David’s City was written in a book of poems by Cecile Frances Humphreys. She also wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful. The organist and composer Henry Gauntlett set it to music in 1849 and these days it opens King’s College Cambridge Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing uses verses by Charles Wesley, brother of John the Methodist founder. It was said to have been inspired by the sound of bells as he walked to church. Organist William Hayman Cummings set it to music using a tune by Felix Mendelssohn in the 1850s, which Felix had written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the printing press.
God Rest you Merry, Gentleman has unknown origins. It was thought to have originated in the 16th or 17th centuries. It has had different melodies attached to it over the years but the most familiar dates back to the 1650s when it appeared in a book of dancing tunes. By the way the comma is before the word ‘gentlemen’ because it was not supposed to describe the sobriety of the men in question.
Favourite Country Christmas songs :
And lastly to the most popular Country Christmas songs. The word Western has been excised because this list has nothing to do with ropings of cattle or sitting in a saddle or even wearing a 10-gallon hat. The list was chosen by the Southern Living editors…whoever they may be!
Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms sang the original version that was recorded in 1957. It was played in Dick Clark’s ‘American Bandstand’ and has been a hit ever since
O Holy Night – Martina McBride. It has been revived many times and also deserves to be part of the Christmas Carols list. McBride first recorded it in 1998 and it was so successful that RCA re-released it in 1999 and again in 2007.
Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley. It was not originally recorded by Presley but he released his version in the ‘Elvis Christmas Album’ and it continues to be the version mostly played.
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee. Lee was only 13 when she recorded this. The song climbed to number 14 in the Billboard 100 chart of 1958
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry. Was released in 1949 and became Autry’s first number 1.
Christmas in Dixie – Alabama. Another group I’ve never heard of. But I hear it was an original and is one of the favourite Christmas songs played on Country radio stations.
I’ll be Home for Christmas – Rascal Flatts. An a-capella group, Rascall Flatts nails the original sentiment of the song which was written to honour the US armed forces in World War II. The tight harmonies are a revelation.
Well there you have it, as Mozart would have said. I apologise if your favourite was not amongst the lists, but then the choices were all subjective and dependant on the moods and whims of the people choosing them. Personally, I would have chosen different versions..that is if I had chosen the versions at all. Maybe next year you might see your choices! Or even better, choose your favourites and send them to us and, who knows, you might get published.